Ritz Madrid

Alright, I don't have a whole lot to say about Madrid, it was alright. Mostly I just enjoyed the company of some people I met up with at the hostel... I did end up going to see a bullfight though - that was really interesting! I can't say that I particularly enjoyed it, but I figured that I should go see one since I am in Spain. There were actually quite a decent number of Spainairds there, so it ...

Not much to report today - basically a day off, but working at the apartment. Woke early, worked a bit, fell asleep, worked some more. Major excitment of the day was creating Ubuntu and Solaris 10 virtual machines under VMWare - which is unlikely to excite anyone other than me frankly! This evening went out for food with Ade - wandered lots, eventually headed for a ...

... 1908. There was little cubist work present, apart from a large number of his takes on the Meninas by Velazquez, which seemed to me to go beyond innovative and into the merely childish. In contrast, some of his other cubist works retain the essence of what he was painting, albeit misassembled, and are interesting. But he reduced the Meninas to stick figures and boxes, except for one complete piece done in dark colours that was all angles, but more complex. It also featured ...

... A vew highlights for me were Caravagio´s (Sorry to Mrs. Scheller and all who are greatly offended by my miss spellings of famous painters) David and Goliath as well as one of the pieces by Wegner that showed Jesus being removed from the cross and mary passed out in an almost identical way. It was incredible I stood and looked at it for a good 5 minutes before noticing how long I had been there and moving on so I could at least glance at everything. I REALLY want to take an ...

The return is being very hard!!!!!!!!!!!! After a delay of three hours we took the plane. We close the eyes and 7 hours after we open it to had breakfast in the plane. Really exhausted, we took the suitcases and I could see that the weather in Madrid is awful: cold, no sun, ... I am at home now. I did the laundry. I must iron and prepare the dress, high-heeled shoes for tomorrow to go to the office ... but instead of this I am writing this ...

... go to Santiago rather than join some other students on a trip to El Escorial. I've been to El Escorial but not Santiago. In addition, it will never be cheaper for me to get to Santiago. I had checked online and figured out that taking a "trenhotel" overnight train with a private compartment was cheaper than flying and staying in a hotel - even with the cheap airlines. And the price between the discount airlines and Iberia was amazing. Iberia was over €1,000 ...

... We ended up at a discoteca called "Wind" that played almost entirely Spanish pop music, and we were the only Americans there. =) It was great, and i'm certain i danced all night long! Chelsea made friends with some Spaniards, and used her Spanish Skills to get the inside on what to see in Madrid. We learned about some great cafe's that specialize in particular tapas, including Chelsea's favorite: Patatas Bravas. I can't believe how fast this week is flying b

... sky cleared up. The sun crept out around 5am at which time most people in camp woke up. I decided to do a mini hike up the dune and go about half way just to get some more time to take in the view. The sun was rising over the dunes to the Algerian east. I could imagine the adventure that could be had if I stocked up on some water, took a nomad and a camel with me and headed in that direction. Unfortunately we had to head back out of the dunes before it got too hot. The trip ...

... were all around our age and got us into some sweet clubs. They were all very nice and spoke enough english to our spanish that we could all communicate like we were long-time friends. I was never the best in my spanish classes, but everything all was quick to return while surrounded by the language and culture. It was a very nice way to spend our last few days oversees. Final stop ahead.