2011.02.18 El Escorial 2/2

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Another important attraction to the cathedral is the Pantheon of Kings. I was lucky to be able to view the Pantheon of the Kings, which is 11 meters below the beautifully built cathedral in the monastery. On the left side in the Pantheon of Kings are the coffins of the queens and on the right side are the kings. All of the coffins are about 5 feet in length and it would make one wonder were the Kings and Queens of Spain that short. The people were kind of short back in those days but the bodies of the kings and queens were stored in another place until the bodies were fully decomposed which takes around 50 years. The remains of the decomposed body are then placed in an urn and stored in the coffins located at the Pantheon of the Kings.

The pathway to the Pantheon of the Kings.

A close up of the coffins.

The chandelier is 300kgs, I wonder is it made out of solid gold?

When we were done seeing the monastery, we walked to the park and the view was just amazing. Clear blue sky welcoming us with a sun rays and a light cool breeze. It was raining the past week and this is definitely a pleasant way of spending the weekend under the sun.

In my opinion, the cathedral in El Escorial is by far the most beautiful cathedral that I have ever visited in Spain. I really enjoyed the visit to El Escorial and I definitely had a wonderful lunch. I ate an almost 2-foot long tortilla sandwich for only 4 Euros and it was delicious.

The bocadilla tortilla was moist and huge. Almost 2 feet long. Behind the sandwich is the waiter who served me.

While waiting for our bus to Salamanca, I took these two photos which I think it is kind of interesting.

The two guys who were sitting on the stairs were kind of inviting. Somehow wanting me to take a photo of them, however, their friend was kind of loud and was shouting at me, I presume he was telling me not to take his photo. hahahaha.. But it definitely looks like a photo for urban wear or similar brands.


I was right above him when I captured the photo. I thought of make it black and white. But due to the dirtiness of the floor that was slightly distracting, I kept it as it is.

Well, I am off to Salamanca. Cant wait to share with you my adventures in that city.

2011.02.18 El Escorial 1/2

The first day before arriving at Salamanca, the group did a detour to El Escorial to visit a monastery, which is known as the El Real Monasterio de El Escorial. The tour was in English and I did enjoy myself for once. Hahahaha. . .

The side of the monastery.

The Library

Another reason I really enjoyed the tour was that it gave me a different perspective of Spain. Throughout my entire staying in Madrid, I observed that the war between the Christians and the Muslims in the past did affect how most of the Spanish artifacts were painted or built. In many paintings in castles, cathedrals and even in the Prado Museum, the crescent that represented Islam was always at the feet of one of the Christian Saints. This just show how little tolerance the people have when they are at war and it bothered me seeing how beautiful artifacts or paintings were created with so much hatred and disgust for another religion. However, it was different with the El Real Monasterio de El Escorial. King Philip II was an extremely open-minded king. He knew that even though there were disagreement between the Christians and the Muslims, but it did not matter because at the end, we are all humans. Therefore, King Phillip II collected all sorts of books in various languages including Arabic. The books are then donated to the library in the monastery and over a period of time, the library in the monastery is now the second most important library in the world after the library in the Vatican City in terms of the quality of the books in the library. I was glad that at least King Phillip II was able to realize the importance of education regardless of the language it is written in.

This is the only picture that I have of the museum that was sharp with the right composition.

The Cathedral

After visiting the beautifully decorated library, I was once again amazed by the beauty of the cathedral. It is the most beautiful cathedral in Spain that I have visited thus far. With all the fancy decoration, the cathedral to me was made like for a Royal Wedding. It is just bright and beautiful. This is very rare for a cathedral because almost all the cathedral that I have visited was slightly gloomy leaning towards dim and a slight feeling of solemn.

Outside the Cathedral:

The cathedral form the outside.

A front view when standing on the porch in front of the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral:

This is the stand and the table. 11 meters below this table lies the chamber of the Pantheon of the Kings.


This is King Phillip II's room where he passed away peaceful in the monastery. His room is in the cathedral right beside where the stand and table is in the photo above.

to be continued...

Under The Weather

Hey guys, I am so sorry for not updating my blog lately. I have been under the weather with fever, cold and a terrible sore throat. I am glad that writing a blog does not require me to speak or else I would not be able to update this blog.

I just came back from an exchange with some local Spaniards from my university. I didnt know that Spanish girls could be this fun. At first, they were kind of shy and did not really mingle but when I started breaking the ice with my hotness we started talking and they started teaching us "useful" Spanish phrases. Irina, Azanta, Maria, Marina and Padrina were the girls I talked to in the bar. Next week we are definitely meeting up again for some Spanish-English tutoring.

Madrid is just fun when I am able to meet some really nice locals.

Feliz San Valentin

It is Valentine’s Day today. However, the street of Madrid goes on as usual. Valentine’s Day in Madrid is not as popular as in the US where in the US, Valentine’s Day cards are the second most sold cards in the US after mother’s day. It is such a big deal that 56% of the girls would dump their boyfriends on Valentine’s Day because they did not receive anything on this special occasion.

A heart shape lollipop from the ISA office

I thought it was a big deal in Madrid, and so today, I went to class to learn how to wish Happy Valentine’s day and guess what, it is “Feliz San Valentine”. Due to the fact that I brought it up in class, my teacher Paula asked me what are plans for tonight. Well, I just told her that I would not be doing anything and she was like.. aww that is kind of boring. She went on by saying that I am not romantic.

Excuse me, me not being romantic. Well, hell yeah when Valentine’s Day is not even big here in Madrid. I don’t even feel lovey-dovey walking to school today. It is just like any other day, nothing really special. In another class, we came across this word, enamorarse. This is the infinitive of ‘to fall in love’. My teacher went round asking us how often each one of us fall in love. My answer was pretty simple, ‘casi nunca’, which mean almost never. She was shocked when she heard me said. Casi Nunca?!?!?! No romantic, eh? Hell no, she did not just implied that I was not romantic. I have 2 classes and both the teachers think that I am not romantic. Without really giving it a thought, I jumped to my own defensive in spanglish, and this is what I said, “It is not that soy no romantico, pero soy muy loyal. Como se dice “loyal” en espanol? (It is not that I am not romantic, but I am very loyal. How do you say loyal in Spanish?).” She replied “fiel”. I continued by saying, “No me enarmoro facilmente porque yo no queiro a romper la carazon de las chicas, pero a mi me gusta ligo (I do not fall in love easily because i do not want to break the girls’ heart, but I like to flirt).” Hahahaha… Well, it is college and if my language professors are not open minded enough, they are definitely going to have a tough time with me. :P

This is how Madrid looks on Valentine's Day. Where is the love?

Chocolates plays an important role during Valentine's Day. But look how dull and undecorated this chocolate shop is.

The closest thing that would make me feel that is Valentine's Day is from this lingerie shop. This is the most decorated shop in regards to Valentine's Day in center of Madrid.

Talking about being flirtatious, I had a conversation a couple of days ago with my really close Malaysian friend of mine. She is more like a grandma to me in terms of maturity and definitely not in age (I have to type this or else I would get into a lot of trouble when she reads this, but I am sure Kenny Chan knows who I am referring to). We talked for almost 2 hours and to keep the story as precise as possible I will not go into the details but only give you the essence of the 2 hour long conversation. The only reason after so many years I still stay single is that I like to flirt with different girls and this might have scared the girl that I like.

The conversations that I had with her made me reflect upon my previous flirtatious encounters and as painful as it is, I must admit that she is right. It did bother me quite a bit and I shared these feelings with another of mine who is much younger. I was curious whether does age matter in terms of me being flirtatious. I was hoping that the younger generation would be more open minded and accommodating with my flirtatious behavior. To my disappointment, age does not make a difference at all. In fact, the younger the girls, the more possessive they are over the person that they like. Girls, I am so sorry to say this, but I sense some insecurity and the lack of trust in me. Seriously, I have been single for a couple of years and being flirtatious is just me. If I have a girlfriend (which I would love to have one at this very moment) of course, I would only flirt with her because my heart belongs to her. However, I am single and have been single for a couple of years now. Being flirtatious is part of knowing me. Estoy no mujerriego (I am not a playboy).

I would like to apologize sincerely to all the girls if things got slightly out of hand. It was not my intention to make you feel that way. I am really sorry for the rude comments that were meant to be jokes but did not work out the way I wanted it to and I am sorry for being full of myself because I believe that if I cannot even love myself, I would not be able to love another being. To all the girls, I am really sorry for the insecurity that you might have felt, even though I was clearly interested in you. I shall learn from the past and hopefully, I will meet someone who is not looking for the perfect person, but a person who is always grateful for every second of her life because she is able to share her life with me, and accepts who I am not what she wants me to be. The important question is, “Would you give me a chance?” Happy Valentine’s Day.

PS: Please feel free to comment because it would be interesting to hear your thoughts are in regards to this post. =P

A Selfish Ignorant Student

Some people are just arrogant. I was talking to some of the Americans in my program and I was telling them that it does not make sense to me that all my excursions are in Spanish. I do not learn anything at all. Guess what a student from my same program told me, “Since you are in Spain if you do not hear in Spanish how are you going to learn it?” He continued by saying, “It does not come naturally.”I have heard of that a thousand times. Is learning the language more important or understanding the context more important? I am tri-lingual and for your information when I am done with the semester in Spain, I will be quart lingual. I am not good at languages dont judge me for being lazy because I am not. It took me 8 years before I could understand some mandarin.

Of course I know that it does not come naturally and you need to practice to be able to be good at it. But for god’s sake, please use your brains. I am an international student and I am given this opportunity to visit important places like the Prado Museum, Toledo and a few other important places in Madrid and I am not able to understand not because I am dumb like you, but because I do not have enough of vocabulary to understand what the tour guide is saying. Isn’t it a waste of my time just trying to listen to something that I do not even understand? Mind you arrogant person, just because you could understand does not mean that everybody is at your Spanish level.

Try going to China or Thailand and you’ll know what I mean. You arrogant jerk. I have only taken Spanish for 2 years and it is not even in high school where else you could have taken Spanish your entire high school years and 2 years in university. If you can understand what I am going through, please zip that gap of yours before I smack you in the face for being rude.