Madrid

I arrived in Madrid on a Friday ready for an exciting weekend. That Friday was EL DIA DE ESPANA, somewhat similar to our independence day though I´m told it´s in honor of the military. I was supposed to meet a friend of a friend for a drink but those plans fell through at the last minute...oh well. The aforementioned actually serves as a pretty good example of one of the reoccuring themes of this trip: make due. It has been very seldom where what I have actually planned has come to fruition, nonetheless I have adjusted and it has worked out better than fine, just as it did in this case.

I actually ended up meeting up with a couple of Aussies and an American that night and we drank and talked until the wee hours. Although I would have preferred some spanish, after several weeks of immersion I was ready for some reprieve. The Aussies were great, the American not so much. He wasn´t one of those obnoxious over the top americans who embarass our country, but I could point him out as a fraud. He failed what I like to call the Shitmus test (supposed to rhyme litmus test, clever huh?), as in he´s full of shit. The general trend among travelers is to share stories and experiences and, if at all possible, a few recommendations; however, he would always try to one up everyone with his stories so I put him to the test. We were talking about Octoberfest as he had been too and obviously had a much more amazing time than me, so I put it to him asking him what he thought of the german´s playing John Denver all the time. He got up to give me a high five saying `hell yeah, leaving on a jet plane right!?!` WRONG! Could you imagine Germans swilling lager, holding hands and singing leaving on a jet plane? Might as well grab a guitar and bust out a rendition of Kum-By-Yah (spelling anyone?) he song is THANK GOD IM A COUNTRY BOY and anyone who has set foot in a beer tent knows it because they cram it down your throat with all sorts of versions, including a techno remix. He had been beaten, and though I chose not to share with the rest of group, he knew. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest, I had falsity.

Madrid itself is kind of cool. I´d compare it to a Philly (sorry Matt) in that it´s historical and cultural but you don´t really ever need to visit it more than once. I checked out the museo de Prado , Spain´s most famous art museum with works from all the Spanish greats (de Gama, Velasquez, etc.), pretty nice though my eye for art is not what it should be. I also enjoyed the museo de jamon (literally the museum of ham) which is a local restaurant that serves up E 1.20 ham sandwhiches that I pretty much lived off of while I was there as it´s an expensive city. On Sunday I got to check out the ATP Masters event that came to Madrid. I was with my Aussie friend and we went early and got to see Federer playing a practice match with a popular spanish player whose name escapes me right now. That alone was worth the 6 euro, but we also got to see five more hours of competitive tennis with some mid-level names...not bad. That night I headed off to Santiago de Compostela.

TERRORISM
I doubt many of you heard about this as I had to check on BBC.com for the international scoop, but the previous Tuesday, el dia de Valencia, a car bomb went off in Bilbao. This was in response to the day even though it was nowhere near valencia, Basque seperatists were trying to assasinate a mayor but felled. Nonetheless Madrid was on high alert for Friday as it has been a common target. I didn´t mention this previous as the common targets are usually mass transport, though in all fairness Spain´s high alert really just means police gaurds at stations, it´s not quite like in America. Spain is one of the few unfortunate countries that continually suffers from international and national terrorism. As many of you rememeber a few years back Al Quieda hit madrid in a parking lot at the train station, and for several decades Basque seperatists (the northern region) have targeted Spanish authorities and public areas in hopes of gaining there independence. It´s quite sad really but it was unable to quell the spanish thirst for celebration and the weekend went off without a hitch.