Day 18 - Museum and "Markets"

We were finally able to proceed with the plans that we had planned for Monday. We were able to book our tickets for the 'Museo Nacional Thyssen - Bornemisza' and we headed off into Madrid to see some art.
We got into the museum and walked around looking at all the amazing artwork. Some paintings took our breath away with how spectacular how were.
Since coming to Madrid we've noticed many differences between Ireland and Spain, e.g Siestas, rules of the road, how people talk (not just talking about language), etc, but, there are also similarities, for example, in both Irish and Spanish museums, the vast majority of people there are tourists, while walking around, we heard more English speaking people than any other language, it was quite surreal and comforting, as for the past three weeks, we've heard very little English apart from in the school, and while we didn't get into conversation with any English speaking people in the museum, it was nice to just hear it as we walked around.

By far though, the best part of the museum and the part we enjoyed the most was, of course, the Vincent Van Gogh paintings. Van Gogh is my favourite painter ever, and Jass really enjoys his artwork too. There were three of his paintings on display and we were both awestruck by the sheer magnificence and beauty of them.

I was overjoyed to be able to see these paintings in person. It officially makes it five of Van Gogh's paintings that I have seen in my life. This is another reason why I am so grateful that I got the opportunity to do Erasmus and go to Madrid, getting to teach Creative Writing to students in another country is just incredible, being able to see their talent and helping them write their own stories and create their own characters is incredible, and something I'm so grateful to do, but, as well as that, I'm so grateful to come to another country and see all these amazing things, from castles, to zoos, to museums, getting to see them all is just indescribable, and I am so grateful I have gotten to see them.

After wandering around the museum for longer, and admiring more paintings (We even got great story ideas from some of the paintings!) we decided to finish up in the museum and head off to the market by Retiro Park. We were at the market on one of our first days in Madrid, we didn't pick much up though. We wanted to go back today to get presents and whatnot for our families. Markets are a huge cultural thing in Madrid, there are always loads on throughout the year, when Googling what things we should do in Marid, half of what came in was in regards to Markets.
 However, when we got to Retiro Park,  we found that the only part of the market that was open was the book market. Last time, there had been many stalls selling clothes, and jewellery and assorted items. We were disappointed but just went on to look around the shops in Madrid instead.