Don't tell me the sky's the limit

This morning (Saturday) was spent studying with Gema (mother) and Gema (daughter). Aida was at a farm with a school field trip the past 3 days and came home exhausted of course, so she was sleeping in super late. After studying, I took my second big day trip through Madrid. I took the metro to the University and the campus was alright. Not pretty like Clemson, but some of the buildings were impressive. From there it was a short walk to the Museo del Traje, a museum dedicated to Clothing. Sounds boring, but it was actually really cool, featuring different garments from as early as the 1500’s and working up through the fashions all the way to today. Some of the clothes from way back when were so ornate, but I would hate having to wear all the excessive and hot undergarments, hoops, and overgarments that were part of women’s fashion for a long time. After the museum, I walked to the West Park, equally as big and as beautiful as Retiro. From there I took the teleferico, a cable car, into Casa Del Campo. Casa Del Campo is the biggest park in Madrid and used to be royalty’s hunting grounds. It’s 5 times the size of Central Park in NYC and even houses a zoo and amusement park, both of which were out of my budget. Anyways, the cart was really cool, it spanned 2.5 kilometers and reached 40 meters in the air and provided fantastic views of the city, Casa del Campo, the river, and mountains. Casa del Campo was nice to look at, but it wasn’t very exciting to be in. I found it very arid and dry, basically desert or shrubland like, but I did see some rabbits, so I guess it had to have been a good place to hunt back in the day. 

After my return trip on the teleferico, I walked through the biggest rose garden I’ve ever seen in my life. Roses aren’t my favorite flower by any means, but this was something else. It smelled divine, and had every kind and color of rose imaginable. Bushes of roses, water roses, roses climbing up arches, rose trees, you name it. Every year there’s an international rose competition at the garden, but it was 3 days ago. Next came more walking through beautiful parks and gardens…until I reached the Temple of Debod, a 2200 year old egyptian temple that was relocated to Spain to prevent flooding when a dam was build in it’s home country.  After that, I just wandered in the direction of my house, taking in the buildings, street performers, and everything else. I got chocolate and churros again from the great chocolateria San Gines, and detoured to get a ticket to a flamenco ballet for tomorrow night. A good day, and good exercise too! 7.5 miles of walking but very enjoyable none the less. 

Tonight I’m babysitting for one of my family’s friends. The boy and I are watching a huge singing competition that includes countries from all over Europe and the boy, Bruno, is precious. His mom is an actress and his dad is a producer, they’re both very nice. Tomorrow will be a big day, with a trip to Segovia and the Flamenco Ballet!