Los Caspios Hotel Colunga

... and bars that cook market fresh food for you like the razorclams- not cheap, but awesome. high speed train between the two cities runs up to 200 miles an hour, only takes an amazing 2 and half hours, with TV, music, and drinks served, itself an interesting experience. But set aside an hour to wait in line at the train ticket office, longest I have seen so far. Again, an experience.

... displayed - there were three, each with two chances (six dead bulls, yes.) I suppose one could say that there was a kind of grace involved, and one could write about the bullfight being like a dance between bull and man. I suppose one could even get a little deeper, and talk about how this is really about Man versus Beast, and that it's a matter of intense discipline and mastery of self. I suppose one could call it 'art'. But I think that no ...

... more quickly. We arrived shortly before 8:00, took the Metro to the Plaza de Espana neighborhood, and toured the area in search of the Hotel Suites Viena. Though we weren't finding our hotel, I was pretty pumped to find at least two Starbucks. We knew where we were going once we had a place to leave the luggage. By 9:30 we had found our hotel, backtracked ...

... the reign of King Charles III. Then I went to the Royal Armoury room. The Royal Armoury Room It displays arms and armour that belonged to kings of Spain and other members of the Royal Family, from the 13th century onwards. It also includes King ...

Thats us landed safely in Madrid. Caught a British Airways flight over and ended up with overwing exit seats so plenty of leg room. Happy days. Anyway, we're staying in a pretty cool hostel with free internet and wifi so this is ...

... small town where we drank local cidra incredibly cheap. Hostal of Colunga can definitely be recommended - one of our best accommodations throught the whole trip!! In the morning after we went to the beach as the weather had finally turned better. For some reason there were almost no other people in the beach and we stayed there well after lunchtime.

... read I suppose) yelling the whole time. I thought that I was under arrest. He eventually let me go and I had to organise more flights, not speaking the language, this wasn't easy. The planes in Spain left without me that day. Pretty stressful morning really. It meant that I got another day at the beach but my Spanish teacher was waiting for me at Quito airport. Unfortunately she didn't get my e-mail in time to tell her about the change of plan. The finger is healing nicely but the nail is black.

... La Movida, which is a nightlife renaissance that began in 1975 with the death of a much-despised Franco. As Hemingway says: ¨Nobody goes to bed in Madrid until they have killed the night. Appointments with a friend are habitually made for after midnight at the cafe. In no other town that I have lived in, except Constantinople during the period of Allied occupation, is there less going to bed for sleeping purposes.¨ I have no idea about what Istanbul was like during the Allied ...

... to tell us where our car was (a big Chrysler minivan - ok, it just seems really big cause the cars here are quite small), 20 minutes were spent packing our luggage into the car, 10 minutes were spent getting a taxi (because Allen, myself, and Allen's luggage would not fit into the minivan), and then it took about 5 or 10 minutes to get to the hotel. The guy charged us 10.05 euro (about $13) for the taxi ride, which seemed sort of steep but I guess it's the company's ...

... English. *Don't be tight-fisted for food. Spanish cuisine cannot be missed to save a little money. But make sure that you go out with someone. Eating alone is something unusual in Spain. *Dress well - to the Spanish, a person dressed badly is worse than anything. *** Have someone local to visit. Spanish hospitality may beat any other kind of hospitality in the planet! It will appear in my newsletter of Valencia soon. Hasta luego, Kei