Las Escaleras y el Metro

January 8, 2014

The day finally arrived for me to leave the comforts of the United States and travel across the Atlantic to Spain, my new homeland for the next 4 months. After a tearful goodbye in the Atlanta airport with my wonderful boyfriend, Adam, I made my way through security and met my group at the F10 gate destined for Madrid. There are 15 of us, all from the University of Georgia, but from all different backgrounds. It’s a female dominated group, with only 2 boys, who I’m sure will either be great friends or total enemies by the end of this trip. Along with us students, there are two teacher assistants and the program director, who have each not spoken more than 5 words of english to me since I first arrived at the gate. At first this was intimidating, but over the course of my first day with the mentors I came to find that really enjoyed speaking spanish with them and actually felt uncomfortable when some english slipped from my mouth. 

After a 9 hour flight of unsuccessfully trying to sleep, we finally arrived in Madrid. The first difference I noticed when I walked off the plane was the stairs. In a U.S. airport, it is nearly impossible to find a flight of stairs that is not accompanied by leisurely escalator. No wonder Spaniards are so thin. Up and down we went until we finally made it to baggage claim and retrieved our luggage. This is where the real fun began. We were to get to our hotel by the metro, which conveniently was located on the other side of the airport. One long haul and a couple drips of perspiration later, we arrived at the metro, where we were met with more stairs and escalators to tackle. We switched trains three times to get to our hotel. I’m sure it was quite a sight watching 13 American girls lug multiple overpacked suitcases up and down narrow staircases and escalators. By the time we got to the third train, I regretted my decision to bring two bags. 

Our program director, Gary Baker, said this would be an experience, and indeed he was right. The metro is a bustling underground system, packed with people heading in all different directions. It was similar to the subway in New York City, except it is a bit cleaner, and no one spoke english. I found this out first hand during my first of probably many embarrassing moments that will occur on this trip. The last train that we boarded before our hotel was packed in very tight. After I stepped on with my obnoxiously large bags, a small women turned and asked me, in spanish, if I was getting off at the next stop, because if not, she needed room to get out. When she asked me, I knew exactly what she was saying, however, I couldn’t seem to form any sort of response in my head. I was frozen and felt my eyes get dumbfoundedly larger as I continued to stare at her speechless. Finally she just gave me a snicker and went around me. This experience made me realize that learning to regularly converse in spanish was going to be a lot harder than I thought. 

Madrid is a very metropolitan city with giant advertisements hanging from buildings and little tourist shops on every corner. Everyone looks very stylish, especially the the men. I didn’t see one person in a t-shirt and there are definitely no “frat stars” here which is a nice change of pace. I definitely stand out though with my blonde hair and blue eyes. 

Our hotel, the Tryp Gran Vía, is located in the center of downtown. After we checked in, we all walked around the city and enjoyed bollos and café con leche at La Mallorquina, a local repostería. Bollos, are small breaded pastries, that sinfully melt in your mouth. Café con leche is coffee with milk, however, it I did not realize that is was literally half a cup of coffee and half a cup of milk. There is no such thing as “just a splash” here in Espana. 

Our afternoon concluded with a walk in the Parque de Madrid, which is a giant park right near the center of the city. The scenery is beautiful, full of famous statues towered by ancient trees and shrubbery. There is even a pleasant lake in the middle that people can rent row boats on.

An hour long siesta was then long needed and we all retired to the hotel. I am now a firm believer in the pains of jetlag. Today was exhausting. 

Although I could have slept all night. We all woke up for a trip to the Museo Nacional del Prado, where I totally “geeked out”. The art was absolutely beautiful. Many of the students became bored of the magnificent paintings but I could have stayed there all night. Almost two-thirds of the paintings were religious. One thing that especially caught my eye, though, was the amount of dogs in the pictures. As a faithful dog lover myself, I appreciated the fact that dogs were as much a companion in the 1500s as they are today. My favorite painting was called Paisaje de El Pardo al disiparse la niebla, by Francisco Sans Prado, pictured below. 

We had an early dinner at the hotel because we were all pretty tired. When I say early though, I mean 8pm, which is early for Spain. They usually don’t gather until 10pm for the nightly meal. Now, I am nice and cozy in my hotel bed and I cannot wait to actually get some rest and be fueled for our full fledged tour of Madrid tomorrow. 

Hasta luego!