Madrid, Spain: March Blog by Esperanza Martínez

MARCH IN SPAIN

    This blog is a little late but I have a reason for that ... I wanted to include my trip to Ibiza that I went on this past weekend in my blog post. It was an amazing trip even though the weather hasn't exactly been summery around here yet. In Madrid I also did a bunch of wonderful things since my last blog post including going to Velazquez Tech Museum and going to a rooftop restaurant/bar. 

    I'm sure you want to hear about Ibiza but I'll go about this blog in chronological order. So first is the Velazquez Tech Museum that I went to in late February. This museum celebrates Diego Velazquez's most famous painting: Las Meninas. I did get the chance to see this amazing painting in the Prado Museum back in January but sadly no pictures are allowed. Las Meninas means ladies in waiting referring to King Felipe IV's daughter (la infanta Margarita: Margarita María Teresa) and in Portuguese meninas means girls. It's a beautiful painting in the Baroque style and I found this painting to be quite exquisite so when I heard there was a museum about this painting, I knew I needed to go. The museum is called Velazquez Tech for a reason; it's an immersive museum with large figurines of the menina with different projector art installations. There are also other rooms in the museum where there are more menina structures that are painted as well as art portrayed on the walls. I thought this museum was amazing and ticket prices were not too expensive (€9 - for students) so I was really glad I went.

    Secondly there's the beautiful rooftop restaurant/bar that I went to after going to the Velazquez Tech Museum. This place was somewhat close-by so my friends and I decided to go there for dinner. It was amazing getting the chance to see the city from above (being from New York I love to see the views from above). The food was great and we enjoyed the views. We took a bunch of pictures and it truly was just such a nice moment – I really loved spending the day with my friends and having a wonderful time. 

    Now what you've all been wanting to read: my experience in Ibiza. I loved Ibiza, it's a short flight away from Madrid (about an hour) and if you buy tickets with time you can get them for really cheap prices (my round-trip flight was €15). Our hotel was located in a region called San Antonio and I thought it was a beautiful place. We went to a few different beaches that had beautiful views and pristine blue water. Sadly we did not swim because the weather was not permitting (about 70°F) and it could get a bit windy sometimes. I did dip my feet in a few times but the water was quite cold so I didn't do much more than that. The next day we went on a street art biking tour in the center of Ibiza. We took the bus from San Antonio to Ibiza center and from there went on a journey where we saw graffiti art on the streets as well as paid productions for schools, parks, etc. It was an amazing bike tour even though I was quite nervous at first to be biking along with the cars. Our tour guide was so sweet and explained things in such wonderful ways – I really can't complain, she was so great and even took a few pictures of my friend Morgan and I. This same day we also visited a castle and even though it was a bit of a hike the views were astonishingly amazing. The rest of the day was really great other than the fact that so many places were closed due to the off-season (when we booked our tickets we didn't know that the situation would be like this and that so many businesses/events would be closed). Apparently most businesses tend to open up in April and some water activities begin opening up late April or early May. Sadly we never got the chance to see the sunset which I've heard is beautiful there – we tried to see it but as the day went on it became too cloudy. All in all, we had a marvelous time and it was just such a great experience, I'm just so grateful to be here and have such wonderful opportunities like this one. 


Velazquez Tech Museum:







Rooftop:




San Antonio (Ibiza)





Ibiza (centro):









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