You Ain't Artsier Than Me

The next day, I woke up feeling like I had stayed out until 7 a.m. Mi amigo Bronco called me and asked if I wanted to go to the Prado. I hopped on the 5 metro to the 2nd and got off at Banco de Espana. The most awesome buildings are around that area.

I met up with Bronco and my friend Alison from my Spanish class. We walked in at 6. The best thing about the Prado (besides the world class art) is that its free 2 hours before closing.

We cruised in and immediately saw sculptures by Rafael, paintings by Goya and Valasquez. I don’t know much about Spanish art so I’m going to go wikipedia on that ish and go back there this weekend. The craziest section was Goya’s “Negro Pinturas” Goya was a painter who was commissioned by The royalty of Spain in the 18th and 19th centuries. His paintings were bright and flattering to his subjects. But as he got older, he suffered mental and physical breakdowns. He became deaf and moved to Madrid. In his house, he drew dark and disturbing paintings all over the walls. After he died, they were transferred to canvas and put in one room in the Prado. Here is one titled Saturn Devouring His Son. Great one for the living room huh.

I was trying to find Rembrandt the whole time, but couldn’t find them. After exploring the Prado, which is far too big to explore in one day, we ducked into a bar to get a coca-cola. For some reason, Spanish people have a very hard time understanding me. Someone said I have a SoCal accent. Yeah bra. My friend said un Coca Cola por favor, the bartender turns to me and I saw coca cola tambien. He says que? Like 3 times. Bummer. I nexted ordered Vino Tinto, which was great. We then ate dinner at this Italiano place and I was super tired from the night before. We walked around Atoche and Huertas and then I retired to mi cama.