Kelly's Studio

Art and other sparkly things.

Vacation!

Posted on | October 18, 2009 | Comments Off on Vacation!

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I love Spain.

We were there on vacation for ten days! Ten days! You might think that would be long enough, but you would be wrong.

We flew to Madrid, drove to Segovia for two days, then Toledo for two more, and then back to Madrid for the rest of the time. We saw castles, cathedrals, libraries, and museums. And the art! The amazing collections at the Reina Sofia, the Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the Prado made me wonder (for a crazy moment or two–I must have been drunk) how Spain managed to get all of the art in the world within its borders. I wish I could have taken more, or actually any, photographs inside the museums. There were strongly worded signs and enforcers against photography–flash or otherwise. I even forgot once, snapped a photo and immediately earned a stern tongue-clucking and talking-to about my photographic ways. *Sigh.* Instead, I made notes of artists and works of art so I could try to find them later in a book or on-line.

We took ourselves on walking tours of Segovia and Toledo, stopping at any monument or building that was open. We also walked all over Madrid to see the various neighborhoods. I leveraged my limited Latin American Spanish as best as I could, and we mostly got what we needed. My mime act for two-pronged-electrical-wall-outlet-converter-thingy (the one we packed didn’t work) was effective, but in the wrong hands or a different shop, it would have looked very, very dirty. Had I not overlooked the obvious, I would have gone with “cambio,” and according to the shopkeeper, I would have been right. I also picked up the word for artichoke and how to say “one of each.” I learned that eggs count as a vegetable, and that pâté doesn’t count as meat. Those last two kind of makes sense if you squint a little while thinking about them.

I’ve put photos of the trip up on my Flickr page. Stay tuned for future blog posts that, no doubt, will have something to do with this amazing trip.

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