Saturday, November 09, 2002

 
I'm in London. Yeah, baby!
posted by Alleen at 11:44:23 PM

Friday, November 08, 2002

 
Okay, back again. My brother and I went to Utrecht today, in the worst weather imaginable (saved only by the fact that it wasn't hailing), but it was sort of worth it, as Utrecht is a pretty cool place. Really pretty and well... young. But anyway, I have yet to catch up on Spain, so I'm determined to finish this off before I get going on what I've been doing while my brother's been here.

So, back to Madrid. I eventually did manage to go shopping, wandering around the Fuencarral district, where all the funky little stores are hiding. I ended up buying a bag covered in Spanish cartoons which has since proven to be completely impractical in the wet Dutch weather. On the other hand, if it gives me an excuse to go back to replace it, then it's all good. The Fuencarral district also has a sort of alterna-mall in the middle, where people can go to buy clothes for clubbing and all sorts of fun, sorta hippy stuff like candles and skulls made of metal.

I got back to the hostale around 9pm that night and promptly passed out. The next morning, I again spent a leisurely breakfast with my churros, chocolate and newspaper, and hope to return to Spain simply to do this again. Eventually, I dragged myself out of my post-breakfast laziness and headed to the train station to go to Seville. But first, Madrid's Atocha train station (on the Calle Atocha). I remember that as I walked toward the train station, when it finally came into view, I thought to myself, "That train station looks like a greenhouse. Wierd." Upon entry, I found out why. Strangely enough, Atocha Renfe is a greenhouse. The middle of the hall of Atocha station is a veritable jungle of tropical greenery, though one with wide avenues and big benches. I was actually somewhat pleased to have missed my train, because it meant that I could hang out there for an hour. The station was wierdly hot and foggy, possibly to maintain the plants, possibly to lull the unsuspecting traveler into a pleasant stupor. Either way, it was the most pleasant time I've ever spent in a train station.

Two and a half hours on the speed train later, I was in Seville, which turned out to be incredibly sunny, incredibly hot, and incredibly beautiful. Sure, the train station didn't compare with Atocha, but the rest of the city was muy fantastico. The main points of interest here were the Giralda, one of the biggest cathedrals in Europe, featuring a tower built for a mosque during the Arab occupation of Spain, and the Alcazar, the castle of the Spanish princes, built in the moorish style of architecture. The Giralda was pretty amazing on the outside, but I was unable to go in as they were actually using it for religious purposes--some kind of saint's day celebration. Crazy.

The Alcazar turned out to be even better as I got there just in time to sneak in with a guided tour. Sure, the tour was in Spanish, but the fact that I understood and learned nothing was more than made up for in the Alcazar itself. The Alcazar is the kind of place where every time you turn a corner you have to stop and stare because it's just so amazing. The inside is all colourful tiles and archways and gilding and Arabic writing and huge still pools. It's one of the most calming places I've ever been in, an effect that was aided by the fact that while the rest of the city was hot, the Alcazar's open design, gardens, and many fountains kept it pretty cool. The gardens themselves are a sight to see, but as much of the interior just opens out to the exterior, there's hardly any separation between the gardens and the palace proper. The gardens are a riot of colour, with huge tropical plants, palm trees, and painted walls, the many walks interspersed with teeny fountains, and little houses. Amazing. I could have cheerfully moved in right then, but apparently, the people of Spain seem to think it's theirs. Dammit.

I did spend some additional time wandering Seville, but, to be honest, I was really overdressed as I had dressed for Madrid weather, and consequently too hot and sticky. I've got pictures, but damned if I know of what. Many random buildings in Seville are worth a look or two and there's a whole neighbourhood of poky cobblestone streets, tile decorated buildings, and just general gorgeousness behind the Alcazar called the Barrio de Santa Cruz.

Anyway, after my train ride back to Madrid, I spent an hour being completely lost and had to resort to asking a cop to help me get rid of a drunk admirer whose only English seemed to be "suck?" Despite Atocha's many attractions, the station is not in the best neighbourhood at night. But anyway, I got back to the hostale okay and then spent the rest of the night trying to keep myself awake to catch my airplane. The hostale didn't have an alarm clock and the one I had bought turned out to be just a clock, so the only way of making my 6am flight was to stay awake. Yuck. Four am, I hauled myself out of the room and left, and spent the next half hour smacking myself in the forehead at my own stupidity. Like a complete idiot, I was trying to catch a cab to the airport at 4am on a Saturday in the clubbing capital of Europe, in the middle of the clubbing district. Kind of similar to trying to catch a cab at 3am on a Saturday night at the corner of Spadina and Queen. Eventually, I found one (by climbing into a cab while people were still getting out of it) and made it to the airport, sure that I was incredibly late, only to be told by a charming retired American lawyer (who could have been a Santa Claus double) and his evil wife (maybe Cruella de Vil?) that it was daylight savings and I was actually early. He spent the rest of the time in the line-up pleased with himself, saying "I've never given anyone a whole hour before." His wife? Not so amused. You know me, vamp, homewrecker, and all around troublemaker. That's right, people. I'm evil. Manservant Hecubus, even.

But anyway, after a small encounter with gale force winds, I made it home. And now my brother wants to check his e-mail, so bye.
posted by Alleen at 10:03:30 PM

 
My brother's in the shower right now and I'm going to try and see if I can finish off the Spain story:

The day after the flamenco, my travelling companion left, and I was left to see the sights of Madrid on my own. So, obviously, the first thing I did was go shopping. Stupidly, I slept in a little in the morning and then stopped for a leisurely breakfast of churros, chocolate, and a newspaper (mmm... delicious news), so by the time I actually hit the shopping streets, it was the middle of the day and everything was closed.

What the? How long exactly did I sleep in, you ask?

Well, I was out and wandering the shopping streets by about 1pm. Sadly, an hour later, everything closed down. This is the way they do things in Madrid, no doubt the price we must pay in having stores that are actually open late. Poopy. So, I was forced to spend some time in another museum, soaking up culture instead of throwing my hard-earned money on an orgy of consumerism. Sigh.

On the other hand, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (henceforth known as the T-B, because damned if I'm going to type that out every time) has a lot going for it, not the least of which is a collection that spans the whole of the history of modern oil painting, from the 13th century onwards, and actually spending a lot of time in the 20th century, something that is somewhat lacking in the Prado. They also had a temporary exhibit about Robert & Sonia DeLaunay, which was lots of fun and only added about 2 euros to the price of admission. There is also a section of this museum that you can enter for no money whatsoever, what they call their context exhibitions, which I believe are in preparation for later, major temporary exhibits. This time, it was something to do with Titian and Rubens and hey, while I wouldn't say it was my cup of tea, it was definitely worth the price of admission. And, hey, the rest of the museum wasn't bad either. Have a look at their website here.

My T-B favourites include:

Ribera's La Piedad

van Eyck's Diptych of the Annunciation

Estes's Telephone Booths

Preti's Concert

Grosz's Metropolis

Kupka's Study for the Language of Verticals and Localisation of Graphic Mobiles I. I have since spent some further time looking at Kupka's stuff and he totally rocks.

Goncharova's Rayonnist Landscape (the Forest)

Chagall's Grey House

Kandinsky's In the Bright Oval and Ludwigskirche en Munich

Palma il Vecchio's Portrait of a Young Woman known as "la Bella"

Hans Baldung Grien's Adam and Eve (because the look on both of their faces is well... interesting)

and many many many others

He's out of the shower. I have to go sightsee now. More later.
posted by Alleen at 10:47:19 AM

Thursday, November 07, 2002

 
My brother is visiting for the next few days and were going to London for the weekend, so blog posts will be pretty slow in coming until at least middle of next week. On the other hand no one reads this, so I could probably just write some complete gibberish and it would be kind of the same thing. Kookookechoo!
posted by Alleen at 10:35:56 PM

Monday, November 04, 2002

 
Oopsie. I've made a slight mistake. The Juana who founded the Monasterio de las Calzas Reales is a completely different Juana from Juana the Mad who apparently spent her life locked up in a convent in a teeny little town. Juana of Austria, the founder of the Monasterio de las Calzas Reales was just widowed, not insane.

Juana the Mad is kind of a fun character though, and a movie about her came out recently called Mad Love or in Spanish, Juana la Loca. She was the 5th child of Ferdinand and Isabella, the last Aragon rulers of Spain, and was eventually married to Philip the Handsome of Austria (or Felipe el Hermoso in Spanish), the heir to the Habsburg throne. She was incredibly religious, but cast all that aside the moment she met Philip, who became the consuming passion of her life despite his many infidelities. In between her jealous rages, she bore him 5 children. She was named the heir to the throne of Spain in her mother's will and when Isabella died, Juana and Philip came to Spain. When he died at the young age of 28, she went completely off the deep end and insisted on keeping his body with her at all times, checking it every day for signs of life. Eventually, she was shut up in a convent, the Queen of Spain until her death in 1555, 49 years after the death of her husband. Her son Charles became the king of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor and her inbred blood probably runs through the veins of many of Europe's royal families today.

The story of the painting Juana the Mad is to do with the fact that one day she was caught in a storm and went into what she thought was a monastery for shelter. She insisted that Philip's body be laid on an altar so that she could pray for him, but upon discovering that she was actually in a convent, she ordered her entourage to pack up and leave, as she had been driven mad by his infidelities and could not bear the idea that he would be surrounded by so many women. So she ended up on the road in the middle of the storm, praying over his body, surrounded by her retainers.

Juana of Austria, on the other hand, founded a convent and lived in it pretty quietly until she died.
posted by Alleen at 4:38:47 PM

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