Today was my last official day in Madrid. I head out to Bilbao tomorrow for a new adventure, which I'm thinking about extending slightly since I don't really feel inclined to go to Pamplona. I haven't decided on that yet so I'll probably decide when I get to Bilbao and find out if the hostel can extend my stay. As it was my last official day, I made planned on going to the train station to buy myself a train ticket to Bilbao, mostly just to figure out the metro without all my bags with me. I was lazy though and didn't end up going to the train station. I know how to get there, it'll just be the semantics that I don't know. My day I spent in heaven, complete and total bliss. In fact, it's probably my favorite thing I've done this semester and that's saying something since I loved a lot of this semester.
Today I went to the Real Palaceof Madrid, the one I learned about during the free tour yesterday and the one I kept walking passed day after day. I hadn't planned on going there, I was just walking aimlessly. At first I had planned on getting pizza for breakfast, but then that place was closed so I had kept walking. Then a statue had caught my eye so I had to go check that out. Eventually my aimless wandering landed me at the palace though so I decided I had to go in. I wasn't expecting anything super grand since it didn't look like you could actually go inside the palace. I was just thinking I could snap a 5€ picture without the gate being in the way. Turns out there was a ton to see there. I started out in the Armory. It was two floors. TWO FLOORS. They had statues of horses with armor and armored soldiers riding them. I got to see just how long a lance actually was and see the saddles from back on the day. I learned that saddles are called "Silas de montar" in Spanish (riding seats is the direct translation). I saw armor that was made for little kids that were the height of maybe a 5 year old. All of the armor was highly decorative. One of the headpieces for a horse had a horn on it, so obviously unicorns used to exist back in the time of sword fights and armor. There were beautifully made swords and then really really long guns in the armory. I was really impressed with the collection, especially upon finding that there was a second floor.
Then I went onto the Palace itself. My neck hurt by the end of that hour because I looked up so often. From floor to ceiling everything was beautifully decorated. I'm sure people thought I was crazy there because I would read the Spanish explanations of the rooms but if I didn't understand something I would hop over to the English sign and then go back to reading the Spanish sign once I cleared up the confusion. Sometimes I just wasn't familiar with the term and it was the same in both languages so I was just stuck with being confused. I wish I could've taken pictures there but they have to preserve that beauty for years to come after all. Then we got to the part where I went to heaven. I wasn't expecting it at all, I had just been reading about Don Quixote or Cervantes when I entered this room. I almost walked passed the room in all honesty because it wasn't labeled, but luckily I had attached myself to this couple and was creepily following them around. Okay I wasn't doing it on purpose, but we were definitely playing leap frog. I saw the cello first, and was amazed with all the details carved or painted into the sides of it. Then I moved onto the violin or viiola, I have no clue, and that's when I saw the label. I was looking at a Stradivarius. I backed tracked to the cello to find it too was a Stradivarius. I was geeking out with a huge grin on my face at that point. My cello loving self was in complete bliss just looking at these beautiful instruments. I'm so thankful that I made the decision to go into the Palace and that my feet took me to the Palace to begin with because I was in a room with FIVE Stradivarius instruments today and was in heaven.
Now some quick background information you can get from just a quick Google search, Stradivarius instruments are over 250 years old made by a family of string instrument makers. The most famously known one is Antonio Stradivari and these instruments are believed to be the best made strong instruments that offer the perfect sounds musically. There's only 60 cellos and 9 violas left, whereas there's about 600 violins left in existiance. For the Madrid instruments specifically, Google says there are 2 violins, a viola, and a cello in that room however I'm pretty sure I saw two cellos. A few years ago, the Madrid Real Palace cello was broken, before it was broken it was valued at 20 million dollars. I'm not sure what the value of it is now though. You understand why it's such a big deal though. I was in a room with millions of dollars of rare string instruments, and they looked so beautiful.
After my heavenly experience I made the ultimate sacrifice of buying natural froyo that is absolutely disgusting in order to have a spoon to eat yogurt for lunch. Then I went back to the hostel for the rest of the day. I am still extremely excited to have seen these instruments, feeling just dang bubbly about it I swear. I had a great, the best in fact, day and my geeking out was very necessary. Trust me, I love strings.
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