Hotel Tryp Diana Madrid

Much as I did on my way to South Africa, I will stop briefly in Madrid (on a rather tighhhhht 2 hour connection) to connect from my Iberia flight to easyJet flight which will take me to Marrakech.

Did I mention... I waited 'n watched for MONTHS til the air fares to Morocco came down out of the stratosphere (normally around US$1,200 or more from Seattle!) And ...

... favorite artist as a whole was El Greco, but my favorite individual work was the lively Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gard en_delights.jpg).  I spent roughly 2 hours in the museum, which was perfect!  I was able to see all the highlights of the museum, as well as take the time to enjoy some of the art work that stood out to me.  The museum was crowded, but no where near as crowded as the Louvre, so it made the experience very enjoyable ...

... We then went upstairs, got all of our things and ten we dragged all of our luggage from the hostel, to the metro, and got on the pink line, then on the green line, to the blue line.. the complete opposite route that we took to get there. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so we checked in, went through security, and then grabbed a quick bite to eat, then boarded the plane and headed towards Barcelona!!

... bar right on the beach. The bartender was hillarious! We have a bunch of pictures with him.... The Portuguese are so nice and almost everyone speaks amazing english. They actually don´t like Spanish people and they prefer that we speak english as opposed to spanish. That was really weird cause I feel so rude just speaking english. It was nice though not to have to be embarrassed to be American.... And Portuguese sounds nothing ...

... one day, so we hit the hay fairly early. Today we spent most of the day walking around Madrid. There are a few very nice parks here, and it is a holiday today in Spain, so there were tons of people out. The highlight of the day was probably the royal palace, but it was closed due to the holiday so we´ll have to go back tomorrow for the tour. After that, it´s off to Portugal on Thursday!! Hope everything is good back home! Paul

... students and some Anglos they had met from one of the programs (I finally put a face to the name with Christine)...instead we skipped the dinner and went straight to the drinking. Pablo and Brian turned up later, and 5 or 6 bars and a bit of dancing later we closed down the last place at 5am!! Which of course would not happen at home, especially on a Sunday night (well technically Monday morning by that point). Alas, I had to ...

... here is very concerned about another terrorist attack so they certainly are thorough in checking out all passengers. The airport is renowned for being a real bottleneck of air traffic. Yeah, it must be getting close to Christmas. There were carols playing on the plane and Christmas trees at both the Casablanca and Madrid airports. It all seems kind of strange . . . .

... just a few days, and locals are bored with backpackers, so for me I had to find a different approach. At the hostel bar I now intentionally avoid extended conversations with compatriots. On Friday night I get talking to Mickael from Switzerland, an MBA who trades shares for 30mins a day to finance ongoing travel, Christian the french student, Federico from Argentina, and a girl each from Germany, Greece and Belgium all studying in Barcelona. Conversation is a ...