bajo mis pies siento crecer madrid

ahh, madrid. where i feel free to douche around all day because i'll be back in the fall. i spend my days lounging in cafés and navigating areas of the city so that next semester i can be like, "don't worry guys, i got this." i'm just as in love with the city as i was before. i haven't really taken any pictures, but i do have this sweet one from our legitimate balcony:
yesterday i took the metro down to my host family's house, just to scope it out. i took a picture and then felt really creepy and left. but isn't it cute?

after that i walked to retiro to have a drink on a square man-made lake, then sautéed* on up to puerta del sol. deciding that there were way too many people there, i came back near the hostel to have lunch. after some lounging, charlotte and i went to this place for drinks and then ... back to my lunch restaurant for dinner, lolz.

my plan for today was to get up early and go to segovia, so i went to bed pretty early, but i had a lot of trouble sleeping and opted to ditch the bus trip for today. instead, i went and had a picnic lunch in retiro (it's really close to the hostel, ok?) and then walked down to museo reina sofía. i'm developing a love for surrealism, which may or may not be a function of actually being in spain. (i had a similar experience with expressionism in paris.) i watched un chien andalus again, which i find endlessly entertaining, and saw a lot of sweet dalí and miró works. by far the best part of the museum, though, was guernica. though i've seen it in books plenty of times, the full size adds so much to the experience. there were also extensive exhibits of his studies leading up to the final product, photographs of the process, and a separate photography series on the spanish civil war.

so now i'm back here for a bit before i go do ... something with my life. or not.

oh, and this is for you, ducky fam, in case any of you still read this:


*yes, i know.