Madrid
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From the British capital to the Spanish one. I visited Gel for a weekend in Madrid. Gel is studying in Spain on her year abroad and this was one weekend were neither of us had classes to attend or essays to finish. We did all the touristy stuff (I even used my point&shoot all weekend long). We went to see the Royal Palace, the Cathedral and the Reina Sofía museum. You should have been there to feel the tension: everybody held their breath when a small boy was running away from his parents and at full speed towards Guernica. Priceless. (The painting too.) On Sunday we visited a huuuge market that filled about a dozen streets and three or so plazas. After listening to some traditional Spanish bagpipe players (wtf) in the Parque del Retiro we finished the day with some churros. They’re the most filling dessert you will ever eat. I thought I’d have to be rolled out of that Chocolatería.
London with Ollie
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My friend Ollie had to go to the University College London for an interview. Since a) you don’t pay £16 (or £24 if like me you leave your railcard at home…) to go to London for half an hour and b) it’s no fun to visit London on your own, I went along and we visited the National Gallery and the British Museum. In the National Gallery I had fun reverse engineering the lighting techniques of the masters, and I got told off for taking a picture of the cupula in the entrance hall when we were leaving (I had asked one of the wardens about photography restrictions earlier and what he said sounded like no photography of the paintings was allowed.) In the British Museum photography is fine, but it’s also one of those places that’s been photographed to death so it’s difficult to take something new there.
While Ollie went to his interview I visited Jacobs Digital Photo & Video where they had a pretty good deal on Manfrotto 5001B Nanos (I have no idea what the difference between those and the 001Bs which they replace is, they look the same to me). I had also planned a visit to The Flash Centre but by the time we got there they were closed. So we went to a pub instead.