Monday, December 7, 2009

Final Ultimate Fall league game and….MADRID!

Wednesday October 28th marked the final game for the ultimate league I had joined here in Barca. Finally my team showed a dominate performance and won! I played one of the best games I had all season throwing 4 scores and catching 4 scores in a 13-6 win. After the game, one of my teammates invited me to come play with his club team, Peixets, in an upcoming beach ultimate tourney and I gladly accepted (more to come on this tourney later). Thursday evening I left on a late flight to meet my parents in Madrid for the weekend!

We woke up early Friday morning and grabbed some breakfast before heading to the famed Museo del Prado. This museum was entirely overwhelming. We spent roughly 7 hours just wandering through the numerous rooms staring at the beautiful paintings, sculptures and mixed media works. I will definitely need to revisit this place to take in some more of the history and culture that it offers. Saturday we had a chance to visit a bit more of the city as we wandered through Plaza del Sol, Plaza Mayor, before ending up at the Palacio Real. This palace was absolutely spectacular. It had 2800 rooms and art work and decoration to rival even that of Buckingham Palace, we were completely overwhelmed by the riches that the Kings of Spain had accumulated over the years. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside any of the museums or the palace so I don’t have all that many pictures of these beautiful sites but did get some good shots of the city itself. Sunday we were up early yet again (which was starting to take a toll on me) and walked through the city to arrive at one of the largest flea markets in Spain. After making our way through this crowded area, we stopped at a beautiful covered market where my father indulged in some incredible looking seafood. After exploring this market for a while, we walked back through the city and to another of Madrid’s art museums, the Thyssen-Bornemisza. This museum was just as overwhelming as the Prado and housed the private collection of the Thyssen family (the collection was rumored to be worth between 1 and 3 billion dollars). After finishing up there and taking a quick rest, we ate a delicious meal in Plaza de la Santa Ana before crashing early since we all had early flights in the morning (mine back to Barca and my rents back to DC). While I enjoyed my time in Madrid, I am definitely happy with my decision to study in Barcelona. I found that Barcelona is a much friendlier city with more diversity and a much broader range of things to see and do.

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