Happy Spain Day

I had the streets all to myself for the morning

Spain definitely has the work life balance down. There is always something fun happening, and we have more than enough time off to partake. Even a mid-week bank holiday gets you a day off full of parades, free museums, and festivals.

This past Thursday was Dia de la Hispanidad and the whole city takes the day off to celebrate. When I asked my students if they still wanted to have class they looked at me like I had three heads. Even my Friday students cancelled their classes, leaving me with plenty of time to enjoy the festivities.

Retiro park was empty Thursday morning.

I started my day early and loved how empty the streets were compared to a normal rush hour in Madrid. It was almost surreal as I walked to the house of my one student who wished to have class that morning.

After teaching for an hour, my weekend could actually begin. I decided to take advantage of free museum entry at the Reina Sofia.

First time to Reina Sofia and I loved it

I am not much of a museum person, but I actually love the Reina Sofia. Guernica by Picasso is incredible, and I love to see Dali’s work in person. There was also an exhibit about art from the last decade of Yugoslavia’s existence which was fascinating.

After getting my fill of art for the month, I went to Plaza de Colon to meet friends and watch the parade.

Obviously, my friends and I ended up in the wrong spot and missed seeing the actual parade. What we did see was a projection of it on a huge TV screen in the plaza.

We didn’t see the parade go by, but we were given a flag by a stranger!!

After an less than exciting parade we decided to celebrate the holiday the right way. Someone had heard (or maybe made it up) that it is tradition to spend the holiday drinking with friends, so we clearly had to do just that.

“Immersing myself in Spanish culture” ..with nachos and margaritas?

I mean, I am here to immerse myself in the culture, right??

We slowly wound our way through the city, stopping for fun photos and roof top bars.

We had a full on photo shoot with this wall

Later on in the evening we found ourselves at BeerMAD, a craft beer festival held in the city.

I can never pass up a beer festival

This event was great. The beers were cheap and SO much better than the Mahou and Cruzcampo that most bars have to offer. I got to try different IPAs brewed in Madrid and felt like I was back in Vermont.

After the festival and maybe a bar or two after that, it was time to call it a day. We had been eating, drinking, and enjoying the day off for hours at this point, so it was early to bed.

Overall, had a great day, and I definitely think we celebrated the bank holiday the right way.

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