The temple seemed to be right in the middle of a big metropolitan city and it looked out of place. Or perhaps it was built in a different time and as the years have gone by the city has simply grown around it. It is certainly unique though so I was glad to have finally been able to visit it properly. I unfortunately came on a cloudy and rainy day but still enjoyed feeling like a tourist again in the city that I now temporarily live in.
So we met around 8:30pm a few stops from Sol at Callao which is right on Gran Vía. We walked around in search of food. It seemed like the closer it got to 9pm everything started to close. We finally ended up at El Museo del Jamón which is not a museum in fact but a restaurant/bar that has cheap beer (though disgusting beer) and cheap food. We got a couple of sandwiches and chatted until we noticed that they were closing up the place around 10pm. I guess what happens is all these places close around this time and then some re-open after midnight.
So we made our way out into Puerta del Sol and there was already tons of people there. It was still two hours till the New Year. One of the traditions on midnight for Spaniards is eating 12 grapes, one each time the clock chimes after the new year. I guess each grape symbolizes each of the 12 months of the year and if you successfully eat all 12 grapes within the time of the last chime of the clock you are supposed to have good luck in the new year, so everyone had their grapes ready. There were Chinese people in the streets selling packages of 12 grapes for 1€ a piece so we each got a bag. As the minutes passed more and more people started coming into the Puerta del Sol. The police blocked off each street that led to the plaza and checked each person that entered making sure they weren't carrying any glass bottles. It didn't matter if you had alcohol, it just had to be in a plastic container. I guess in previous years they had problems with people throwing glass champagne bottles in the air at midnight and people getting hurt from broken glass.
It was like a mob of people, everyone was getting more and more packed into this one plaza which now was starting to feel like it wasn't so big- even though it actually is a pretty decent-sized plaza. It was like we were in a mosh pit at a concert getting pushed around.
Another popular thing for people to do is wear crazy and colorful wigs. There were many multicolored mohawk wigs in the crowds or people with crazy sunglasses and sparkles in their hair. We actually started to feel like we were out of place not wearing such festive outfits ourselves. Surrounding the plaza are a number of buildings and some of them are nice apartments with balconies. Every year the Puerta del Sol is televised throughout Spain on the new year so there was a TV crew and camera set up not far from us. There were also some local TV celebrities in the penthouse of one of the apartment buildings overlooking the plaza. Every once and a while one of them would peek their head out of the balcony and wave and everyone would go mad. I honestly have no idea who those people were but I guess all the Spaniards knew who they were and were super excited about it.
Finally it was midnight and we had our grapes out and ready in our hands. Though the task to eat these within the allotted time was impossible. I would have chocked and I'm sure many people do choke in attempting to do this every year. The other unexpected delay was the fact that the grapes contained seeds so it wasn't very pleasant biting down or swallowing for that matter. So in the end I failed to eat all 12 grapes but it's not a big deal I guess. Soon I was getting Cava (Spanish champagne) sprayed all over me and the crowds started to get impatient and wanting to leave so there was a lot of pushing and shoving. There was even a fight between two men that broke out near us but was stopped before anyone was injured. I knew it was time for us to get out of there before we got knocked down ourselves. So we started to push our way through until we finally got out of that area. Now we were able to see the ground and I don't think I've ever seen so much garbage or broken glass before. It was pretty disgusting and I felt bad for whoever would have to clean that up later. We made our way out of there and walked past some armored police trucks with policemen standing nearby. They were just standing, smiling and watching as people were drinking and going crazy in the streets. I was surprised that none of them seemed to really care about all the wasted and wild people passing them or lingering. I figured they were there to prevent riots from breaking out but it seemed to me like there were already riots going on.
We finally made it back to Gran Vía and I felt like I had had enough excitement for the evening and was sick of the crowds of people. So I went to my bus stop and parted ways with my friend. At the bus stop there were a few girls my age that looked extremely intoxicated. One started puking about seven times before they finally got up and hailed a cab home. I was glad at this point that I was heading home. Then on the bus ride back there was some young kids in the back of the bus who kept pressing the button to stop and when the bus driver stopped and opened the door nobody would exit. The bus driver finally got fed up with this, stopped the bus and lectured at the entire bus and said she didn't know who was doing this but that if it happened one more time she could turn around and drop us off at the plaza de Cibeles which is where the buses first leave from. That would have tacked on about an hour minimum to my ride home so I hoped that nobody would do it again. Luckily no one did and I finally got home. It was certainly a night to remember and a once in a lifetime experience- one to be had once and never again that is...
I did nothing on New Years Day other than relax and then meet up with a friend for Chinese food. We found a place called the Wok. It was a little overpriced and certainly didn't taste as good as chinese food does in the US. Maybe I just need to look harder for a place with better Chinese food though.
January 2nd I met up with a friend and we went to Cine Doré. It's a theater in southern Madrid near the Antón Martín stop. Every night but Monday nights it plays movies in the original language. Each month there is a theme or a movie director that they celebrate and play their movies. This month it is Woody Allen so we went to see a 10pm showing of Manhattan Murder Mystery. The theater is small but beautiful and there was a line of people waiting outside to buy tickets before the show started. We got there at 8:30pm and got tickets just fine. The movie was excellent. It was in english with spanish subtitles. It was nice seeing a movie here that is not dubbed in spanish unlike the majority of movies shown in theaters throughout Spain.
On Monday the 3rd of January I met my friend Katie at the Moncloa bus station around 10:30am. We were taking the 684 urban bus to a city called Cercedilla which is about 40 miles from Madrid in the mountains. Because of the stops along the way to pick up and drop off people it took a little over an hour to get there. I found out about this place by simply going online and typing in "day trips from Madrid." Surprisingly we seemed to be the only touristy-looking people in the small town. We were dropped off in the center of the city at a normal bus stop and since we had no map and knew very little about the city we sort of just wandered around and made it an adventure.
I knew there was a church to see and many hiking trails since it was essentially in the mountains. We found a little park with a trail and figured it was one of the many trails to go hiking on. We did a lot of walking up and up and saw many interesting farm animals along the way: horses, cows, hens and sheep. We also came across a small little chapel that was unfortunately locked. We climbed back down the trail back into the city in search for the church and any other landmarks along the way. We ran into a "lavadero público" which is a public bath. It was right alongside a very little stream. The public bathhouse was also locked and closed. We wandered around more and finally found the church- unfortunately that was also closed! But everything we saw was beautiful. We found a pretty lookout over the city and other small pueblos neighboring it. The whole town smelled of fresh mountain air and burning wood. We noticed that many of the houses had chimneys and most of the houses must have been heated by wood-burning heaters or had wood-burning stoves because there was a wonderful aroma all throughout the town of burning wood. The whole town was beautiful and we came on a wonderfully sunny day. It was a nice escape from Madrid. I could totally see myself living in a city like this because it is so small, beautiful and quiet.
We found a little café in the city and got some beers and shared a sandwich. Once the sun started going down it got very cold and we figured that since neither of us was properly dressed for such weather that we should be heading back to the bus stop. We caught the 5pm bus just in time going back to Madrid. On the way home I started feeling a little sick but didn't think much of it. I often have problems with motion sickness and figured it must have been all the jolting from the bus. We got back to the bus station in Madrid and I headed back to my apartment. By the time I got back to my apartment I felt horrible. I had the worst stomach ache and felt nauseous. I laid down in my bed hoping that a nap would make me feel better but within 10 minutes I was running to the bathroom. This is where I will stop with the details. Lets just say I got food poisoning from that little café we went to. It was the worst night of my life, spent almost laying on the bathroom floor waiting to get sick again. In addition, I had chills, a fever a terrible headache and my whole body ached. I have never gotten sick like this from food before. It's taken me two days to recover fully. The day after I was still not feeling back to normal. This was the worst experience I have had so far abroad. It was surely an unfortunate way to end a lovely day-trip but it happens. So, so is life.
public baths
abandoned and destroyed house
Overall it's been a very eventful winter break. I am certainly ready to get back to classes on Monday though, because too much free time is actually making me quite bored!
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