a) I am not in Europe right now! I am in school as of this very minute and thus I do not spend every week travelling the world. That would indeed be a Very Nice Life, but I go cantankerous over midterms and problem sets, too!

b) I’m the type of person who draws things out, literally and figuratively. The latter means that I am obscenely late when it comes to travel-blogging. At this rate, you’ll be reading about Portugal in May and my college graduation two years after the fact.

DAY 1 (03/11):

Oh, Madrid, Madrid, Madrid. You absolute tease. You very nearly put a damper on our vacation planning with your auspicious weather reports. Rain every day? Furthermore, cold rain every day? Tsk, tsk. But, no matter. Having just arrived from a red-eye flight, we emerged from the subway station only to find that the skies were only cloudy, with nary a raindrop in sight. Yet. We breathed a sigh of relief as we checked into our hostel, freshened up, bought our phone and metro card, and headed out to our first excursion of epic proportions, the Golden Triangle of museums: Museo del Prado, Museo Thyssen, and Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.

There are several things in this world that make me happy, and one of those things is the feeling of seeing your favourite paintings up close in person. You may already know so much about the painting like the historical context or the date it was painted or the exact colour palette used, but there’s a whole lot that textbooks and studies don’t cover, and you have to actually stand face to face in order to fully realize that gap between the painting in front of you and the painting on page 263 of your book. It’s this experience that reminds you why you even liked that painting in the first place, but you’re so humbled that you don’t exactly have the words, let alone the coherency, to describe your feelings at that exact moment. In fact, I precisely lack this coherency to describe this feeling, but that’s more than okay. Why? Because I saw Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez!!! It is Velázquez’s magnum opus and a darling of the art history critics. It is also my Favorite Painting in the Whole World.

Of course, this 500x576px image doesn’t do the painting justice, but the Prado doesn’t allow photographs, and my photos could never do the work justice either. I could rant for days on why I dislike it when museums prohibit photography, but it seems inappropriate given the context of my diatribe. ANYWAY. My favorite paintings remind me why I like art. In this case, I am both the king and queen in the mirror. As Velázquez stares at me, he dares me to judge both myself as the royal couple and each character in the composition. It’s hard for me to piece together my appreciation for the painting, because one moment I’ll tell you about the rich color palette and then another moment, I’ll be flailing over the mirrors — all before fawning over the impeccable detail in the clothes. There’s no one reason or succint justification for me, and thus I can’t really answer the question “Why do you like this painting?”. I just do, and really, you don’t want to listen to me ramble for days. I’m pretty sure there are serious side effects to that.

After the great museum hop, we went to Casa Lastra, a small Asturian restaurant near our hostel in the Lavapiés neighborhood. We started off with a helping of cabrales (Asturian blue cheese) before splitting a bowl of pote asturiano (a stew with cabbage, beans, black pudding, potato, and chorizo). We then ate perdiz (whole stewed partridge) and shared a bottle of sidra (cider) to cap off the evening.

DAY 2 (03/12):
The next morning, we ate a quick but filling breakfast of churros and chocolate before heading up north to Estadio Santiago Bernabéu to pick up our tickets for the Real Madrid vs. Hercules football match later that day. With a generous bracket of time until the actual game, we swung by downtown for a stroll and more importantly, FOOD.

Lunch was had at Taberna Agrado, a restaurant tucked away in Gran Vía. First of all, it’s named after Agrado from The Flower of My Secret. Second of all, it serves a mean beef-and-Iberian-pork hamburger. Two ticks in the VERY NOICE column for me, ding ding ding!

Fish and chips.

The hamburger was a preview of all the tasty Iberian pork to come later in our trip.

After traipsing around a bunch of shops and hanging around in Puerta del Sol, we headed back up Bernabeu, where we were joined by millions and frillions of Real fans. Look, I’ve been through rush hour on both the New York and Shanghai metros. But believe me when I tell you that there is nothing — nothing — like rush hour on a subway with hundreds of diehard football fans decked out in Real swag. It is the real life equivalent of having a bunch of Madridistas on your Twitter feed during match day and having to refresh your page maniacally because everybody live-tweets every play-by-play. And while all those tweets would seem more than overwhelming, you also get sucked into the vortex, and all of a sudden, you find yourself contributing incessantly to the live-tweeting. This, my friends, is the life of a football fan.

So how was the game? Pretty darn awesome. Despite the fact that we were way, way up in the stadium, I had a good bit of fun cheering with the crowds and celebrating over Benzema’s two goals and clapping like a fangirl when Xabi Alonso got subbed in.

After the game, we got a late dinner at La Isla del Tesoro, a lovely vegetarian restaurant near Conde Duque, before heading back.

DAY 3 (03/13):

We woke up that Sunday morning to browse around El Rastro, a sprawling flea market (and the biggest one in Europe, if my Time Out Madrid book doesn’t lie!) with stands of knick-knacks and crafts, like the mucho adorable ceramic piggy banks up above. Afterwards, we ignored the pleas of our poor feet and trekked around the Los Austrias neighborhood. In one afternoon, we managed to cover Plaza Mayor, the churches of San Pedro el Viejo and Capillas del Obispo, the dome of San Francisco el Grande, Plaza de la Paja, Plaza de la Villa, and the bustling Mercado de San Miguel before giving ourselves a mental pat on the back for having covered everything within that short a time span.

Later that afternoon, we went to see a bullfight. Maybe it’s the fact that he mentions it in almost every novel of his, but bullfighting reminds me of Ernest Hemingway and The Sun Also Rises. I can’t really say bullfighting’s up my alley (the blood! the gore! Not for the faint of heart, I assure you.), but there’s always a first time for everything, right right?

Because we passed up the overpriced Cokes that they were selling in the stadium, we headed to El Jardín Secreto, this absolutely darling gem of a cafe smack dab in Conde Duque. If you are ever in Madrid, I seriously insist that you visit. I know it’s hard to convince you especially with the lack of visuals (my camera doesn’t take well to dark lighting), but:

• Their orgasmo de chocolate (brownie with ice cream and fudge) is to die for. And why yes, that is chocolate orgasm in Spanish. And it’s their word choice, not mine!
• THE DECOR. Wooden swing chairs, vines across the walls, vintage dollhouses, miniature stools, fairy-tale themed decorations that call to mind both Pan’s Labyrinth and The Secret Garden (durr!)? Um, yes please?!
• They served chocolate Teddy Grahams with the coffee.
• They served the brownie on a Finding Nemo plate.
• They gave us lollipops with our receipt.

Um, basically? If I had a restaurant, I would probably model it akin to El Jardín Secreto. You can consider this one of the highest forms of flattery I can ever give to a restuarant or cafe or public establishment. Ever.

Unfortuantely, that original weather report did prove to be damning, as we ended the Madrid leg of our trip on a dreadfully rainy evening. On the upside, we finally found a use for the umbrellas that we had brought. Alas, we headed back to our hostel and got straight to packing, because HELLO Lisbon, here we come!

• I received and accepted a job offer from an amazing company. What does this mean? Well, this means A Lot of Things. Such as the fact that I’ll officially have some sort of modicum of a life plan once I graduate this May. Or the fact that I’ll be moving to Austin, Texas, this summer. Or the fact that my senioritis has kicked in high gear and my already declining interest in school has officially surpassed the point of no1curr into IDGAF territory.

Admittedly, it’s going to be a weird transition to go from New York to Austin, but I’m really excited about it. I mean, first of all, there’s the job and the company. I’ve heard only good things about Austin from friends, and the fact that the cost of living is nearly half that of NY? Score. Also, the fact that there is rain and snow here in April, for crying out loud — I can’t even. Anyway, I’ve started the apartment hunt already. I’m slowly planning my summer, and this is what it looks like so far:

May 18th: Graduation!
May 18th – July 11th: ??????
July 11th – 29th: Work training in Mountain View, California
onwards: AUSTIN.

This totally begs the question, though. What do I do from May to July? My family might be going on vacation for two weeks in late June, but that leaves about four weeks of a blank schedule. Am I going to chill out at home in Shanghai? Stay in NY and cling to the sidewalks until I actually have to move? Take a vacation on my own (something I’ve been wanting to do since forever)? Spend the rest of that time moving in Austin? Egads, the possibilities!

• I went on a 10-day trip to Spain (Madrid, Barcelona) and Portugal (Lisbon) in mid-March for spring break. Once I sift through 2038594 photos and upload them, expect lots of blatherings about pretty castles, art, football, and FOOD from yours truly. I mean, really, if the capslock and bolded letters didn’t jump out at you enough, I ate a bunch of good food. Patatas bravas, WHERE ART THOU IN AMERICA. But yes. I have photos. And writeups. Both of which I will gladly share, because letting them rot and die in my hard drive would be a rather sad way to go about things.

Anyway. This here is a drawing of the Infanta Margarita as portrayed by Diego Velázquez in my favorite painting EVER, Las Meninas, which I got to see in person when I was in Madrid. Seeing your favorite painting right in front of you is something akin to a religious experience. Chalk it up to the all the art I’ve seen in the past few weeks (Goya, Miró, and Gaudí, oh my!), but I’ve been feeling oddly inspired since Spain. Anyway, wallpaper’s up here in Smashing Magazine, if you want to download.

So there you have it. I’m still alive, but even better, I’m positively excited about my future life plans. It’s a good feeling.

I started off the day with a trip to the Musée d’Orsay. It’s one of my favourite museums: a former train station filled with works of my favorite artists (Gauguin! Courbet! Renoir!) but sadly, they don’t allow photos. But if you love Impressionist art (or art history in gen) and happen to be in Paris, it’s every bit worth the visit!

Next up, I went to Musée Rodin which had this neat sculpture garden along with the actual museum. The weather was nice enough for me to sit outside and appreciate the famed sculpture below:

…The Thinker. I’m so used to seeing this on campus that seeing it in Paris didn’t really resonate with me. But once I stepped inside the actual museum, there were several sculptures that caught my eye:

Come lunchtime, I was starving and went to L’As du Falafel, where I ate one of the best falafel pitas that my taste buds have ever encountered.

A pita chock-full of eggplant, lettuce, cucumbers, and falafel? Um, yes please. After that, I did lots of window-shopping and not a whole lot of actual shopping. And I ended up at the Arc du Triomphe, because … well, just because it’s the Arc du Triomphe. Here, have some painfully tourist-y photos!

I wasn’t too keen on paying the ticket to stand right under the arc, so I passed and resorted to taking photos from the street across. I then went to Place de la Madeleine, where they had Maille. Maille has the best mustard ever. I mean, come on, their boutique has mustard on tap. And their mustard ranges from plain to fig & cilantro to berry to vanilla. If that isn’t brilliant, then I don’t know what is.

clockwise from left: red berry, apricot & curry, pesto & rocket (arugula), fig & cilantro, parmesan & basil, and dried tomato & pepper

Anyway, the next and final installment of the Paris posts will be coming soon! There will be macarons.

The image links to a larger version. In other news, I head back to NY this Saturday. I can’t believe it’s already been a month of winter break.

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¹: Illo Friday is an illustration challenge where people submit their work under a theme, which changes every Friday. You guys should definitely try it out!

click for full view!

New wallpaper (!) inspired by Emily the Strange. Click to view larger. Made in Photoshop CS3.

I’m currently in Shanghai, adjusting to the jetlag. And then I leave for Australia in a few days which means that I have 2 more hours to compensate. I have a few goals set for this winter break that I’d like to accomplish, so we’ll see how that goes. Oh, and I got my hair cut! Pictures soon.