Prado Museum, Botanical Gardens and Eating Duck for the First Time

Today we went to the Prado Museum, which is the main Spanish art museum.  It contains mostly sculptures and paintings--which are very beautiful and extremely detailed.  There are a lot of dark stories to these sculptures and paintings as well.  I had a difficult time in this museum, because I started getting bored.  I tried so hard not to be bored, but I think I was mostly tired and that just made everything worse.  I hadn't slept well the night before and got up fairly early.  I am not really an art person anyway, but I had at least got something out of Picasso museum.  That was the problem, probably.  In the Picasso museum, I just told myself to study the detail and didn't think that much about it, and I saw things that fascinated me.  Here, I tried way too hard to find things that were beautiful or interesting in my eyes, and so I missed things that I could have enjoyed.  I don't want to say that I didn't enjoy my time in the museum, but it just wasn't really my thing and I regret thinking too hard about it, but that's life.  I learned a lesson anyway, and that's important too :).  I did see things that I really did enjoy.

We then headed over to the Botanical Garden.  It was so peaceful and beautiful, and most of my senses were just overwhelmed (in a good way) with the sights, smells, sounds, and even touch (shh :P) of all the plants, birds, flowers, and even the sunlight streaming through.  I could have stayed there for hours and hours, but it had been hours since I ate, so I was starving and my stomach unfortunately won.  However, the time I did spend in there calmed me down after our rushing, rushing, rushing the past week and I was able to live in the moment.

The people I was with was tired of the Spanish food (even though I have enjoyed it enormously) and wanted to go someplace "normal" (their word), so they found a chinese restaurant.  I was confused but thought 'hey, why not!'  As soon as I saw duck on the menu, I knew I had to try it.  I had never had it before...and it was sooooo good.  A little greasy, but I've had greasier foods.  I thought it was extremely flavorful and so tender!