Plaza de los Toros (bullring)

Finally... we've arrived at the bullfight. I was surprised and relieved that the tickets I purchased online actually were waiting here for us. (I used google translate on a spanish website!) Tickets were only about 7 Euro, as the matadors we were going to see today were younger and inexperienced. They charge more for famous matadors, and if you want a seat that isn't in the hot sun. Luckily, this bullfight started at 7pm, so the sun was easily bearable. There were 3 matadors and 2 bulls each, so a total of 6 "bullfights" going on, each taking about 20 minutes.

Central Park in Madrid

We got pretty tired from seeing sight after sight for the past few days, so we decided to take a break and explore the park in central Madrid. It's actually a huge park with multiple subway stops inside it. There's a lake/pond in the center of it as well, some nice grass and statues to hang out and relax. There's also boats to rent, but we were more in the mood to just kick it in the grass for a while.

Papas Bravas and Chicken wings

Wandering around Madrid, we decided to stop for some Horchata and get a tiny Tapas snack. I'd like to think that I was the driving force for most of the reckless eating on this trip, and still believe that to experience a culture, you must gorge upon the cuisine until you have no room left. yes... that's it. Bethany was a great sport and agreed to eat at almost every occasion. Anyway, Madrid seemed cool with this idea and offered up a lot of places to just eat, sit outside, and people watch. Here's a couple Tapas dishes... Papas Bravas (the fried potatoes with a red sauce) and standard ol' barbecue wings. The Horchata was pretty good, and the place had multiple flavors, many of which we couldn't decode. It was a beautiful day, and we got to see a lot of people in this more upscale part of town. Working professionals and a posh set of shopping department stores.

Los negros pequenyos

Craving some coffee and actual breakfast the next morning, we stopped by this place on our way to the Prado museum. Traditional Spanish breakfast is typically a pastry or churros y chocolate, but today I really wanted eggs and coffee, so we went to this cafe that was not far from the Prado. (if memory serves) Bethany got a pastry and I actually received some remarkably good scrambled eggs here and enjoyed my coffee quite a bit. The eggs were fluffy and consistent, but they were missing something. I remembered that "sal" is the word for salt, but for the life of me I couldn't remember the word for pepper. I ate away for a couple bites thinking they were good, but man... some pepper would really hit the spot!

Moments after thinking on this for a while, I found myself boldly asking the waiter if he had any "negros pequenyos", thinking I was asking if he has the little black things. He seemed a bit stunned and then out of no where started laughing pretty hard. He then walked over to the bar where the other waiter was and told him what I said. They both looked back at me and laughed together now, with one of the guys bent over he was laughing so hard. The other waiter looked at me and quite clearly stated the word "Pimienta" for pepper. Of course! Senora Ramirez would be so ashamed that I had forgotten such a simple word. We both laughed with the waiters, and our waiter came over and put his hand palm down a couple feet off the ground and said quietly "negros pequenyos"... "no los tengo!" ... From this I came to understand he had no black children. nice to know... a little embarrassing, but still.. I will always remember Pimienta now!

The Royal Palace (Palacio Real) in Madrid

Just 30 minutes later by RENFE train, we arrived in Madrid. This city is bigger than the others we've seen, has a gigantic green park in the middle, and large sights to see, including the Prado museum and the Palacio Real. Here's Bethany showcasing the royal palace. It was huge enough to exhaust me on the tour we attended, though there is an armory in the basement that had some pretty cool sets of armor and weapons. Surprisingly, there was armor for horses and little kids too... rough times I guess. Anyhow, the palace itself was pretty ridiculous, way too many rooms!

A cool statue in Toledo

Toledo is quite small, and generally surrounded by a tall city wall. Near the gate on the outer edge of the town is a statue of the old emperor. There are other sites close by that we hit up, including the giant cathedral (back a few posts) and the Santa Cruz museum, which has a lot of art from El Greco. We studied him in Spanish class back in high school, and his paintings are characterized by really long fingers and pale, almost ghoulish skin tones. Anyway, here's a cool picture of the emperor's statue near the gate.

Toledo at night

Bethany and I explored the streets at night, and found that Toledo is a bumping place for restaurants and bar crawling. The cave-like bars (called Mesones) are small fronted, but deep. For an extremely religious city, there were young people everywhere getting tapas and drinking Canyes (a canye is a half-pint of beer) .... The Spanish apparently like their beer very cold, so they like the small glasses. Mahou is the big macro brew, which was clear and tasty, though the bottles were probably only about 10 oz!

The streets of Toledo (the one in Spain)

With the conference behind us, Bethany and I set off for Toledo. It's about 5 hours on a fast AVE train to Madrid, then 30 min to Toledo. Our plan was Toledo first, then Madrid for a couple days before moving on. Toledo is filled with tight winding streets like this one, and we happened to arrive in town during their city festival. The city was charming and there was lots of dancing and music in the streets. This place is known for silver and sword-making as well, and has the largest cathedral in all of europe. Here's the cathedral at night, with a stage just outside for dancing.

A day trip to Figueres

After a night of dinner, bars, and clubbing (Jessica is a clubber, and it shows!) by the pier in Barcelona, we woke up and pushed off on a 2 hour train ride to Figueres to check out Salvador Dali's hometown. Once there, we got off the train and wandered until we found the museum, which is probably the most bizarre museum ever.


Here's the central courtyard, which features a statue of a woman on a car with a gunshot blown window. It looks as if the driver was shot through the glass, but that's as far as logic could take me. The place was filled with all different types of art, animatronic structures, mirrors, paintings, and sculptures. Jessica, Bethany, and I had a great time bouncing around this place, though there was a french school class fieldtrip to deal with. (Figueres is very close to the french-spanish border)

Vespas everywhere!

There is definitely a large scooter-driving population in Barcelona.
Here's a view of the street from Jessica's hotel room. It's in the university area, but there are a lot of working professionals as well, many of whom ride these babies.

Arc du Triumph

Apparently Paris is not the only place to have an Arc du Triumph.
Here's one in Barcelona, somewhat near the Picasso Museum.


Modern art in Barcelona is speckled everywhere. There's this metal alien walker thingy, which caught my eye, and a giant lobster nearby.

Mexican food near the university

After a few nights in a row eating Tapas, Jessica had had enough of spanish food altogether.
She had a jones for Mexican food, and I wasn't too picky, so we found this place near the university. The food was tasty, and the server guy was so friendly that we decided to come back and watch the Pistons game. (they lost) Bethany met up with us a bit later, and here she is with Jessica, a few cokes and a few Modelos later, and it was smiles all around.
Here's Bethany and her at a premier Mexican restaurant.

The Picasso Museum

Ok, so they don't let you take any pictures in the Picasso Museum, but here's a picture of some of the cool graffiti nearby. There's also a museum of Xocolato (chocolate!), but we didn't make it inside during their open hours.

There was a lot of interesting Picasso art in the museum though, including some old juvenile stick figure porn type stuff. There was a special room for this young and "raunchy" stage in his life, which included a picture of two people having sex with a cat in the room.

More Gaudi in Barcelona

Here's Bethany sitting down at Guadi's Parc Guell ... We miraculously met people here who were visiting from San Francisco.... crazyness. Also, an episode of America's top model was apparently filmed here as well. culture clash!



Here's a view of Barcelona from the Parc Guell, which isn't all that impressive as far as cities go, but you can see the Mediterranean. The two sky scraper type buildings in the distance are where my hotel was. The gingerbread styling seemed pretty surreal/strange in the middle of a residential area of Barcelona.

Here's a figurine on the side of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia unfinished church. This type of ornamental detail is all over the place, as well as the Parc Guell.