Madrid! (Or, as the Spanish say, Madreeeeeth!)

Last weekend was the grand reunion in Madrid. It was pretty fantastic bringing together three of my friends from my three different "homes" (if you will): Auburn, SCU, and Spain.  Alex and I took the bus to Madrid, which is the one travel destination that is easy for us to reach from Salamanca. Needless to say, we were pretty thrilled to not sleep overnight on a bus or train or wake up at a ridiculous hour of the morning but still get into the city before noon.

We met Shelby (who had the joy of an overnight bus in from Bordeaux) in the bus station and set off to the center of town, where we dropped off our bags so we could wander around until Lisi arrived a few hours later.  Recommendation for any travelers visiting Madrid: the Puerta del Sol area is really fun and central, with lots of good tapas bars as well as hostels.

Reunited with Shelby, the elitist French chick.

After meeting up with Lisi and eating lunch from part of the huge Basa bag that I brought from Salamanca, we headed to the Prado museum, which fortunately enough, had free entry for the entire day, even to the special Renoir exhibit.  We got our fix of classic Spanish art, and fortunately, again, we had another person from the Art History class (Alex), who had a little more background than the rest of us.

That night, we got tapas with Leah and her friends, who were having a reunion of their own and staying at a different hostel, unfortunately. (By the time our group booked our hostel, we were just lucky to have a room. Oh, the joys of procrastination. It worked out fine, but I know there were hostels that are a lot more fun.)

However, we still had fun! It was interesting; I don't know how much I liked Madrid as a city itself. It was nice and there were lots of things to see, but I didn't feel any particular connection to it. Of course, we didn't even see all that much of the city, so maybe it requires other visits.

Anyways, we also went to the Royal Palace, which was quite pretty. As always, I got yelled at for trying to take a picture in a place where it's not allowed...

Lisi, me, and Alex in front of the Palacio Real. Squinty eyes
are attractive...

Again with the squinty eyes, but at least we got our whole
group in!

We also went inside the cathedral that's right across from the Palace, which was pretty and worth a Euro to see the cool decor. Although, another thing that we started realizing this trip was how we are becoming semi-jaded when it comes to churches. We stumbled upon one while wandering one day, and it looked like it had some Moorish influences, so we went inside... and were disappointed. 

A cathedral that we snobs still find acceptably
impressive

Inside the cathedral (I intentionally left it like this: artsiness!)

To continue our day of culture, we ate some paella (since we had to fit all of Spain into one weekend for Shelby)(...and because paella is delicious.) Then we headed over to the Reina Sofia Museum, which has all the important modern art in town: Dali, Miro, Picasso, to name a few. What was especially neat was seeing Picasso's Guernica, which was huge. More AP Euro flashbacks...

A piece outside of the museum. I found it appropriate for an
album cover photo.

And then, Lisi and I had a particularly hipster day, as we went from a modern art museum to an indie-rock concert! ARCADE FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From the nosebleed seats of the Palacio de Deportes

Literally, 15,000 people were at this concert. Ridiculous! That would be huge for this band in the US, and this is a country where most people don't speak the language. I'm amazed. And the concert was fantastic. This didn't surprise me, since literally, the best concert I've ever been to was their show at the Berkeley Greek Theater a few years ago. But Lisi and Leah and her friends weren't quite prepared for how good it would be, even being literally as far back as we could possibly be. 

Waiting...

I love my camera....

You know a concert is great when there's ribbon dancing
 onstage.

The audience still sang along and danced, despite probably
not knowing most of the words...

One of my favorite parts: the lead singer Win Butler requested a round of "Ole, ole, ole, ole," the Spanish futbol cheer. I felt so Spanish....

Songs that they played:

• Ready to Start 
• Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)
• Neighborhoood 2 (Laika)
• Neighborhood 3 (Power Out)
• Crown of Love

[The one old song that I heard here that I hadn't heard in Berkeley. I think this was the song that made me realize just how much I loved the Arcade Fire and the album Funeral as a whole, not just a few songs. They are masters of the epic build-up, and they manage to pack so much emotion into their music. Live, the song was even better.]

• Haiti
• Rebellion (Lies)
• Keep the Car Running
• No Cars Go
• The Suburbs
• The Suburbs (Continued)
• Modern Man
• Rococo
• Month of May
• We Used to Wait
• Sprawl II

Encore:

• Intervention
• Wake Up

Needless to say, I sang "Wake Up" for the rest of the night. The entire weekend before in Rome, I had the song stuck in my head because one of the most memorable incidents from my first trip there. Mom and I had gotten lost, but rather than stressing too much, I was singing it over and over as we searched for our hotel. Therefore, going to Rome just made me that much more excited for the following weekend. 

And yes, now I am going to make you listen to them if you've never heard the Arcade Fire before. 

The next day, we wandered a little bit more around Madrid, but we had buses and trains to take, so I had to say goodbye to Shelby and Lisi. It was so fantastic to see them both, and we all had a great time. I think this is the last time I'll be meeting up with friends from home while we're in Europe, but I'm definitely not complaining.