Holà Madrid

I have been in Madrid for more than a month now, working at Turner and exploring the Spanish way of life. My post today is to explain more about what is my life during my internship.

It is not only a rumour: Spanish way of life is very different from the French one. At the start of my life here, I was not very used to start working at 10 am and to finish my day at 8 or 9pm. Dinner is taken around 10 or 11 pm and it is very common to go out for parties at around 2 am ! Such a way of life is though easy to adapt thanks to the climate. The past days have been very warm.

I had enough time during my week-ends to visit some cultural things of the city.

El Palacio Real

This palace is the place where is nowadays living the King of Spain. Also called “Palacio del Oriente”, this monument is one of the most popular of the city. The surface of this building is 135 000 m² which means that the “Palacio Real” is the biggest of Europe. The royal family, composed of the King Juan Carlos, his wife Sofia of Greece and the prince Felipe and his family, is not actually living in it every day, it is only a place for protocol ceremonies. They are actually living in Zarzuela’s Palace.

Here is a picture of the front face of the “Palacio Real”

Palacio Real

Plaza del Toro (corrida)

This place is maybe the most impressive thing I visited here in Madrid. This arena is were the corridas (bullfights?) are set and I went to see one of them. It is amazing even if I am not found of this type of “art” because I am not sure it is useful to kill animal just for the show. But, without these considerations, it is a part of the Spanish culture and I cannot deny it. What was the most impressive during the show was how fanatic are the Spanish concerning this “art” and they follow the game as if it is a football game. Speaking about Football, I also visited the Barnabeu stadium, but I do not have an emotional memory of this ! J

This picture is to illustrate the architecture of the building, inside are set the famous ‘corridas’ (yes, looks like Nimes arenas!).

Arena of Plaza del Toro

Plaza Puerta del Sol

 It is situated in the perfect center of the city and it symbolizes the heart of the country/city. It is also the zero kilometric point of the distances to Madrid: it is in the geometrical center of the country. It is from that kilometer zero that is beginning all the streets of the city.

Plaza Puerta del Sol by night