Ritz Madrid

... it was gettign too dangerous and now hes in Madrid trying to get a job in a Greek restaurant. Pretty cool. He also told me that he peddles his yiayia´s oil for money in the streets...a bit shady. ehh? <br><br>The next day we were ready to go! We met up with Annelise who we also met in Valencia and started off on the town. We went to Palacio Real and the surrounding markets. It was fun just to walk through the streets and ...

... to congregate at 10pm...there was wierd street performances happening, toilet paper displays over air vents, a man in a coffin on the phone..all sorts really! Some boot leg stuff being displayed on the side of the road with a sheet, that was easily picked up if need be. We headed back to the bus stop and found another group of us waiting for the bus back, so we all boarded and the bus driver seemed to just go And go fast. We bounced around corners, through red lights..it ...

... because the people sitting with us were so nice! We ended up in the same cabin as this older woman from Toledo who was very nice and very talkative (we got to brush up on our spanish, which was hard after speaking Italian for so long), and also in our cabin was a nice young guy from Wales, and 2 other Spanish women who were very friendly. This put us at ease, and we had a nice ride. The ...

... such as Berlin. In the end, we had a reasonably pleasant time in Madrid. We were disappointed by it's lack of fresh food markets and interesting sights. We probably would have had a more enjoyable time if we had skipped eating out and saved our money. There is little to draw us back to Madrid and we had no regrets when we took the subway to the airport in the early morning.Saying goodbye to Europe, we boarded a plane bound for Dublin, and then connecting on to Chicago.

... here". Back home with a beautiful dusk, red-orange gradually turning into deep blue as you lifted your eyes, fields of huge construction cranes under a file of landing planes, skyscrapers behind us and mountains ahead, mild traffic and prostitutes on the side of the highway. Cold, dry, invigorating air. Lives go on, the world is not aware that I am going through an important transition... maybe the world is right...

... the Galicians, Basques and Catalonians all want some sort of independence from Spain. However, the Basques have a terrorist group...ETA... that has been blowing up and murdering people (especially politicians) for quite some time now. They recently called off their no violence truce and have vowed to continue blowing people up until they become an independent state. Most Basques don't feel that way, but about 10% of them do which means about 500 to 600,000 people want to blow peeps ...

Intersesting is all I can really say right now. My flight from Houston to Miami ran an hour late due to weather, was ok though since I had a layover. I met a really nice woman and had a few drinks between flights and made it to my flight just in time! We took off around 6:15 Miami time and I sat next to 4 guys that were going to Spain for a few weeks. We landed in Madrid around 8:45 am Madrid time, which is 3:45 am for you all. I slept most of ...

... my best effort involved staying (mostly) within the walls of terminal three - wandering from gate to gate, investigating the cost of toothpaste, going to the ATM, confirming that toothpaste at the airport really did cost 5 Euros, buying chewing gum instead, wandering from gate to gate, checking upstairs to ensure the lady at the information desk wasn't lying about the fact that there isn't an Iberia office in that terminal, wandering from gate to gate, strolling around outside with ...

... what Tapas we wanted to order. The bartender was very nice to us - he spoke some English and turned us onto a local drink Vermout (not like Vermouth). This drink is served in a miniture pilsner glass, it´s dark in color, with a lemon wedge. Very tasty. The bartender said after two of these drinks lying becomes very common. We did have two! Chris was showing me pictures of Absinth drinks he and Sarah enjoyed in Spain ...