madrid. take 2

we went to madrid for a day trip with the group. we had to meet at 9 am. too early for me...but the cold walk woke me up. our bus radiator froze because it was so cold so it took awhile to get going. i listened to my ipod, slept the whole way there. we went to a cafe before the Prado and i got chocolate, their hot chocolate, but it is so much better! it takes just like you are drinking melted chocolate chips bc it is so rich and thick! then we went to the Prado where we had a guided tour-in spanish of course. we saw 'the anunciacion' by fra angelico, works of el greco (who actually lived and worked in Toledo, where I live) bc he had his own section, many of velazquez paintings including las meninas. the guide told us to take a mirror (which i conveniently had in my monster of purse) and stand with your back to the painting and look at the reflection and it looks 3D, and it really did-the people seemed to pop out. that was my favorite one to see bc in one of my spanish classes we spent 2 hours examining that painting to it was interesting to see the real thing, and not a picture on wikipedia. we then went to the puerta de sol-the main plaza in madrid and the center of spain really and had lunch. met back up with the group and took a walking tour of spain. it was kind of hard to understand the tour guide and it was soo cold out! but we saw the plaza mayor with weird statue people. but this plaza was where they tried people during the spanish inquisition. they would ask are you christian, do you believe in god and if you didnt say 'yes' then they would kill you right there. it is hard to wrap your head around the idea that you are standing on the same bricks people atested to their faith (or lack of) on hundreds of years ago. it really is the same though all throughout spain. everything is so old and has thousands of years of history behind it, compared to the hundreds in the US. we then saw the cathedral that took years to build and it is hugggee. then we walked to the palacio real which has 2800 rooms in it. amazing. and beautiful. imagine that as your house. but the king doesn't live there-just  parties, events, and other things take place there.

 it was a completely different side of madrid than i had seen the first time i was there. but it was touristy but done the right/better way: with professional guides/locals who knew a lot more than if i had just gone to see these sites myself. 

 i just uploaded about 250 pictures from the day/night bc when we got back around 7 we went out to eat and then we went to our houses, got ready, and met back up at o'briens, which has turned into our hangout. our whole group met up there and had another great night in Toledo. ;)