Day 3: Flamenco and Prado

We got up late on the third day still trying to recover from the overload of energy drinks and walking.. Although I was tired, I got up early and got ready only to be waiting around for the other guys to get ready. So, I decided to take a walk across the street, take some pictures, and visit the art market across the street. I found it quite hilarious hearing the Lynyrd Skynyrd track "Sweet Home Alabama" playing over the loudspeakers at the art market. It made me realize the heavy influence of American culture in this big city. However, and unfortunately, I still found myself signing along...

One of the things that was mentioned we do while in Madrid was visit the Prado art museum. Apparently this is Spain's and one of Europe's premier art museums. We set off around 2 on the Metro to the Banco de Espana stop. As we walked up, the first view we had was of the enormous line stretching and winding around the street. There looked to be about 100 people in line. We sent our translator, Raphael, to see what the deal was. Apparently, the museum remains this way all day and the best bet is to return in the morning before it opens to get in line. Disappointed, we made it a plan for the next day and went for some grub.


We ate at a nicely appointed pub with a fixed lunch price that included paella, calamari, bread, and flan for dessert. Then proceeded to take the standard tourist photos of waving in front of random sights. On the way back, we saw the famous bear eating from the strawberry tree, the symbol of Madrid and also seen in the painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Bosch. This painting can also be seen at the Prado. We also experimented with a little known street activity called, grooming random people. This involves finding a random person and grooming their scalp, much like a monkey would do. Tim is demonstrating below... Probably my favorite store in Madrid yet, "WildStyle", ripped off from the movie no doubt, was a fantastic sight along the way.



It started to get dark as we walked home and we stopped by the Palace of Madrid and the gardens on the way home. One of the biggest places I've ever seen, 2800 rooms, 50 of which are available for viewing. There was a lot of gold plating, an absolute necessity for the king. I'm almost positive that at the time the palace was built, there was no need to spend money for the people, so they could just go crazy. Also along the way, Tim discovered possibly the most significant and beautiful fountain we've ever seen...




Anyway, a Flamenco show was another must do and it just so happened there was a Flamenco place right below our apartment. Raphael knew a lot about Flamenco so he was able to brush me up on the meanings and history of it. I've rarely seen such passion and intensity from dancers in a show, whether it be ballet or a concert. There was an overall positive vibe from the show, but also a vibe of intensity and seriousness from the dancers. The musicians had more of a laid back and fun approach for most of the evening, but their skills were very refined. It was a great experience overall and was very glad I got to experience it. I recorded a short video which can be watched HERE. We ended up meeting some Australian women that were sitting behind us that were in the midst of traveling. So we went to a pool hall after and made fun of each others countries, mainly about how football was better than rugby, then called it a night.