Madrid 14-16th Oct

Hey all,

Well I am back living the travelers life again. It was quite unusual at first felt a little bit lonesome leaving the UK but it didn't take me long to get settled into the lifestyle again. I arrived in the afternoon. After a shower and cat nap it was off to find some food.

I had decided that for Spain that I would stretch to being a pescatarian that's a veggie who eats fish. At even this has been somewhat hard going. So I walked around in search of this apparent great seafood restaurant, but never found it. Being a little tired and hungry I was wondering around in search of some food. Wanting to avoid the to touristy places I would a place where I ate some lovely grilled veggies with goats cheese topped of with a nice glass of red. Then stopped off for some dulce de leche ice cream on the way back to my hostel. Ah the traveling life is tough.

The next day I went to the Prado museum. It was full of very classic paintings and was quite interesting but there are only so many paintings of Jesus and Mary that one can handle. What was interesting is amongst all the fine renaissance paintings there is a series from Goya's black period with some rather disturbed but really fascinating paintings.

Afterwards I subjected myself to another museum the Thyssian which was less interesting and I think the prado had worn me out.

















Afterwards I did some walking tours that I had in a tourist map which took me from the plaza major through several small typically Spanish streets and squares past some lovely buildings to the La Almunda Cathedral. Then from the Palace Real though lovely gardens and more plazas to the Puerta del sol, which is pretty much the heart of the city.

















That evening some of the guys from the hostel went in search of a flamenco bar, but it was closed so our evening involved drinking at other bars through the town. One of the guys Paul from the UK was studying the prado collection for 3 weeks as an art project drawing and studying the paintings in hope of winning a scholarship. Mum you should try and do something like that.














The next day I went to the Rena Sophia museum which is the modern art museum which has a great collection of Picasso's, Miro'sa nd Dali's etc. The highlight being Guernica, a Picasso picture which formally hung at the UN as it is a depiction of the Spanish civil war. It was so big and quite marvelous, what I liked the best was the pre-study drawings and photos taken during it's paintings and it was interesting to see its change throughout the various stages.

In the afternoon I managed to squeeze in a spot of shopping.

















In the evening I met up with Barbera a girl I met though a gumtree language swap thing. She is from Madrid and lives in Maidstone. However she was in Madrid for an exam and family visit. We met her friend who works as a guard at the Congress building. He let us in and gave us a free tour it is such an amazing building really beautiful with lovely paintings, murals and stained glass windows and chandeliers. The parliament sitting building is lovely, and has bullet holes left from tne attempted millitary coup in 1983. Considering the building is only open to the public one day a year I felt very privileged.

















Afterwards we went for a tapas dinner. Which was nice, however they were speaking rather fast and sometimes it was hard to understand. It is good to be speaking Spanish again. Then after I was tired so off to bed to catch the train the next morning.