Yesterday went museum hopping, visiting the Museo del Prado and the Thyssen. I also walked through the botanical gardens and one of the nearby churches. The museums were probably fantastic, but I didn't go for the audio tour and my art history class was on Latin American artists...not much help here. I did however see a Picasso, Manet, Monet, and some cool Spanish artists but for the most part I cruised through. On my next museum attempt I'm going to get an audio tour, possibly a podcast so I know what I'm looking at and why it matters!! Otherwise, it's old paintings by a bunch of dead people. ;)
On my walk around the Prado, I found a street book market. It had over 40 permanent vedors set up, with tables and permanent stands/store fronts selling used books on every possible subject. Very cool to walk through, but I didn't buy anything because 1) it was all in Spanish 2) I didn't want to carry a book I can't read (yet) all around Europe. Besides, my rough plan is to have one or two days in Madrid before my flight leaves to make sure I don't miss it on accident...on purpose is a whole different story!
After my walk I went to lunch at a random stop along to way for some tapas y canas (small beers, maybe 6 ounces). When I sat down the waitress asked me if I wanted patatas bravas. I almost started laughing at myself and freaking out the previous night. I politely said no thank you and went for the camarones de roma and tostaditas de camaron. Translation: two orders of fried food. After that type of lunch and a morning full of walking I was ready for a siesta. I'm very good at these. Mine lasted 4 hours. Ooops!
When I woke up at 8:30 I figured it was time to venture out and try to get some dinner. I walked around in the barrio called La Latina, which is supposed to be THE place to do a tapas crawl, but was overwhelmed by all the options. Places were either packed (not really excitedabout rubbing up against strangers as I eat) or empty (as Coach Phelps would say: there's a reason it's THAT empty) so I wandered back to Plaza
Mayor and tried out a different restaurant. This time went for empandas and a beer. **I realize I'm writing about food a lot, but I slept through most of the day again. Give me a break, ok? :) **
After dinner I walked around for another hour or so, soaking up the atmosphere and finding new plazas to explore. I found myself recognizing many of the streets I walked the previous night and was pumped that I actually had an idea of where I was. I grabbed an ice cream, gelato yum, and headed back to the hostel for the night.
Skype rocks!! I was able to use it to talk to my mom, Sally, Robin, Mr. Jaxon, and cousin Leslie for free. Love it! After getting off the phone I decided it was time to go to my next stop. I decided it was a toss up between Barcelona and Paris, and thanks to some good advice from my sister I chose Paris...as long as I could snaga spot on the train. In the Madrid train station you have to have a reservation to get a spoton the train, even with a eurail pass. I didn't realize this until I was reading my guidebook last night. Crap! I started to worry that I would be "stuck" here another day or two because of this, which might be the reason I didn't sleepvery well. I wokeup at 5am ready to roll, with no where to go!! That meant some reading and TV time. Did you know?....late night/early morning TV here is a combination of infomercials but mostly phone sex lines that show full on porn!! :.o Not exactly what I expected, which meant I got to do A LOT of reading. I took the metro to the train station. Got an overnight train, and a women-only cabin (just for you Ma! No worries, k?) that will arrive in Paris at 8 am tomrrow, 11pm your time tonight.
So...I'm going to freakin' Paris!!! I'm off to pack my luggage. Search for a hostel and try to find a cheap English guidebook for France and Italy.
Adios!
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