Madrid 2009
Near the end of the fourth year of High School. I was 17 years old. Despite my class being the most chaotic of the entire school (I was with a few of the same classmates of Middle School and more chaotic ones), we convinced our professors to do the fifth year’s European field trip, which they didn’t want us to do, like, AT ALL, the year before, because at the fifth and last year we have to focus on the graduation exams.
The big destination was Madrid, in Spain! The field trip was organized in a very particular way: 2 classes, 3 professors, 4-5 days with all the mornings organized and the afternoons completely free (we were left to our own devices), rooms with same-sex groups of 3 people.
It was… a very particular field trip…
We were in a hotel near Plaza Mayor, so we saw Plaza Mayor first. In the next mornings, we saw the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reìna Sofìa, the Palacio Real de Madrid and the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.
The Museo Nacional del Prado was gigantic and we divided into tiny groups and explored for ourselves. I’m sure I saw, at least, La Maja Vestida and La Maja Desnuda by Francisco Goya. We went through the museum in a hurry (our art professor, with us in the field trip, was very disappointed). I wanted to see more, but I was following my classmates… I remember we all sat down on a bench, in the middle of the museum, and, while my classmates were watching their phones or talking to each other, I was watching this really interesting painting of a battle: I noticed the people and their swords were positioned to form an equilateral triangle in the center of the painting! I don’t know the title or the author, sadly, but I’d be happy to rediscover it!
The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reìna Sofìa was very particular: 3 different floors dedicated to different forms of art. The second floor was closed, but we went all together on the first floor, where we saw all Pablo Picasso’s art works and the audioguide gave a very, VERY detailed description, analysis and explanation of the Guernica painting. I was entranced and amazed. The third floor was explored only by me and the 3 professors. And I mean, ONLY me and the 3 professors: there weren’t even any other tourists… It was the floor of pop-modern art, with lots of sculptures made out of junk, and I remember “the Chamber of Death”: a small, cold room with black walls, tiny lit lightbulbs all around the room and suspended at different heights, and a coffin in the middle of the room. It gave me a chilling sense of otherwordly dread, like my life was actually in danger just by staying in that room.
We went to the Palacio Real on a wednesday morning. I remember it very clearly, because, after exploring the Armory, we waited for the change of the guard (apparently only on that day of the week). At noon. With my habit of eating a light breakfast. Hours before. We went to sit, in the middle of the crowd, and I felt dizzy (I was about to have a vagal crisis). I sat down, while everyone else was standing up, and my art professor told me to stand up. I told her I needed to sit down. She grabbed me and pulled me up. I semi-fainted, but I was still conscious. My art and religion professors took me behind the crowd to help me. My religion professor covered me with his jacket and gave me fresh water. My art professor slapped me to wake me up… After a few minutes, a yellow spanish ambulance arrived at the Palacio Real! Just for me! I tried to say it wasn’t necessary, it was just low blood sugar. Went in the ambulance, they checked my pressure and my religion professor called my mother, in Italy, while she was working! All worried, she confirmed my low blood sugar. I will never forget that morning for the rest of my life and my entire afterlife!
The Estadio Santiago Bernabéu was amazing. The gigantic football stadium of Madrid was all clean and colorful. The blue glacis with the white ones forming the words “Real Madrid”. The athletes’ bathrooms and showers (all clean and splendent). The press conference room, the Trophies display, the gift shop.
The rest of the field trip with my classmates was very peculiar.
We traveled around Madrid through the subway system, and my classmates A.S. and G.C. were dancing Su Ballu Sardu (the Sardinian dance) at every station.
They rushed through the Prado Museum, and they didn’t want to see the third floor of the Reìna Sofìa Museum.
One afternoon, we were exploring the streets around Puerta del Sol (closed for repairs), and we entered a souvenir shop. I browsed around, looking for a crystal cube, like the one I got in Rome, but settled on a miniature of the “Statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree”, symbol of Madrid, and my classmates were gone! I sent a message to L.P. and went up the street. They were ahead and came back down to find me. The funny thing was that, at some point, L.P. looked around and asked the others “Where’s Roby?”, and, as he asked it, he received my message “I’m still at the souvenir shop”! What were the odds?!
One evening, in Plaza Mayor, we encountered an homeless man who approached us and starting monologuing philosophical thoughts and truths about life and the Universe.
For one of the lunches, A.S. brought us to his favorite restaurant (it wasn’t his first time in Madrid), and made us try real Spanish paella. I can honestly say that my mother (not Spanish) does it better.
The last afternoon, we went to a supermarket and bought tons of cervezas (beers), for a little private celebration to end the field trip (I didn’t drink, as usual). Problem was, there were no mini-fridges in the hotel rooms. A.S., who was one of my roommates, got an idea: he filled our bathtub with cold water and let all the beers float in there! The party was the last night, in the room next to ours: both classes filled the room, people were drinking, G.F. brought bread from Sardinia (from Samugheo, to be precise), which was covered with spreadable cheese brought by A.S. (and produced by his family), A.S. smoked a cigar, F.L. brought his PlayStation 2 from Sardinia, and I played a match of TEKKEN (don’t remember which one). It wasn’t my first time playing Tekken, and I won the match. Unfortunately, we both chose the same character (Mokujin), and when I bragged about winning, everybody disputed it… I retired early from the party, to sleep, but they had to bring a drunken A.S. to sleep in the room. He puked and fell in it, so when I knocked on the wall and said he fell, L.M. and a couple others rushed in, thinking he fell off the window and not just the bed. When the party was over, they let me sleep in the next room, with the rest of my class, with L.M. going back and forth between the 2 rooms to check on everybody. Me and L.M. were the only ones who didn’t sleep… And I’m sure he still remembers it as well. The next morning, our classmate S.C. called the phone in my room to wake A.S. up (she said she would have never done it again, because he didn’t remember much and became rude towards the “alarm clock service”), and M.S. helped A.S. clean up and dress, to which A.S. commented “Who am I? Su Componidori?” (the Componidori is the leader figure of the Sartiglia, a famous horse race to the star held in Oristano every year in February, during the Carnival, since the 1540s).
Also, during the party, a girl from the other class gave me a compliment, but me and my classmates laughed at her face and I ignored her… I think I might have offended her…
2 months later, inspired by my field trip, my parents and my godparents went to Madrid for a few days.
