Oasis Madrid Albufera

... had thick bright panels not hundreds of little pieces. They looked more like murals than windows. The tall wooden doors were carved with miniature bible stories in 3D. The crypt was dim and eerie with tombs stacked along the walls and some with the life-like marble replicas of them resting on top. Next to the Cathedral is an marble square and a long black gate guarding the Royal Palace. I did not want to pay 8 euros to go into the Palace though to see all ...

... up to my senora's apartment is almost all glass with painted white iron gates. Definitely beautiful but definitely going to take some getting used to. My senora is wonderful. Her name is Carmen and she is an ex-flight stewardess and a widow. She lives alone and has been a host mother for 10 years now, so I know I'm in good hands.<br>I have a fairly large single room to myself while the other two girls in the apartment share a room. Plenty of closet space and room for ...

... cheeses, meats, cakes and wines. We are impressed by the number of tree lined walking streets and how everyone looks healthy and middle class. Maybe its just after Marrakech. It could hardly be more different. We are stunned into inaction when cars stop at pedestrian crossings for us. We find the Prado open in the evening and even better, gratis, so take advantage We find the Valesquez painting I wanted ...

... as I recalled my mother saying, "It's good that you go through customs in an English speaking country." WRONG! Mom, 99 times out of 100 you are right in these circumstances. I, of course, heeded my mother's advice and tried to go through passport control in London, rather than Spain. Thus, after realizing that fact after frantically waiting in line for 10 minutes, I REALLY started to book it towards the connecting terminals. Stressing and sweating of course, I ...

... grilled shrimp. The only struggle was that when we asked for an extra plate for Callista "uno plato mas", we got a thrid meal of shrimp. Good thing it was cheap. Not a great meal, but not terrible either. Today was fun for all of us. First thing was to visit the Castillo de Loarre. We got there around opening time (11am), and had the entire castle to ourslves. We wandered around inside, up the towers, down to the "dungeons", around the church. Very, very ...

... the spear to **** him off and to weaken his neck muscles. This was just the beginning; it wasn't getting any better. Next came three matadors with 2 ft poles. Let me remind you that at this time I still wasn't grasping the whole thing, capes waving, crowd cheering, bull charging, but then I look again and the bull has 6 poles hanging from his back. Barbed poles that the matadors, oh so bravely (sarcastically I say this), plant into the bull back. How ...

... through. Lots of experimental films going on - but I´ve seen enough of them to last me a lifetime after studying it at uni. The hostel however, is great. The people that run it are friendly - very little English, but friendly. Hel´s friend, Fiona, heads back to the UK tomorrow and I´ll be sorry to see her go. It would have been nice to spend a bit more time together. She wants to get back to the hostel so almost time for me to head off. Bugger, I didn´t get the chance to ...

... sure the barricades were in place. The protesters streamed up to the barricades and stopped - I can only guess they were protesting about the function that was happening that night. AND THEY WERE LOUD! I left after that and made my way to a restaurant I had seen a few days earlier that looked good. I got there at 8pm and it was shut. I couldn't beleive it. I looked in the windows and couldn't see any movement and was very disappointed as I had been ...

... less sleep than anyone else in the world. To quote my guide book "Most clubs don't heat up until around 2am, don't be surprise by a line waiting outside at 5:30am." They weren't lying. The next day we were heading up to Pamplona for the San Fermine Festival (Running with the Bulls). Since there were 6 of us, we figured the cheapest and most entertaining way to get there would be to rent a Citron ES 9 seater Jumper, i.e. super van/bus. We had to go to the ...