Korbin Bordonie
H-SC May Term Abroad
Madrid, Spain
Summer 2016

Week three
Week three was quite an adventure. We visited many very important Spainish landmarks. The first landmark and most fascinating landmark we visited, in my opinion, was the Royal Palace.

You may think your own personal house is big, but try a 1.45 million square foot one. We were not allowed to take any pictures of the inside of the house, but let’s just say the chandeliers were as big as cars and everything was gold. To put it into perspective of how much money is in this building, in 2012 there was a violin that fell off of a table that was on display and the damages were worth 20 million. The family itself actually lives in the palace, only a few months out of the year, if any. They are always on the go and have things to do. I’ll share some pictures of the courtyard and from the outside of the X10 huge mansion.
The second place we visited was the Nacional Bibleoteca.

This library holds 26 million different books, newspapers and manuscripts. The library is by far the largest library in Spain and one of the largest in the world. There were many sculptures of famous Spainish leaders all around the library that helped represent it’s 304 years of establishment. Right next to the library is a huge museum of modern art. There were many Picasso and Dali paintings here. I’m not really a big art guy but these paintings really caught my eye. Many of the paintings that were on display were almost priceless and extremely unique.
Don Quixote’s hill and castle of windmills was the fourth landmark we visited. This is a famous folk story of Spain, and has been around since there were knights walking around in armor (1607). Don Quixote was a man who was very mentally confused. To summarize the story, he went to the top of the hills in his small town to fight the windmills alone, which he thought were dragons. He failed miserably and the “dragons” clocked him in the side of the head, he then retreated. This story is one of the most important stories told in Spain and has been the most popular for many years.
Learning about the Spanish culture has been quite an experience and by going to major landmarks, plays, castles and museums, it has really opened my eyes to see a different perspective of the world.