Arrival

Trip Start Aug 27, 2001
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Trip End Dec 13, 2001


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Flag of Spain and Canary Islands  ,
Thursday, August 30, 2001

Well, weīre grounded. At least physically but mentally weīre all over the map. We just arrived in Madrid last night, but it took a long time to get here via plane. Jet lag seems to have taken hold of both of us. Julia seems to be able to sleep on command. I donīt know if itīs natural or not, but even if sheīs subjected to a turbulent flight or the unusually loud sniffles of the guy in the next room over, she seems to be able to sleep through it. As for myself, Iīve probably had a total of 6 hours sleep in the last 48 hours. I now get tired at the strangest times of the day... (but it only lasts a couple hours)... and when I should be sleeping, the sounds of classical music blare out from the building adjacent to us.

Our minds continued to take itīs course as we found the smallest things amused us. We abided our time in Londonīs airport by watching an elevator. It was broken and the door had a lot of trouble closing... but if you gave it about 3 minutes, it would often close. However, with the lack of sleep, this proved to be our greatest form of entertainment: free of charge and a way for us to rest our legs. We sat back and watched all the commotion. Watching the faces of the frustrated travellers in the elevator (at that time) was priceless.

When we caught our connector flight into Madrid, we met up with a couple of friends, Jordan and Kristen, who are conveniently visiting Spain at the same time. This turned out to be a blessing as they are familiar with Madrid and Jordan speaks fluent Spanish. This really helped in locating our hostel. Julia and I are staying in a double room in a reasonable hostel. Itīs nothing flashy (with a lack of paint on some walls) but itīs clean and it seems quite safe. Jordan and Kristen are staying with other friends of theirs.

Today hasnīt featured too much. A lot of it involved eating and making sure we were hydrated. We started by trying to go to Toledo (a fairly old town only an hour south) but we ran out of time in our attempts to catch the train. Toledo has been tentatively postponed until tomorrow... unless we miss the train again! The rest of today saw us wandering the streets of Madrid. If we saw something that needed our attention we would stop, but there was no predetermined plan. We ended up visiting a famous art museum - the Reina Sophia. There certainly were a lot of strange exhibits. I guess I donīt understand what the artist is trying to say through a blank canvas and the odd dab of colour. However, the hi-light for me was certainly the Salvador Dali portion of the museum. Thereīs just so much to see in one of his paintings. You could spend a good 15 minutes with one piece and still find new things hidden in it.

After that, we wandered some more. Found a seat on a plaza, where much of the Spanish Inquisition had went down, and sipped down a cool beverage. We got up and wandered once again. We found more food and this Internet cafe. And thatīs where you find us today. Diligently typing away.

Well before I ramble on too much more, Iīm going to leave it at that. Iīll try to get another entry in before we head down to Malaga.

Take it easy, and Julia says ĻWassup dogĻ.
Chad
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