¡Vale, vale, venga! Jessica's Granada Adventures: Journey to the Center of Spain

I admit that I've been putting off this post for a few days. There is just so much to say about our three-day trip to Madrid and Toledo! We jammed so many activities into those three days! So let's get started...

Since we had a week off between the placement test (on which I placed into the advanced classes, woo!!) and the start of the semester (which I will talk more about later), our program was able to take us on a three day, whirlwind tour of Madrid and Toledo. We left at 7am from the center of Granada, so I had to wake up at 6am! Now, I am a morning person, but the sun doesn't rise until around 8am here, so I was NOT excited to get up at 6am when it was still dark. However, Madrid is worth it! The drive to Madrid took over five hours, which was not the best. Most people slept for most of the ride, but being a morning person, I did not. Luckily, the scenery driving north was pretty and I had Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal to keep me company. We finally arrived at 1pm!

Our first stop was el Escorial, which is just a bit north of the city of Madrid. El Escorial is a palace/church/monetary/crypt located on the side of a mountain. The town was very beautiful but it was COLD. I know I've complained about being cold in Spain before, but none of that holds a candle to how cold it was here. It was actually snowing! We braved the wind to walk from the bus station to the el Escorial, but we didn't really get to see much of the gardens outside the palace. The inside, though, was gorgeous. The palace was the Autumn Home for the king and queen up until the early 20th century, and they have conserved much of the decoration on the walls and ceilings. They had VERY elaborate ceilings! Inside the palace was also an art museum with some of the former kings' favorite pieces. Most of the paintings depicted scenes from Jesus's life, although there were many paintings of various saints and members of the royal family.

My favorite part of el Escorial was "la Galeria de las batallas." This room, used as a hallway back in the day to connect one part of the palace to another, has scenes from battles all over the walls. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside el Escorial but I secretly snapped a photo of this room.

Another area I liked a lot was the room where they placed all of the past kings' and queens' coffins. They only royal couple NOT in el Escorial is Isabel and Fernando los catolicos. Oh, and the current king's (don Juan Carlos I) father, don Juan. Fun fact about don Juan: He is the son of a king and the father of a king, but was never a king! Franco ruled Spain during what would have been his reign. Still, when he died, Juan Carlos I gave him the funeral of a king his body as well as that of his wife will eventually be placed in el Escorial.

After spending several hours in el Escorial (which, by the way, was freezing), we had a chance to eat the lunches that our host mothers packed for us before boarding the bus to go to our hotel in the heart of Madrid.

So we had gotten our itinerary for the trip a few days before leaving and they told us the name of our hotel, Hotel Regina. I thought the name sounded familiar and when we arrived there on Thursday afternoon, I realized it was the hotel that my family stayed in when we visited Spain in 2002! How weird! (I have to thank my father for giving me his stellar sense of direction and observation skills, otherwise I never would have remembered). Anyway, we spent an hour settling into our hotel, then we took a walking tour of some important parts of Madrid! As the sun was setting, we visited el Puerto del Sol, Kilometro 0, la Plaza Mayor, and several other statues and monuments in the city. Although I'd pretty much seen everything on the tour before, it was still fun to see it all again! After the walk, some friends and I decided to grab some churros with chocolate at the most famous churros place in Madrid. They were fantastic!

We had such a huge day, so my friends and I decided to have a relaxing evening of shopping, eating, and chilling in the hotel. I really honestly love living with Ana in Granada, but it was SO nice to be able to turn the heat in my hotel room up as high as I wanted and take a 30 minute shower with excellent water pressure! What a great evening :-)

Friday we boarded the bus at 11am (after breakfast, which included three bowls of cereal!) and took a driving tour through different areas of the city. We ended up at the Royal Palace and I got to tour it for a third time! El Palacio Real is only used now for important events, so we were able to see all the main rooms. They are GORGEOUS. Way more elaborate than the place at el Escorial. The ceilings and walls were incredible, and the chandeliers were amazing! I imagine that state dinners and other royal events must be quite awesome.

Next stop was the Prado, home to paintings by Goya, Velasquez, and more! I was quite a little art enthusiast in 2002, so I'd already explored the Prado, but it was very cool to go again! In 2002 we were allowed to take photos, but now you are not, so I am especially glad I got to go when I was 11! I loved seeing famous works like "Las tres gracias" and "Las meninas" again though. Art is really inspiring sometimes.

After grabbing a quick lunch (which for me was a bocadillo with tortilla espanola, which is the best thing ever), we headed to La reina Sofia, a modern art museum with works by Picasso, Miro, and Dali. This museum is home to Picasso's super famous "Guernica," which is a giant representation of the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. I took a class about the Spanish Civil War and we studied Picasso and this painting, so it was very interesting to see it again after learning all about it. I love the Spanish Civil War!

The rest of the day was a blur of very cold walks, fantastic hot chocolate, dinner with the group, and tapas and sangria! Madrid is a great place.

Saturday we got an early start (after just two bowls of cereal!) and headed to Toledo! Toledo is about an hour outside of Madrid and has a very medieval feel to it. We got to go to a sword factory and two synagogs and got to see a ton of awesome buildings. Toledo is a very cool city.

The four-hour drive from Toledo to Granada turned into a six-hour journey because we stopped at the Don Quijote's windmills, a small cute town, and a rest stop. By the time we got home, we were all exhausted and glad to be back in our own beds. The trip to Madrid and Toledo was really awesome but it sort of felt like a marathon. I am very lucky that it was my second or third time at most of these places!

Again, sorry that this post took a whole week. I was totally putting off writing it! Plus I did spend this week getting started with Spring Semester! Classes started on Monday. Here is my schedule:

Monday/Wednesday
8:30-10am Spanish Grammar
10-11:30 Spanish Theater (a literature class)
5-6:30 The Art of Flamenco in Society and Culture

Tuesday/Thursday
11:30-1 History of Spain (Franco to present)
1-2:30 Speaking and Writing Skills

It should be a pretty good semester! The 8:30 class is a little early for my taste, since school is a good 25 minute walk away, but I am adjusting. Soon it won't be so dark in the mornings, hopefully, so that will help. We have class on four Fridays during the semester, which is pretty random, but not so bad. Honestly though I'm already planning on skipping one to travel!

Speaking of traveling, I've booked two trips! I'm going to Morocco for 3 days at the end of February and visiting my German relatives at the end of April. I'm in the process of booking a trip to visit my lovely roommate Kyla in Denmark and (hopefully) a trip to Valencia in the beginning of March. Planning trips is stressful, but so worth it!

Now that you've read about my life, here are some lovely pictures!