It was the real beginning of our constant journey. An adventure through cities, beaches, farmlands and mountain ranges. Travelling from destination to destination gradually making dot to dot points on the way. We actually planned our south of Spain tour before we had left along with a slight draft of our plans once we arrived in Milan, Italy. This was the real discovery of life. To experience lifestyles and culture that exists outside the compounds of the little home town known as the Gold Coast that I had once lived. I’ve never really been a big fan of cities. Usually in big cities the larger the crime rate, egotism battled between stature businessmen, judgements over image, neglect, and overrated stereotypes of different personalities. I’ve just always felt a separation from that lifestyle and longed for genuine people that are themselves with no comparisons or overpowering of prominence. So this would be a good experience to visit civilizations of overpopulated cities at there most extremes and cultural differentiations… European cities.
I think Katrina and I both felt that Barcelona was overrated in someway. Spanish food didn’t quite live up to our high expectations and the laid back lifestyle is too laid back so much so that it gets to the point that it becomes frustrating at times. If you’ve ever experienced their customer services industries or hospitality you’ll understand what I mean. If ever you require assistance from their customer service they have a favoured saying of “It’s not my problem”. But once you see the attractions in Barcelona there’s nothing much else there until mid-summer when their festivities and young people throughout Europe, US, and Canada venture to the Catalonian empire. Barcelona also feels more alive and safe as the sun sets well into 10pm. This far different from the dark, grim streets during Winter.
Starting off with Barcelona now with Madrid.
The hostel, Albergue Juvenil Madrid, that we stayed in could have passed for a cosmopolitan hotel with dorms. Newly renovated the interior was very modern and spacious in comparison to typical inner city living in Europe. The dark tiled rooms, mixed with red and white interior provided a real city atmosphere. Very secure and safe with card key doors and large lockers to place belongings. The hostel also contained a nice large flat screen media room which was very handy for the Spanish games during Euro Cup 2008. Next to it also had pool table with a very cheap vending machine. There was also a study room equipped with 5 computers and large tables to sit. It looked more like a student house rather than a hostel but it was a great worth while experience to begin our journey through the south of Spain.
Our experience in Madrid was very tyring. After visiting the city we were both mentally and physically drained primarily from visiting three of the world’s most popular art galleries that are lined throughout one street. The first art gallery we visited was courtesy of free entry. I was stoked with this art museum which encompasses large sculptures of Goya and Valesquez to portray its grandeur. It also has my last name ‘Murillo’ printed in large text on the entrance which made it even better. The museum also housed Valesquez’s masterpiece of ‘Las Marinas’. One of his most infamous works, a painting by which Picasso reproduced in his own style in more than 14 of his own paintings. These can be seen in the Picasso gallery in Barcelona.
The second art gallery we visited housed works by Joan Miro. If you’ve never heard of this painter there’s good reason but he’s one of the most popular modern artists of his time. His paintings are so childlike that some consist of nothing more than white canvas we few dots of black and lines. Many visitors passing by laughed at his work but a curator did make him sound impressive. If the curator was a salesman he could have sold a Matrix dot printer to a current computer buyer. One of the most breathtaking paintings I’ve ever seen is Picasso’s Guernica. I always imagined this painting to be maybe 1 meter or 2 in length. I never expected it to be around 8 meters or more in length. Its sheer size is an unforgettable site and is one of the best paintings I’ve ever physically seen. It’s so protected and popular that there are two security guards on either side watching over it.
After a while though renaissance paintings begin to all look the same and walking through such large art galleries it gets to the stage where you become so tired and exhausted that you begin to walk past rooms of grand old century old paintings. Ignoring their true skill and duration of time to complete a painting.
The Royal Palace (Palacio Real)
This was my first ever palace experience. Just a 15 minute walk from where we were staying. The palace is grand in every way. Rooms decorated in marble, gold, numerous textiles, and statuettes. What made the experience even more worth while was the guided tour that followed us from room to room. So we eavesdropped in to know the history behind each room. This was the sort of place that old classic movies were made after, with hidden hallways that only staff could walk through, endless rooms, and paintings resembling what was once a wealthy kingdom during its era.
The fake Botanical Garden
We paid 2 Euro’s each to get into a garden which after walking through was utterly overrated and one of the most boring garden’s I’ve ever seen. We actually thought it was the lush green garden that housed the infamous statue lake which is draped all over Madrid post cards. In this fake garden though we walked looking for the waterfalls and streams that were supposed to have been there. Instead we saw an exciting trickly fountain which poorly spurted water out of a hole. Actually the water didn’t even spurt it just leaked upwards then trickled down the side of a ball. I could have used my 2 Euro’s to by something more worthwhile, like a rock.
The real city Garden
Thoroughly disappointed with a our previous Madrid Garden experienced, we looked further into the map and noticed a much larger green pasture behind the Botanical Gardens indicated. This was a real garden. With streams of water green pastures, flowers, large field areas. It didn’t quite have the variety in flowers as the Botanical gardens but it was a lot more exciting to walk around. The lake which lay centre of the garden is also quite a site. People imitating Noah from the movie The Notebook romantically rowed their girlfriends or potential girlfriends across the lake… I didn’t offer. Europe on a shoe string budget can’t afford such romantic luxuries. Maybe I can row Katrina in a shopping trolley along the footpath next to it. But even then they don’t have trolleys in Madrid, well from what I could see anyway.
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