I left Algeciras in the morning after stopping at a rather nice farmer's market I stumbled upon the day before. I read 100 Years of Solitude on the trip, which I think has made me more introspective than I otherwise would have been. I realized that I really do appreciate making a deep connection with other people. The train ride was rather uneventful, except when I realized the guy sitting in front of me was the same guy who took my picture on top of the Rock of Gibraltar two days before. I took a stroll around the university district and I was kind of surprised at how industrial and "downtown" the buildings appeared. The students, however, were impeccably dressed, much better than American college students. I got to my hostel in Madrid (right off the Plaza del Sol, it was actually a fantastic location) and found it full of other American college students (surprise?). I went out for vegetarian tapas and a museum visit with the girl from Berkeley. We visited the Reina Sofia and I spent a long time contemplating Guernika. I was also rather interested in the Spanish Civil War Royalist propaganda which stimulated my design/history/Spanish interests. After dinner we met up with the other students from the hostel and went out clubbing at a huge place called Kaptial in Atocha, that is apparently famous/notorious. Went home at 4, which was apparently early. Oh well.
March 26
I left the hostel fairly early, after having a surprisingly good conversation in Spanish with girls from Argentina and Spain in the hostel "kitchen," and spent a while at el Museo del Prado. Glossing over my impressions of particular paintings, I did take a much closer look at the painting than I did the last time I was here, almost a decade ago. When I visited the Parque del Retiro it was pretty much exactly as I remember it being. I visited a food market near the Plaza Mayor that had dozens of delicious things to eat that I wish I could have taken home. I even decided to take a siesta today. When I woke up from my siesta I found out that I was sharing the 8-person hostel room with 7 girls in a group from Memorial University in St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada.
March 27
I spent the morning perusing El Rastro (giant flea market) with the Newfies. The only thing I found that I liked was a print, however, when I tried to haggle the owner said "No, this is art." There were a lot of get to know you questions, but the girls started to warm up to me. We parted ways for dinner while I went to meet my friend Walter at a sherry bar near Plaza del Sol called La Venecia, which was a little run down place, but fantastic Sherry. Afterwards, Walter and the Newfies and I went to El Tigre in Chueca, which was a phenomenally fun and cheap bar. They served huge plates of tapas with every (huge) drink and we had well more than we could eat. We hit another bar after that with a group of American college students doing a trip abroad, but that was much less interesting. Hanging out with the Newfies made me feel like an experience traveler, an old hand.
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