Pheasantly

Once again, it's Thursday night, even though I feel like it was only two days that I was off to Kapital and stayed up all night before Valencia. I would go out tonight (people are planning to meet up at 11 to go to a bar and then to a club), but I would rather get enough sleep. For one, because I want to make sure I am absolutely 100% better from this stomach thing (although right now I feel great, but I probably would feel less fine were I to consume alcohol). And besides, tomorrow I'm going to the airport in the morning (I should be leaving here by 10 a.m., i.e. early haha) to meet up with Nik, who is coming to Europe during these last, like, 10 days that I'm here. In the afternoon, we're flying to Barcelona, so I really would rather not be exhausted tomorrow.

Today was excellent! I did some more of my go-out-and-see-what-I-want-to-see business, but Sophie joined me for part of it, which was great. After lunch, I went to the Prado (what else is new?) to see a special exhibition that just opened, called "Turner and the Masters." Even though I really am not a fan of landscape, I LOVE Turner. He is so much more than just a landscape artist. He may actually be one of my favorite artists. I bought tickets for a 4:00 access time to the exhibition, so I had a few minutes beforehand to kill when I went inside. I decided to go browse through Renaissance Italy paintings briefly, and on my way there, this random man (who turned out to be a tourism guide) stopped me and asked me if I needed any recommendations as to what to see (and told me I speak good Spanish, haha). I said I was just fine, but nevertheless, he started saying I could go upstairs and look at Velazquez, or look at nineteenth century on the other side of the building. And I said I was planning to look around in the room right next to us, to which he replied, "Oh, it's pretty boring in there, there's nothing to see. You should go see Velazquez!" So I told him that I have been going to the Prado and looking at Velazquez, irritated because he was wasting the little time I had. Finally, I had to tell him specifically that I wanted to see the Italians (since I knew they were in the room right next to us), and he said, "Oh, all right, go through here. There's some work by Rafael in this room." And there was. And I immediately thought: Excuse me. You don't say "there's nothing to see, it's boring" when there's Rafael around. I dashed away pretty quickly.Anyway. The Turner exhibition was AWESOME. Soo many beautiful Turner paintings, presented alongside works by previous painters, some of them the Old Masters (like Rembrandt, for example), whose work influenced Turner or inspired him to try painting in a particular manner. It was a pretty interesting set-up, because in every section of the exhibition, there was some comparison to an older painting. Many, many times, I preferred Turner's, because he's just so good! There is this glow about his paintings that I really love. It seems like something he derived from Rembrandt, but it works so beautifully in his landscapes. He actually uses the color orange, which I think is fantastic, because it seems to me like a color that gets overlooked, or subdued, often in painting. There were several paintings that I'd never heard of before that I absolutely loved, like the one above, which is called Caias Sands, Low Water. Gorgeous. There was also one of a snow avalanche that was AMAZING. And they had the giant Snowstorm: Hannibal Crossing the Alps. I also got to see Rembrandt's Girl at Window, which is STUNNING, once again (I saw it when the Frick had it briefly a couple of months ago). They didn't have Turner's Slave Ship, which surprised me, but I think it's probably because the MFA Boston treasures it so much (since it is arguably Turner's best painting, period), so it's likely that they don't let it travel. But at least I've seen it twice now! Anyway, I spent like an hour and 20 minutes in there looking at all the paintings, and then bought a bookmark with the Low Water image on it.

From the Prado, I went straight to the Real Jardín Botánico (the real, I mean, royal botanical garden). I was actually a tadlington disappointed with the gardens, I think because I expected a lot of flowers, and it was mostly plants and trees. There were little enclosures with some flowers, and the flowers I did go look at were indeed very pretty. But I guess I just expected to walk in there and not know which flowers to look at first, and to be overwhelmed by the smell of flowers. So it's too bad that it was mostly many, many different kinds of trees and plants, which unfortunately I don't have the knowledge about to appreciate completely. It was certainly nice in there, though, and I appreciated the moments I got to spend in the shade or sitting near a patch of flowers/plants. I basically just wandered around and lingered in places I found most appealing, like at the very back of the gardens, where there were some rocky paths around a few trees and plants. I liked the sunflowers a lot, and the lilies were beautiful. Mostly, it was just relaxing to amble around mostly aimlessly.

Then, at around 6:30, after about an hour there, I headed off to meet Sophie and go to Campo del Moro. Yes, again. Like I said, I really liked the place! When we got there, we started walking on the side opposite my starting point yesterday, so I feel like after today, I actually did get to see quite a bit of the park (even though it's so large). Sophie and I just walked around talking (catching up, since we hadn't seen each other very much since the weekend). At one point, we were walking up a long, uphill path, and scooter man came out and told us that we were in an authorized part. Even though I swear, we didn't walk past any sign that said we had to turn around. So it was funny because we--totally innocent girls that we are--inadvertently broke the rules. A point for dorks everywhere, hahaha. During our meanderings, we ran into two pheasants. Pheasants! They were just walking around, like the peacocks in the Alcázar in Sevilla. It was pretty cool. We got pretty close to the first one, too, and it didn't run away.We left the park at around 7:50, since they were closing, and headed back down to Atocha to go to the Reina Sofia during the last 45 minutes or so that they were open (it's free after like 7 p.m. every day, which is really nice). We looked at the Guernica for a while, since Sophie hadn't seen it, and since it's an unbelievable piece of art. Then we wandered around--up to the terrace for a few minutes, too. Then we had "dinner"--which may or may not have been french fries and a sundae at McDonald's. Fret not, mother, my stomach is feeling 100% fine right now. Successful recovery! I'm still going to avoid soda for a few more days, and it will probably be a few weeks before I agree to eat egg again...but such is life.

Update: it is currently raining, with thunder and lightning (and the wind is howling). So, yeah, I'm definitely glad I'm not going out. I hope it finishes up by tomorrow morning, though, I don't want Nik's flight to get delayed! We only have, like, 6 hours between his arrival and our departure for Barca!

Barcelona from tomorrow until Monday afternoon. SO EXCITED. Even though I'm still sad that I won't get to see Molly like we'd originally planned...but still, it should be a great weekend. Which reminds me! I should probably pack...!