Spain - Madrid - Day 1

15-05-2011

Sunday, so two out of the three biggest museums have free hours today. Even though we had decided to skip the museums we decided to have a look.

Reina Sofia, houses modern art. An exhibition of Yayoi Kusama was on. There were some bits that were really interesting, the room with the dots. There were colored dots as stickers stuck on the furniture and walls, the way it was done gave the illusion of looking at the room through a curtain of dots. The one I really loved was the infinity hall of mirrors, it was one way and I went through it three times. There were lights hung as curtains over mirrors, the lights changed colors and even went off at times. The mirrors were angled such that there was no end visible . Also saw Picasso's Guernica along with it's accompanying sketches.

Walked around the open air markets and the few open shops, bought a dress. Wandered through the various plazas, each country has it's own variation of dressed and made up people on stands for money. There were families dressed for mass, girls in polka dotted dresses, heads covered with a scarf along with a flower in the centre, boys in waistcoats and baggy caps.

Visited the Prado museum, very short period of time. Some of Goya's and Bosch's paintings, a few others along the way and we were out of there.

Buying the tickets for the bullfight was the best part of the event. We were trying to but tickets for tomorrow , the man at the counter kept gesticulating and speaking in Spanish. Luckily a man behind us was willing to translate, there were "little bulls" the next day, while today was the major event (today was the biggest festival of Madrid, San Isidro festival). We managed to get seats together though in the sun. We returned in the evening for the show, it was burning hot. I had my head and face covered from the sun which also helped when I started crying . Neither of us knew that the bull was tortured and then killed. We thought that they would wave a red flag, a bull would charge and the matador had to escape injury. In reality the bull was bleeding from the stabs, then colored rods were stuck into his back and finally the matador appeared and killed him after making him go through various routines. The crowd was clapping and cheering , it was horrible. Left after the first event. It is one of the worst things I have ever seen.

Plans to go partying scrapped.




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