Street Performers Galore!

Alright people, A LOT has happened in the past week, so this is about to be a loooong blog post. Can’t say I didn’t warn you. Ready, get set, read!

Last week a friend from Wisconsin visited Barcelona before her abroad program starts soon in Vienna, Austria. So last week was filled with A LOT of activities, to recap: 

Me on the roof of Casa Mila

- saw casa mila (one of Gaudi’s houses that he designed right in the center of Barcelona). He built it as an apartment building for some rich peeps in barcelona, and now its stands as a cool gaudi museum. The building is actually pretty remarkable. 

- went to the mnac (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya)  with one of my classes. This museum was cool, but ya know, just another museum. Saw some roman wall paintings. But what was funny about this story is that when my friend and I got off the metro about 5 minutes before we were supposed to meet our class, we accidentally took a wrong turn, following the signs for where cars should drive to get to the back parking lot. But of course we didn’t know this at the time. So we walked for another 30 minutes trying to find the stupid museum when we finally got there and realized what we had done. So yeah, got to the class field trip about 30 minutes late, another dumb mistake, oh well. 
 

- saw a flamenco show! This was really cool but way too short, only lasting about 30 minutes. It began with 4 people sitting on stage, singing and playing instruments, and then later on 2 dancers came out and danced for a few songs. I thought Flamenco was just like realllyyyy intense tap dancing. Take tap dance, add some flailing of the arms and angry facial expressions, and presto, you’ve got flamenco! But yeah it was really fun.

At the Flamenco Show!

- climbed montjuic again, saw the castle on top, walked past the olympic village, amazing views, you know the drill. 
 

 And then I left for Madrid!!! It was a 3 hour train ride which I slept the entire way through, but we got there pretty early, around noon. We took a 3 hour walking tour of the city, which is beautiful, but unfortunately, I wouldn’t say it was my favorite city. It was just another big city and nothing really stood out to me. BUT, there were some crazzzzzzy street performers there! Let me list off the things I saw walking around:

-       multiple spongebob squarepants characters

-       talking baby man

-       man with no head

-       falling waiter

-       smurf and smurfette

-       spiderman

-       talking heads

-       elvis

-       mickey and Minnie mouse

-       bob Marley (with a rastabanana!!!!!)

-       small group of Spanish singers and guitar players (they were actually pretty good)

-       almost positive I saw Ronald Mcdonald too

-       and even more that I can’t remember….. 

Spiderman won the most attractive award

Talking baby man won creepiest award

One reason it was hard for me to enjoy Madrid as much as I do Barcelona, was knowing that I was in the place where the inquisition trials were held. Pretty much all of the traditions, history, and events that happen in Spain (or I guess Europe in general) are because of religious reasons. So when I sit in class and learn about Spain wanting to expel Jews and other non-catholics from their country, and then travel to the exact square where these trials took place, it's not the most comforting situation. I always understood that Europe has much richer religious traditions than the US (for obvious reasons) but actually experiencing that type of culture, where religion in the backbone for just about everything, especially history of European territories, is different than anything I was ever used to being a part of. This in turn makes me even more proud of my culture and my heritage.

But moving along, on Saturday we spent the day in Toledo (about an hour outside of Madrid) and it was amazinggg. The city intertwines in the mountains of Spain and it reminded me a lot of Tzfat in Isreal. But Toledo has a gorgeous river running through the center and it made me want to have a summer house up in those mountains (new future plan?) 

The picture doesn't even capture the beauty of Toledo

Sitting on the mountain edge in Toledo

But we also witnessed a lot of protests in Toledo from public sector jobs. There were tons of people walking through the streets with signs and whistles, protesting the budget cuts for public education, healthcare, and much more. I feel like I have a lot of experience with protests now since I was in Madison during all the drama with Walker. But its just as cool to see people protesting here, I love watching people gather together fighting for what they believe in hoping to make a difference, or at least just get their voices heard. If I actually lived here, and knew what anyone was saying (since its all Spanish obviously), I think I’d join in. They tell us not to go near any protests here, but the real reason I don’t get close, is because it’s scary being around hundreds of people screaming in Spanish! But yeah this week was the first time I noticed changes in the economy here, everyone usually seems so happy and jolly walking down the street, but now I am truly seeing the struggle. Its sad, and also brings me back to reality of what's really happening around me. 

Protesters walking through the narrow street of Toledo

Anyway, we went back to Madrid Saturday night, went out to a cool hippy bar and then a club later that night. When we first walked into the discotecha they were playing “aint no mountain high enough”. Europe LOVESS their 80’s and oldies music. So right then I knew it would be a fun night, we stayed there for a few hours just dancing around and actually met a group of people from whales and england! Actually, the whole weekend in Madrid I was surprised at how many British accents I heard on the streets.

Sunday morning we went to the Prado Museum and the Reina Sofia. I saw Velázquez’s “Las Meninas” (baroque style) and it was actually incredible to see in person. Now one of my favorite paintings. We’re learning about baroque art work in class this week and I’m realizing how much I love it, the paintings are so precise it feels like your looking into a photograph. (look how cultured I am now). We also saw Picasso’s war painting which is hugeeeee, but didn’t really do much for me. I realize I don’t really love Picasso’s paintings, maybe I just don’t like any of his cubism stuff.

But yeah so that was all of Mardid, got back Sunday night and passed out right away. This week will be relaxing, not doing too much but I actually have homework this week.  Garrrr!

Well congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of this post, told you it was a long one! Adios amigos!