“City Life Anymore…?”

With today being Sunday, that means it’s my last full day here in Spain as tomorrow I leave back to the United States. When I arrived Friday, I shopped for gifts mainly and went out at night with two of my roommates. Oh and that night we met the trippiest bartender, the most intense bartender we’ve ever seen! I’m still trippin’ over this guy…just weird!

Saturday morning I switched hostels further south near Puerta del Sol, Cat’s, and went to the Prado right away. I know this should have been my first activity in the city but I never got around to it. Anyways I’ve seen some amazing museum’s and art on this trip, but no museum tops the Prado for me. It’s not considered one of the greatest museums on Earth for nothing! It only cost 6 euros, there was no line and it wasn’t too crowded. I saw masterpieces like Bosch’s The Garden of Delights, Fra Angelico’s The Annunciation, Goya’s Saturn Devouring One of His Sons and of course, the highlight, Diego Velazquez’ Las Meninas. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but how funny…even in my last few days here in Europe I’m still continuing to see amazing things!

I wanted to catch a flamenco show here but the authentic ones are so expensive. They were expensive in Sevilla too! So I passed on the 22 euro charge and chilled last night with the people in my room. Portugal with Fado is no different. 20 euros at the least gets you an authentic performance. Oh well.

And last night as I was hanging out with my roommates (a Brisilian girl, a Mexican girl and a Polish guy), the whole “United States” thing came up. They weren’t saying anything bad about the U.S. or bad mouthing our politics, but I just thought to myself, “Here we go again…could we talk about less serious things.” I wish people would be able to look past their images of America, which all come from the screen, and see America for what it is…it’s good parts. Thing is, for outsiders their images and stereotypes are based on roughly 3 things, our foreign policy, Hollywood movies and drunk, stupid American tourists and backpackers that don’t know how to act. That old, weird America which is a term for everything that is good about America, manifests itself in different things. Our culture may not be as prevalant as Europe’s with museums on every street corner or monuments 700 years old, but it’s there. U2 was able to channel some of it with the Joshua Tree back in 1987. Bruce Springsteen was catching some of those channels on Born to Run back in the ´70s as well…well all his albums actually. Bob Dylan too of course with The Basement Tapes. Harry Smith’s anthology, etc.

But back to Madrid, this morning I went to the famous Rastro flea market which is this sprawling market selling everything and anything in the barrio of La Latina, where supposedly the tried and trued, hardcore Madrilenos live. They’re called Castizos. And since Madrid is a city of immigrants and not too many true Spaniards, La Latina and neighboring Lavapies are considered to be the last true barrios of Madrid.

After this I’m gonna go to Las Ventas to get a ticket to a bullfight tonight, but it’s not a Corrida de Toros, it’s an amateur one, a novillada, which I haven’t seen yet so it should be interesting. Tickets are only 5 bones. And since Las Ventas is very close to the northern Madrid barrio of Salamanca, I want to walk through that area and see what it’s like. It’s suppose to be very posh and more affluent than the rest of Madrid. It’s the “rich” part of the city, supposedly. After I plan on eating more tapas and going out with the guys from Pop tonight. Pop was the hostel I mainly stayed at in Madrid my first week here. It’s where I met so many people and it basically set my trip in motion for the next 3 months. The people that work there are really cool, so basically I’m coming full circle here in Madrid!

Adios y Ciao!

Like I wrote in my last entry, I only stayed in Zaragoza for one night. That’s basically all I needed and I know if I would have stayed for a second night, I would have been bored outta my skull! There were some cool sights, mainly concentrated in the city center. The catedral was pretty damn impressive and quite out of the ordinary…everything from the interior to the architecture to the alter. The rest of the city was cool but that’s about it. The city also had a pretty happening scene in the evening that kinda suprised me, but then again, it shouldn’t have as this is Spain.

The next morning (today) I barely made it in time to get the 8:45a bus to Madrid. On the way there (through part of Castilla y Leon) I eneded up seeing 4 of those Osborne bulls. As I wrote earlier, I had seen 4 in total up to that point and within a 4 hour bus ride I saw 4 more. Quite impressive I must say.

Now I’m back in Madrid, for a 3rd time before I leave Monday afternoon back to my home in California. Being back in Madrid…again, is weird and exciting at the same time. I was really excited to be back in the city and as soon as I got here I hit the streets and bought the rest of my regalos for the people back home. Well almost all of them…I still need to get my grandpa and mom something. Tomorrow I plan on going to the Prado (yes I know it should have been one of the 1st things I seen here in Madrid) and also to the barrios of Lavapies, Salamanca and La Latina to see how they are. Sunday I want to go to the famous Rastro market and at night to another bullfight, but a novillada, not a professional one. Those are the main things I want to do, and maybe a few other little things like catching a flamenco show and visiting a few other random sites scattered around town.

But when I’m here I get this weird energy and excitement. Maybe it’s the fact that everyone else here is so energetic?? I don’t know but it’s exciting! And whenever my lazy ass isn’t chompin´down on massive amounts of ice cream, I’m usually walking down the streets getting a feeling of how this exhilerating city is. I love it!

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