Hey ya’ll, how is everyone? I’m in sunny Barcelona atm, but will update you guys on the past week since I have been so slack at the whole blog thang!

We left San Seb to train to Madrid, about a 6 hour trip which passes a lot quicker than being on a plane and even time seems to pass quicker than being on a bus. Maybe it’s the change of environment. Who knows… We were staying in the old part of Madrid also, just a short walk from La Puerta del Sol which is basically the centre of Madrid. It was a cute part of town, real old and lots of character; old crummy buildings, lots of people, tapas bars etc etc. I was feeling it, but I think Mum was a little taken aback and dodged out by it all… especially once we realized that our road in particular was where you would head if you were wanting to pick up a prostitute…. An old-ish, overweight female prostie. Good start. LOL.

It was a great city! Even though it’s the biggest in Spain everything was super close so definitely walk-able, which we made use of. Went to the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia museum one morning which was great; a mission to get around because of how it is designed (a big outdoor courtyard in the middle, and then the museum encloses that – four stories high with tons of random rooms on each level) but worth seeing! Got to see the Guernica painting by Picasso which was amazing – took Mum a while to understand what was going on in it, but I think by the time we left she was a lover of Picasso’s works; also got to see a lot of Salvador Dali’s art which is pretty choice. Then we went to the Caixa Forum which houses a lot of photography (right up my alley! It was amazing!) and I think the biggest draw is the building itself which kind of looks inside out and one whole wall (4 stories too) is covered in growing greenery. It’s really weird! And I mean it wouldn’t be complete without an elephant sculpture doing a handstand type pose balancing on its trunk. Luckily, it had that as well! Win!

We did a walking tapas tour one night which started near the Plaza Mayor. It was Mum and I, 5 Americans and then the tour leader and consisted of a few hours walking around the town, tasting wine and food. We had fun even though the tour itself was slightly strange and by the end of it we had buddied up to the American couple (Carl and Andrea) and ended up continuing the night with them in an Irish pub, listening to English music, with baseball, soccer and American football on the big screens, in Spain. Lol. As you do, but they say it’s one of the most multicultural citites in the world!
We tried some very interesting stuff that night: vermouth on tap served over ice with a lemon (it was surprisingly tasty!), a nutty/cinnamon flavoured sherry (again, yummo), Iberian ham (they are big ham fans in Madrid!) which is basically ham produced from pigs that eat a special type of acorn or something… it’s super expensive though, and I don’t know, I’m not a connoisseur of ham but it was okay? But won’t kind of like, I won’t be rushing back to get more ? hahaha. We also tried foie gras (not a fan) and squid ink! Eeeee! What the hell is that about!? I won’t lie though – it wasn’t half bad!

I met some kiwis outside the pub (The Dubliner) that we were hanging in later that night, all of whom asked me where in Australia I am from?! Wtf is that about!?!?! They were from Whangarei (figures, right?) and strange. But after seeing Deathproof at Gina’s I wasn’t at all insulted about the question hahaha.

So after 4 days in Madrid our next stop was Valencia; a big change from Madrid. The third biggest city in Spain, but it was tincy tiny! We managed to walk from the train station to our flash digs (no prostitutes to be seen!) for the next few days and actually, everything was very close! So that was cool, especially when the weather turned and started raining! Did a bit of shopping, they have an overwhelming number of shoe stores, more so than Argentina seemed to! We visited the cathedral, a tower and around the different plazas. It has a really nice atmosphere and feels very Spanish compared to say, Barcelona. It’s apparently known for its Paella, but oh how I was terribly disappointed  I am strong in my conviction that the best paella I have eaten was at Okra in Kingsland! Which is saying something, no!?? I think because of the laborious method of making it and the time it requires to cook properly, it is all made in advance and then reheated for the custies. I can deal with that, don’t get me wrong. But seriously, every restaurant had the same stupid menu of 6 different paellas, complete with the same generic picture. It was very bothersome and I will not be eating paella again until I get home hahhaa! Cherie, you will know what I mean – like the freaken “Italian” restaurants in La Paz!?

On a brighter note, we went to a Flamenco show on our last night there. It was great! Strange, but great! The people performing did seem a bit odd, drongo like even as if they were buzzing out on some drug that spaced them out… The singer was this big jolly fat man, with very bushy dark eyebrows that almost looked like long beetles on his face, especially when he started singing and his face started moving in very strange ways. He was very overdramatic and his arms were everywhere as was his mouth (like videos you see of people skydiving and their mouths are all flying backwards from the wind? Yeah, like that…) and then there were the eyebrows that came alive. Not to mention that his singing was more like American Indian wailing….? I thought he was taking the piss at first, but no no, this continued on for the whole show. I was trying not to laugh a lot of the time! It didn’t help that the guitarist spent the whole show staring at the singer and watching him sing, then trying his best not to crack up laughing at him as well! One of the dancers had bung eyes (probably from the drugs???) and the other one was behind the microphone clapping like she was meant to, but decided to have a conversation with the other dancer (over the microphone) halfway through the song… what?!?! Weird! Lol!

Okay, enough of my rambling! We are in Barcelona now, but I will save that for another day! Love ya’ll xxxxxxxxxxxx