Around the city

Places I've visited in Madrid: Palacio Real, Prado, Tyssen-Bornemisza, Museo de Reigna Sofia, Retiro, Jardin Botanico, number of clothes stores (it was Rebajas), local McDonalds' and so on.

I consider Palacio Real and Prado are two must see places, if you have to choose from all the attractions and have only 2 days to do that. As i had an entire month, i've seen a lot but also missed a lot. Because when you have a month, you take your time and eventually get lazy and get used to a city.

Palacio Real is a magnificent site. Though every time i tried to get inside it was closed due to some official meetings or ceremonies or whatever it was. But finally i was lucky to make it inside. They show a certain amount of rooms but not all of it.

Among them royal dormitories, throne-room, little church. The interior is decorated with paintings of famous artists. It's thrilling to enter a room and read on a little board that this was the room where the king Phillip died or something like that. You are touring through the royal premises with a thought that this is the exact place where history was made and were destinies of the entire countries were decided. They also have an exhibition of armours and an old pharmacy.

Madrid is a very good place for art fans as it has 3 big art galleries. The Museum of Modern Art Reigna Sofia, Prado with paintings of all periods starting from ancient times, but no contemporary art, and Tyssen where they have everything religious art, modern art, impressionism, renaissance etc.

It depends what you like. I have a funny story about Prado. It was the first time I went there and I was looking at the table with a picture of 7 deadly sins painted by some Flemish guy. I stood there for a while and then suddenly i raised my eyes and who do you think I saw? Nicolas Cage standing right in front of me like 6 feet away. Apparently he was also interested in this table.  He is one of my favorite actors too. But i didnt like him that night. He was wearing a black leather suit, had long hair and this haughty look on his face. I reffered his unattractive look to the movie he was currently filming. But honestly i prefer seeing him on tv rather than live. So, yes about Prado, it's the best place to get acquainted with spanish art: Goya, Velazkes, Zurbaran.

El Parque de Buen Retiro. A huge park in the centre of Madrid. Though if you are a young single girl  i wouldn't recommend going there based on my own experience. Everytime i went there i had someone either hitting on me or offering me to buy drugs!!! And there were these spooky guys staring at me intensly as i walked by. Yea there are some pretty creepy places in that park. Like one part of it is famous to be a gay meeting site. But in general it's a nice place for walking, jogging and contemplating. There are also some attractions there: Palacio de Cristales, Estanque, Statue of the Fallen Angel - the only one in the world (as i was told) and also 200 trees planted in honour of the victims of the explosion in Atocha railway station.

The purpose of the trip was to brush up my Spanish a little bit. Destination: Madrid, La escuela de las lenguas Don Quijote. Accomodation: Sainz de Baranda, stay with a spanish family.

So I arrived to Madrid late at night, in January. My spanish speaking skills weren't too great, when i took a cab i was actually trying to speak spanish to a driver, but at the end he gave up on me and asked:Do you speak English? Thank God i did speak English. The cab driver helped me to find my appartment and spoke to the family for me. The location was nice not far from the subway station Ibiza. The family consisted only of 2 members: the mom Belinda and her daughter Miriam (who was an actress/model as I found out later)  Miriam kissed me in two cheeks which was quite unexpectedly 'cause here in Ukraine we dont have such a custom.

Also there was a white dog, nice and fuzzy Single (strange name as for me) japanese spitz. The funny thing is that the whole time i thought that Single was a boy and then at the very end of my staying it appeared that it was a SHE. My room was nothing special, small with a two-storeyed bed (as i call it). Of course i chose the second storey.

I had to be at school at 8 am., which was early for me because i had no idea how to get there, and no directions. It was 2 am i think when i went to bed. The next morning i spent almost half an hour searching for the subway station which was somewhere near in the unknown direction. I didnt like subway in Madrid too much. It is so confusing and complicated. You def. have to have a map to get around and feel comfortable.

The first confusion was when the train arrived and I didnt know that you have to lift the little hook to enter the train. If some man didnt do it for me I would be just standing there watching the train pass by. Later there were times when these door hooks wouldnt work and doors remained shut and i had to run to the other door to exit. The other interesting thing i noticed was that there were two lines to the tiny escalators they have. One line for people who prefer to stand and ride and the other one for those who are in a hurry.

My school was located in the very centre of the city and occupied one storey in an office building. There were people from all over the world: GB, Brazil, Russia, China, USA, Germany, France and so on. Mainly from USA and diff European countries. They put me in a group with advanced level (what a surprise!).