Warm Weather! Sunshine! Spain!!

Wow, Spain is amazing.

However, my intial reaction the country wasn´t exactly a positive one. We arrived into a small city outside of Terragona called Reus, and immediately experienced the language barrier when we couldn´t even convince our waitress to give us menus at a local deli. In the end, though, we got some great sandwiches, learned the invaluable word ´bocadillos´ (a type of sandwich), and she got a great tip.

That Friday night wasn´t too great either however. We had an overnight, seven hour train ride to Madrid, and we had a very weird Asian lady in our cabin who woke us up nearly every hour. In the end, she even asked us if we knew where 'Any good hostels, cheap hotels, monastaries, asylums...' and we stopped listening at that point.

We got into Madrid at about 7am, and our Hostel wasn´t ready yet. To kill time, we went to the Prado Museum, which is a pretty good art museum. Its no London, but it was still good, and cheap (take that, stupid Uffizi Museum). Once our Hostel was ready, we threw ourselves into the culture and grabbed a siesta (which actually does exist here...most stores close between 1pm and 5pm). That night we hung out in the hostel, ate some good Spanish buffet, and met some crazy Aussies who were rooming with.

The next day we used the metro to get around the city, and saw the Real Madrid (a local football...that´s soccer for you North Americans...team. The team is arguably the best and most successful team of the 20th century). The stadium tour was great, and the tropy hall was impressive. That night however, the team wasn´t in town, so we went to another local team´s game...Atletico Madrid. While that team isn´t as good (10th in the league compared to Real being 2nd), they did manage to whomp on Mallorca, who is 19th in the table, 4-0. So at least we say some good goals. And some crazy Spanish fans. They actually chant the 'Ole, Ole ole ole' Zahm-type song here. Who knew...

The next day in Madrid was our last, so we went to the Royal Palace where King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia live (Madrid is, after all, the capital of Spain). On our tour, we got to see 22 impressive rooms...out of the 2800 (yes, that´s two thousand eight hundred) that are in the palace. Needless to say, its a big place. We then got a train to Valencia, where I sit now.

Valencia is amazing the same way Venice is amazing compared to Rome. There´s not all that much to see, but the atmosphere is hard to find anywhere else. Our first day here we got in pretty late, so we had some pizza for dinner and just chilled.

The next day (yesterday, actually), we spent the entire day at the beach, building sand castles, reading, laying out, and playing on a sweet rope jungle gym that they had. I miss the sand, and it was a pretty nice beach.

Last night we made pasta for dinner...so cheap! Even the beer is cheap...one litre for about a euro (about $1.33 USD). After dinner, we hung out with some Iowa State girls that were staying in our hostel as well, and after playing some drinking games with them, us guys went out to a local bar. It was a typical movie-esque, dirty Spanish bar. And it was awesome.

Today we walked around the city and saw some of the sites. We climbed up some towers, went to the market (more on that later), and wandered through the huge park that runs around the city. In the park, we tried to find the zoo, but instead stumbed upon the third annual Valencian Open tennis tournament. And it was a big deal.

After getting into the tourney, we realized that this was no small local fare. We saw Costa beat some Austrian guy, and Nadal (currently 4th in the world...ahead of Roddick and Agassi) beat Ferrero (a former world number 1 player). We were quite impressed with our find, and the tennis was amazing.

After the tournament, we got some taco stuff for dinner from the store (which ended up being really good), and just hung out in the Hostel. However, it was no ordinary hanging out...

As previously promised, I´ll bring up the market again. While there, we got a bottle of Absinthe for 25 euro (which is pretty good considering it's decent stuff). For those who don't know, Absinthe (or the Green Fairy) is 140 proof alcohol, and has wormwood extract in it, which some argue provides hallucinagetic effects. That´s also why it's banned in the US...I don't know though. I didn't see anything weird. It definitely tastes weird though. Think of black licorice candy...that's on fire. Man, that stuff burns.

But now I sit about to go to bed. We head out to Barcelona tomorrow, and hopefully we'll catch some bullfighting. Oh, and Bryan, I went to a huge Spanish comic book store for you today. I have a couple surprises...hope you like Ultimate X-Men number two in Spanish :)

Good night all, and Adios!