Palacio Real de Madrid y El Rastro

      This weekend was full of exploring Madrid! On Friday Claire and I went to Principe Pio, which is basically a mall. We didn't know what to expect at first...we knew it was shopping but we didn't know it was basically connected to the Metro stop there! Claire and I were both able to find jackets, for the warmer weather. I got a navy jacket, kind of what is in style here, but with less zippers, buttons and fur. If you are interested, this is what all the girls wear (http://www.hm.com/us/product/04161?article=04161-A), army green long jackets with a lot of zippers, sometimes studs, and fur. And they pair it with skinny jeans, a big chunky scarf, and short boots. And carry a big leather purse. No joke....if you come to Madrid right now, you will see a lot of teen/college aged girls wearing this! I was on the metro the other day and there were 3 girls standing in front of me dressed like that. So, my jacket is kind of like what I explained, but navy and a little classier...because I wanted to be different. Claire got a navy trench coat, always classy! We had a successful day shopping.

       Saturday we went to Palacio Real de Madrid. Yet another place where we couldn't take pictures inside! But I did get some pictures of the outside (see below). The palace was constructed by 1755, and then the royals moved in. It is the residence for the Spanish Royal Family, but now is only used for state ceremonies and dinners. Claire and I shared an audio tour, and it gave us some interesting information. For example, we saw the room where Spain signed the documents to join the European Union. And the dining room can hold up to 140 people. The inside of the palace was extravagantly decorated and was absolutely gorgeous...you need to see it! There were frescoes covering all of the ceilings, a lot of gold and bronze gilding, silk tapestries, and paintings by Spanish painter Velazquez. And a lot of rooms had fancy clocks...they had a thing for clocks. We were listening to the audio tour, and it telling us about this grand clock, and that it was really old. Well, the clockface was about the size of a plate that you would use to put a tea cup on, and the rest of it was huge! It was interesting because there were some rooms that used to rooms or bedroom for King Charles III, but they didn't have it set up as a bedroom anymore. He had a room that the silk tapestries over the wall had his initials, as well as all of the chairs.The Throne Room was supposed to be the most grand room of them all. It had frescoes, crystal chandeliers, gilded stucco on the wall/ceiling, lion statues of stone, and tapestries. We walked through rooms that had old coins and medals, china and porcelain, and crystal dinnerware. We also saw the chapel, which was pretty big for a chapel, and very pretty. 
      After that we walked through the smoking room and billiard room. After that, we went to find the Royal Pharmacy. We followed the signs, and they were pointing to a closed door. We kind of stood there and a guard came up and we kind of pointed at it, and he was like si! So we went in. The audio tour told us this was where they kept all the poisons...and medicine for the king and his family. There were glass and ceramic jars all aligned on the walls, and some of them still had things in them! It was very interesting. Then we found the Royal Armory, which was really cool. They had knights in armor on statue horses (who also had some armor on), and all kinds of helmets, and swords. They even had armor for kings when they were kids, it was so small! If you ever visit Madrid, Palacio Real is a must! 

Statue of Philip IV (Felipe in Spanish)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almudena Cathedral across from the Palacio Real. The only good picture I could get because there were cranes in the way!

Palacio Real de Madrid

 

          On Sunday, we went to El Rastro, which is an outdoor market. It was crazy! Vendors had tents or stands set up in the streets, and the pathways were crowded with people trying to buy things. People were selling a variety of things, like Madrid souvenirs, leather goods, used clothes, antiques, and much more! I think you could find pretty much everything there...including underwear, weird. You definitely need to look out for your purses/wallets though, it is a popular place for pick-pockets. We heard a story from someone that they saw a guy trying to get into a lady's backpack, and another guy came up and punched him or something. And then the guy had to explain what happened, because the lady had no clue! We looked around a lot, looking for stuff we may buy. We saw some cute leather purses that were handmade, so maybe we will go back and buy one. Claire and I both bought a Spanish fan...they are everywhere, but these seemed pretty cheap. They aren't the really fancy ones, but they are really pretty! Mine is pink and has purple and blue flowers on it. So, it was a successful trip to El Rastro, and now we know what to expect! 

Things I have learned in Spain:

• I can finally watch Downton Abbey! I kept looking online, but I couldn't find it anywhere, so I ended up buying it on Amazon, but it is so worth it!
• It still amazes me how thin everyone is here...because they eat late at night, sleep in, stay up late, don't drink a lot of water,season everything with salt, and eat a lot of bread. I thought those were things that were unhealthy and made you gain weight!
• With the healthcare in Spain, people don't have to pay for doctors visits, going to the hospital or things like CAT scans or MRI's, and pay very little for medication. Our senora told us their taxes are high, so that pays for the healthcare
• Gypsies in Spain are not like the gypsies on the TLC show My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding...that is what I wanted to tell an American girl who was talking about it on the Metro. She was like, yeah they are really good at paving roads. Claire and I just looked at each other and were like wow
• I saw a little girl with a Hannah Montana backpack the other day
• Fake Uggs are in style. The only people I have seen wearing real Uggs are from SLU
• Brazilians speak Portuguese because way back in 1494 Portugal and Spain signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which was a line that defined what country owned what new colony. Spain got North and South America, and Portugal got east of that line, which just happened to pass through Brazil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas  

¡Adios!

Dublin, Day 3 - Cliffs of Moher and ABC's of Ireland

Day 3 in Dublin, Ireland. January 27, 2013
         On Sunday, Claire and I got up super early so that we could go to the Cliffs of Moher with Paddywagon Tours. I am so glad that we did this tour, it was so much fun! And I personally feel like going to Dublin and not seeing the countryside or coast is like going to Denver, Colorado and not visiting the Rocky Mountains!! 

Our very Irish bus...you couldn't miss it!

         So, we found where the bus was picking up from and got on. We met our funny tour guide Marc, and on the way out of Dublin he told us some Irish history. He also told us the very important ABC's of Ireland (not really that important): Another bloody church, another bloody cathedral, another bloody castle. Well, from our adventures in Dublin and this trip we found out that this is so true! We stopped at a truck stop 30 minutes outside of Dublin, and I got apple juice and Nutri-Grain bars, my favorite! Nutri-Grain bars are the best, but I haven't seen them in Madrid. After our quick breakfast we drove about 2 hours to reach our first destination.
          Our first stop was a castle (ABC's of Ireland!) called Dunguaire Castle. It is a 16th century castle, is pretty close to the city of Galway, and sits on Galway Bay. It was absolutely gorgeous! It seems like it could be in a movie. In the summer you can go in and climb up the tower, but in the winter it is closed, so we just saw the outside of it. Apparently if you stand at the entrance and ask a question, you will know the answer by the end of the day. 

Dunguaire Castle

 

 

 

Front of Dunguaire Castle

     You might be able to tell from the pictures, but it was raining off and on the entire day. So some of my pictures are sunny and some of them it looks like it is about to storm. But, whenever we got off the bus it wasn't raining, and it would rain while we were driving to our next location....we got lucky! Apparently the day before it was raining the entire day. 
         Our next stop was an abbey...not in the ABC's of Ireland, but it is kind of like a church. Corcomroe Abbey was built in the 12th century, but later fell into disrepair. Many churches and castles were destroyed by the English when they were trying to take control of Ireland, a lot by Lord Oliver Cromwell in the mid 1600s. They wanted to destroy the Irish culture, and punish them for being Catholic and speaking Gaelic. Later, a roof was put on to cover the altar and the king that is buried there, King Conor O'Brien, or in Gaelic, Conor na Siudane Ua Briain. When our tour guide Marc was telling us about this abbey, he said make sure not to lean on the walls or anything as it may fall apart...I don't think it was that close to falling a part! Many tombs and gravestones are now in the abbey, as well as outside, most with the Celctic Cross.

Corcomroe Abbey, from the side.

King Conor O'Brien's tomb

        Our next stop was the mini-Cliffs! It was so windy there, but the view was pretty! These cliffs were very small compared to the real Cliffs of Moher, which we found out later. Marc told us the reason why the tour stops here is because you can get pretty close to the edge, unlike at the Cliffs where there is a 4 ft rock wall so you won't fall off. We could kind of see the city of Galway on the other side of the coast, and we could kind of see the Aran Islands: Inis Mór, Inis Meáin and Inis Óirr. In English they are Big Island, Middle Island, and South Island...how original.

Mini-Cliffs!

 

You could see how the salty ocean water weathered away the limestone...how neat is that?!

             Then it was time for lunch! We stopped at Fitzgerald's which had a restaurant and hotel and ate seafood chowder. Marc told us it was like the best seafood chowder in Ireland, or something like that. I am not sure if it is, but it was pretty good! And really warm after the windy and cold mini-Cliffs.

Seafood chowder at Fitzgerald's. Even Ireland has lemon Fanta! The US needs to bring that back.

               We then continued on our way, and as we went along Marc pointed out famine farms and walls that were built during the famine. Famine farms were often small with a small cottage for the family (often a lot of people) to stay in. The farming area was divided into different areas, but did not cover much land. Famine walls were built during the famine in the mid 1850s. The British government helped the Irish out by having work houses and building stone walls. The Irish people worked all day building these walls, and then got paid in food. 

Famine wall and farm, taken from the bus when it was raining.

          Then we finally made it to the Cliffs of Moher! Before we got off of the bus, Marc told us to take a certain path that eventually led to a part of the Cliffs where there was no wall. The 4 ft stone wall was put up a few years ago, after there was increase of people accidentally falling off the Cliffs, which is really scary! The wind is so strong that it could push someone over the edge, and some places the Cliffs could be unstable. We tried to find the place where he was talking about, but there was a really big pool of water blocking our way, and we weren't sure how deep it was, and didn't want to get all muddy! We did see a guy go up there, so it was possible. Even with the walls, it was absolutely gorgeous! These Cliffs were so much bigger than the mini-Cliffs! When we got there, the weather was really nice and sunny, but then it turned quickly and got windy.

Sign in multiple languages...although I think the pictures at the top explain it all...don't climb over the stone wall or else you will fall off the Cliffs!

 

 

 

 

 

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Claire and I kept trying to find the place on the Cliffs where they filmed the scene of Harry and Dumbledore going into a cave trying to find a horcrux.

    

Some sun and blue sky at the Cliffs of Moher. Absolutely beautiful.

 

And another castle...this one was built by England so it wasn't destroyed.

        After a 2 hour drive back to Dublin, that wrapped up our day tour of the Cliffs of Moher. It was so much fun and I was so glad Claire and I choose to do the trip! It was well worth it. We got back to Dublin and met up with the rest of the group and ate at O'Donoghue's, a little pub close to our hostel and the Temple Bar area. I had fish and chips (again) and it was really good! We went back to our hostel to take showers and pack up for our early flight out of Dublin to Madrd. 
     I would say it was a very successful trip to Ireland, and I want to go back! I definitely could spend more time there, maybe in the summer months when it wasn't so rainy! But I loved that everyone was very friendly and didn't care what you were wearing (unlike in Madrid). 
And to end my blog posts about my trip to Ireland, here is a traditional Gaelic Blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.   

      

 Cheers!