Today was my last day in Madrid. I’m taking the plane back to Paris tomorrow morning. I have no idea how i feel about this. I have, like they say here “sentimientos encontrados”, mixed feelings. I guess a part of me is a bit sad, especially cause i was really starting to feel good here and because my spanish skills could really need some more weeks of practice, and of course, a part of me is glad to go home and spend the holidays with my family, and then New Year with älskling and my friends in my dear Stockholm.
Anyway, that’s not the point of this post. You know when you’re doing something and at one point you start thinking about it and you’re not really sure anymore why you’re doing it? Well this week has been kinda like this for me. I had made a list of the things i HAD to do before leaving Madrid. Here it comes:
- visit royal castle
- visit the Prado Museum
- visit the zoo (they have pandas and it hit me that i had never seen pandas in my life)
- try the chocolate pie from “La mejor tarta de chocolate del mundo” Calle de Alcala
- and so on.
So on Wednesday i queued to get in when it was free (from 3 pm) to visit the castle. It was kinda cool. Some rooms are crazy !
On Tuesday i queued 30 minutes in the cold until 6pm (it’s free from 6 to 8pm everyday). And that’s when i first realized i had no idea why i was doing this. I’ve never been a huge museum fan. I can’t take so many paintings at once i’m just overwhelmed and forget everything super fast.
I think i go because well…you kinda have to go to the Louvre when you’re in Paris, to the Hermitage when you’re in St Petersburg, to the MET in NY and well…to the Prado in Madrid. So i’ve been. And i already cant remember much. But im glad i did in a way. Because…somehow i would have felt like a failure not going. Some stuff were pretty cool, like the Meninas of course, and a sculpture of Hermaphrodite.
On Friday i went to the ZOO. Not that im a huge fan of zoos. It usually makes me a little sad. But im a huge fan of animals. And well, that’s were you get to see them in you cant afford a safari every year. Friday was a cold and rainy day. I was alone and the animals seemed alone too. So i started to talk to them. In spanish of course. Madrid zoo “vale la pena”, is worth it. They have a lot of cool species. Of course, i spent about 30 minutes trying to communicate with the gorillas from behind the glass. They have 8, including 2 tiny babies. Gorillas are the BEST.
And of course i saw the Pandas. eating bambu. Just like a panda does.
They also have a really cool aquarium, usually not my thing but it was the only place with heating 
They have HUGE fishes and turtles and lots of sharks. The biggest one is a girl. And they named her….Morgana. Why not.
The i went to try the chocolate pie. It was really good indeed. With like a meringue crust. But it had something of “too perfect”. If that makes any sense.
Anyway…im not sure what i’m saying anymore. I guess it’s like coming here to learn spanish; when i first arrived, everybody was asking me “why are you here? Why do you wanna learn spanish?” And i never really knew what to say, cause i didn’t really have a reason. I just wanted to.
