This past week was spent eating a lot ton of foods and doing a lot of touristy things. Marina is, as I've mentioned, an amazing chef so every meal she serves I'm definitely going to be home! I'm a huge foodie, though, so this makes it a little bit harder to justify eating out when all meals are delicious and free. My solution: tapas and pastries. These things are literally everywhere in Madrid and it is SO hard to say no! Last Monday I finally tried this giant pasteleria in Puerta del Sol that I practically pass everyday, and it turns out it is basically the most fantastic pastry shop in Madrid. I'm not even ashamed to say that within a week I have been three times. Yum!
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| La Mallorquina with Taylor! |
Tapas are small portions of food served with drinks at bars, kind of like hors d'oeuvres. Normally it's a slice of baguette bread with some sort of topping, like jamón, queso, patatas, and tortilla española. The first place I went to was this cute little spot I found on yelp and the "tapas" were HUGE! I got jamón expecting small portions and what the waiter brought out looked like a meal. Regardless, it was delicious!
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| La Malaspina |
Friday I went with a group of friends from ISA to El Tigre, one of the more popular tapas bars. The deal there is that you buy a drink and get free tapas, and the more people you have the more tapas you get. It was awesome. They brought out giant drinks and a bunch of plates piled with tapas (the normal size) of all kinds. We inhaled them within minutes...and then they brought us more! Best 6 euros spent on tapas for sure.
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| El Tigre |
As far as touristy things, I have been shopping a few different times and have been to a couple historical places/museums. Yesterday we went to El Rastro, this giant market that pops up in the street a few minutes away from us every Sunday. Everything there is so cheap and very cool! I bought a scarf, a pair of earrings and a coin purse for just 12 euros. Awesome!
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| El Rastro |
Wednesday I went with my school to the Palacio Real and toured a few key rooms in the Royal Palace. It was beautiful and so intricate! It had a couple rooms that were Chinese themed, and I'm realizing that China has a huge influence in Spain. It was freeeeezing cold and rainy that day so afterwards a group of us went to a random bar for wine and tapas, surprise!
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| My illegal picture in Palacio Real...oops |
Friday there was another trip to the Prado, a historical art museum, but the second I got there I realized I left my phone at the school. I decided to turn back and get it since it would be closed by the end of the tour, and it took me 2 hours to go all the way back to school and home. I was so exhausted, and bummed I missed the tour. Never forgetting anything at school again!
Today Nebrija took us to the Reina Sofia, a modern art museum. It was very cool and I'm definitely planning on going back soon to see the rest of their collection, I only saw a fourth today. I found out that their Salvador Dali exhibit is much smaller than usual because part of the collection is out at other museums for awhile. Dali is one of my favorite artists and my favorite piece by him is out and won't be back until the end of the year. I'm so sad! But the rest of the art was amazing, and there were some great Picasso and Ponce de León pieces as well.
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