New years eve in Madrid! We began the day by visiting the 'Museo Thyssen,' one of the three main art museums in Madrid. The museum is unique in that it is all a private collection once owned by one family. There was an exhibit at the museum entitled 'The Illusion of the American Frontier," which detailed how explorers and Native Americans interacted during the 1800s. It shows the disparity between how Americans and Native Americans viewed the West and 'manifest destiny' (the dream of spreading from sea to sea.) Unfortunately, the museum was closing early, so we couldn't see all the works of art.
One of the works from "The Illusion of the American Frontier" at the Thyssen Museum.
Afterwards, we visited a massive 9-story mall. They sold everything from Barcelona FC grass (for $22!) to Dim Sum and burgers. At the mall, we purchased grapes. Grapes and new years are associated with each other in Spain because of an age-old tradition. During the 1800s, there was a grape surplus in Spain, so the grape market decided to create a tradition of eating 12 grapes for the 12 rings of the clock at midnight. As a result, everybody in Spain buys grapes for new years.
The leftover grapes at our hotel after New Years. Notice how they tell the number of "rations" of 12 grapes in a box!
Fast forward to 12 seconds before midnight: We were all preparing to devour 12 grapes in 12 seconds, which already seemed somewhat difficult. As the bell started to ring (we were watching on TV instead of Puerta de Sol, where the celebration takes place) we all started to eat the first grape, and to our surprise, the grapes had seeds! This made it nearly impossible to finish all the grapes. Only my dad, out of the 9 of us, was able to finish the grapes. The rest of us will all have bad luck for the year!
Spain is obsessed with soccer. It's the subject of entire TV channels, newspapers, and endless discussion. While I was in Barcelona, I purchased a Barcelona FC sweatshirt. In the few days I have worn it in Madrid, I have gotten called out by taxi drivers and people on the street-the Madrid-Barcelona rivalry is considered one of the largest rivalries in the world, nicknamed 'El Clasico,' partly because it features soccer great Cristiano Ronaldo and the even better Lionel Messi. On this day, we were not seeing such a matchup, but we were seeing Real Madrid. Real Madrid is one of four Madrid teams, and it is the most popular. Their stadium, Santiago Bernebau, sits 85,000.
Our view was not fantastico
I decided even before we left for the game to root for their opposition, Real Sociedad from the city of San Sebastian, because I wanted Barcelona to stay on the top of the standings. After a very crowded metro ride, we arrived at the stadium. Outside, there we many vendors of knockoff Real Madrid jerseys and food carts. We were setting in the very last row of the building, so our view was not fantastic, but we could tell which team was which. To prevent violence, fans of the away team are kept in a special section and separated from the home fans by a barrier and police. Similarly, the hooligan section, the most extreme fans of Real Madrid, were surrounded by police. The hooligans lead loud chants and all wore the same white jersey.
While introducing players, the stadium announcer says the players first name and the crowd is supposed to complete it. For example, the announcer said "Christiano..." and the crowd answered "Ronaldo!" This was slightly more difficult for us as we did not know the full names of all the players, especially one whose full name was Nacho.
Atmosphere from our section
During the game, the referees called two very dubious penalties, but we got to see Ronaldo miss a penalty, which is rare. He did score on the second penalty, however. Later, Real Sociedad equalized with an amazing goal. I cheered loudly, much to the annoyance of both my family and a boy sitting in the row in front of us, who stared at me with pure hatred in his eyes. Eventually, Real Madrid won, 3-1.
On our way back home, my cousin Sabina lost her phone via a hole in her pocket (or a pickpocket depending on who you ask). We later went out to an Indian restaurant to dinner (despite my protest). It was better than I expected, even though Spain is not known for its Indian food. At the end of the day, I checked the scores and saw that Barcelona had won their game as well. Barcelona was on top of the standings, just where they belonged.
