Rain in the capital

Last weekend began with an overnight bus ride to Spain's capital, Madrid. We arrived at our hostel by 7am after making our way through the rain and darkness, and after some toast on hot cereal (my favorite since Carcassonne!), I entered the wet grey city with my brand-new umbrella. People continued on with their days, out and about in the downpour, and often stopped to wait under the shelter of Madrid's grand architecture, quite patiently. I thought about how never before have I asked myself, "I wonder what this city is like in the rain", while the question of what a place might be like in the sunshine comes right away.

Walking around the city was magnificent and filled with little discoveries. My friends and I had our first real tapas experience at El Tigre, where we ordered drinks and were overly pleased to receive a giant plate of rice and six little sandwiches. Tapas is a way of eating between main meals, and some attribute the history of tapas to King Alfonso X, who banned wine in the inns of Castile unless accompanied by something to eat in order to avoid alcohol's harmful effects. There are more than 20,000 restaurants in Madrid, and we did our best to taste the local flavor, bouncing from tapas bar to tapas bar and enjoying many delicious foods.

Museo Reina Sofía was incredible-- so incredible that we had to go back. There was one exhibit in which a big cage held three parrots, and on the other side of the room were two wooden structures. I watched as museum-goers entered the exhibit, pointed and smiled at the birds, walked in a circle around the wooden cubes, and left. Delightedly, I walked through the narrow slit in one of the port-a-potty-looking units as people stopped and watched me, as if an alarm were about to go off and the building would self-destruct. I pushed through some ribbons hanging in the entrance and squeezed through to the center, which held--- I won't say, for a description wouldn't do the experience justice. The point is, it was my favorite exhibit in that it is a perfect example of life without one's initiative, life with fear of making mistake, of not conforming: unknown.

As the weekend went on, the sun finally came out and warmed up the city as we warmed up to it. Madrid is full of life, and it is truly the city that never sleeps. We went to a discoteca with seven floors, although sadly only made it to the first two, went to a smaller scene with new Spanish friends, and I was amazed when after coffee and toast they presented the option of returning to the club at eight in the morning, where people were waiting outside to enter! But the night out didn't stop us, as we took on our last sunny day in Madrid, visiting a street market with artists and artisans selling their crafts. We saw street performers and walked through a grand park, made sandwiches with fresh baguettes and my swiss army knife in the park, returned to my favorite museum, and enjoyed Madrid's tapas once more with a student whom my friend met on her flight to Sevilla. The capital of Spain was a great place to be.