Retiro, Picasso, and Palacio

It looks like I have to play catch up from all that has happened since Granada and Cordoba, because I've been too busy slacking, going to school, and traveling to write. After the weekend in Andalucia, I was happy to spend the week and weekend in Madrid. Thursday night I went with some friends to check out the hangout of Erasmus, which is basically the European exchange students network here, at a bar they are at every Thursday (free beer if you have your card). It was nice to talk to more Carlos III students, Spaniards and other Europeans alike, and hopefully have a few more faces to identify while walking around campus. After Erasmus, we went to a discoteca called Palacio, which is literally an old palace converted into a dance club every Thursday night. It had a cool atmosphere inside, with palatial wall paintings and decor intact, while house and hiphop blared from different music themed rooms. Somehow time flew as we were dancing and we ended up having to wait for the metro to reopen at 6 to get home...Apparently getting home at daylight hours is normal here, but I definitely felt strange coming home while people were on their way to work on the metro (and as my family was leaving for school and work! The daughter saw me sneaking upstairs and asked "donde dormiste?" or where did I sleep ha) Not much later I had to meet my art class at the Archeological Museum close to Plaza Colon, for our weekly museum visit! We got to see the reproduction of the prehistoric cave paintings of Altamira, and artifacts and crown jewels from the Visigoth kings, Romans, Gothic Period, and a little later. Unfortunately the coolest part of the museum with old Iberian sculpture was closed for remodeling :(


Later in the weekend, I went to work out at the Parque Retiro with my friend Janice..and got to listen to a live band practicing and playing for us in the background! In our pretty outrageous running clothes we walked to the Reina Sofia museum, which is free on Saturday afternoons, and went to check out the Picasso exhibit. In line, someone I know from Berkeley who is studying abroad now in Paris came over to tap me on the shoulder! It's a pretty small world because she happened to be visiting Madrid for the weekend and saw me in line..This time around I didn't get to see the permanent collection, because the Picasso exhibit was huge! Most of the material was from the Paris Picasso Museum, and took up four different sections of the museum here. Of course the most amazing and moving piece was the Guernica. It was much bigger than I had imagined, and even more emotionally powerful. It kind of sucked that there were a lot of people standing close to the front so it hard to see the full painting in clear view, but amazing nonetheless!! Saturday night we went to an area around Plaza Santa Ana and Calle Huertas, which has a lot of authentic and varied tapas places and bars. Most of Sunday was spent catching up on work and relaxing, as I had the house to myself (my family kindly left me at home when they went to lunch at the grandparents house). I ended the weekend with a nice run around Retiro. It's amazing that you can always go a different route and discover different niches of the park..