I have seen great things only being two days on this trip.
I have ate great food and drank awesome Spanish wine.
That being said, there is, however, a deep, dark, disturbing side of travel.
This is the kind of thing that will make you stand outside the Prado Museo in the courtyard with a few tears streaming down your face say in the most childish, stubborn voice 'I hate stupid Spain'.
Just as I began to fear I had reverted to childhood and became in less than 3 seconds flat the American every country likes to hate, my sister assured me this delirium is a part of jet lag.
After a continental breakfast at hotel Ibis featuring café so strong that I may not sleep all night and some delicious chocolate croissants and some type of potato pie thing we went to the Thyssen. It was three floors of many beautiful artworks. The entire 2nd floor is full of pictures of "La Virgin Maria y Christo" which is awesome if that's your kind of thing but to me if you've seen one picture of the birth of Christo you've seen them all.
Of course I did manage to get some laughs in as well. For example, I chuckled inside at this picture of "A Married Couple". See if it strikes your funny bone.
After 2-3 hours going through the Thyssen seeing the works of Degas, Picasso, and many other modern works and my mind willing, we set out for the Prado. The Prado is a little bit larger museum which houses older but much bigger pictures like Rubens and "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Bosch:
I spent several minutes trying to find where Bosch painted himself in the picture with a white sombrero like a "Where's Waldo" puzzle from hundreds of years ago with no avail.
But let me back up.
Because it is Easter holiday only the museums were opened today and a few shops and I suspect since Madrid is not a small city the museums were so busy. I started to feel disoriented as I heard people speaking German, French, Japanese and unknown languages. These other cultures do not keep the same custom space in between bodies so I am beginning to feel like a small fish in a big pond. People keep bumping me. Something which I suspect was a Dogwood Tree caught my breath and I began to pre-panic as I did not pack an emergency asthma inhaler. Now even more disoriented I nervously make my way to the ticket counter where I say "Uno regular". I do not realize that I purchased 2 tickets and did not receive the correct amount of euros back. As I am confused looking at the two tickets a museum worker pushes us into another line that we did not even need to be in. Thus leading to the tears and the production where I am saying random things about how " I can't breathe" and "I can't sleep cause I don't have ac and now I can't keep my window open without having an asthma attack" and how "I don't even understand English at this point" while we are walking. The ticket taker is then trying to explain to me that I can try to explain that they sold me two tickets but I am thinking to myself if I couldn't ask for UNO ticket correctly in the first place then how am I supposed to explain in Spanish where the problem is. Long story even longer....my body/brain/logical thought shut down.
Moral of the story: First : Prepare for your body to hate you after flying 8 hours overseas. Secondly, don't try to squeeze in too much the first day of your arrival. Lastly, a bueno botella of Spanish Temperilla or Saviougn or Merlot will make everything all better.
I'm glad we explored the Prado not only cause well in my grumpy words "I bought two tickets I'm seeing some artwork" but it was really worth it to see the art and despite my story today was actually a good day. Tomorrow my body will be 100%, if not I'm taking some vino and a sippy cup for the road to Toledo and Caceres.
Unreasonably yours,
CherieBobomb
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