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24th September, 2002 // Spain
Madrid

Finally, we reach Spain. Our journey took us 13 hours from Cautretes (a record thus far). When we arived in Madrid, we waited an hour to catch a taxi (it was raining!). Madrid is cold. I have so been looking forward to warn weather, but I guess I will have to wait a little longer. We arrived in the heat of a Saturday night Party. The roads were crammed with partiers, a nighly accurance. We did not get off at our hotel, so we had to roam a little before we finally found our hole in the wall hotel. It was actually really nice, the people were really friendly and helpful. Most people here speak a little English, so it is not as hard here as we imagined, expept when you are looking for an electricity converter! The first day, Sunday, most shops were closed so we went to the MUSUO DEL PRADA. Ironically we had both read a book by Michael Connelly which was based around a painter named Hyronys Bosch (spelling?) who we found out was a real painter and his collection was at this museum. Not much else of interest here.
The rest of Madrid was nice. Stone buildings (kind of repetitive) No real places of interest, it was just neat to roam around, take in the millions of people doing there thing.
Some of you may not appreciate what we did on Sudnay night, I certainly dong, but they say you cannot leave Spain without seeing one. We went to see a Bullfight. I will not go into the details about what happens. Lets say there are Mantadors, horses, spears, colorful helpers, knives, and other gruseone things. There were 6 bulls, (one was disculded early on due to a broken leg). I nearly fainted, got sick, etc. Lets leave it at that.
Monday, we toured the city with a tour bus, which was kindof a waste as it was freezing cold and we had already walked the entire route. We stopped in a park for lunch and walked the streets for a while, until it started raining, again. At night we went for a true Spanish supper (a mixture of rice, seafood, peas, and other unidentified stuff that was delicious), and of course, dessert.