Madrid

Today marks my third day in the capitol city of Espagne, and I am enjoying more everyday that passes. My first day was a little rough, after spending the night in the Dublin airport (not the greatest night of sleep in my life) I found that getting around without knowing Spanish might be more difficult than what I anticipated. I got to my hostel fine, but was very hesitant in finding food because I didn´t have a single clue as to what items on menus were. I eventually found a place where a woman spoke english, and had a light lunch, and later had some crappy home made pasta. Luckily I´ve met some very nice Aussies here in the hostel, and they´ve helped me calm down a little, and not freak out so much about not knowing any Spanish.

Some of us tried going on a free walking tour of the city that was advertised in our hostel, but found out later that the offer was no longer there because the company had cancled the tour. So we walked around the city ourselves seeing many of the buildings that unfortunetly, I couldn´t really figure out what they were. We had a nice siesta in the park, and I had a much better version of self made pasta for dinner.

I am quite impressed with myself, if I can brag for a second, on how well I´ve been getting around town. At first it was a little difficult because I didn´t have much of an idea as to how the city was layed out, but with a small map I´ve yet to get lost, and really don´t need it anymore to get back to the hostel. I went all the way down and saw the Royal Palace, which was gorgeous, and got back to my place without using the map. Boomskies.

Today has been a bit of a pain because Wells Fargo´s ATM services have been down all day and I need cash. They claim that it will be back up in about a half an hour, but I´ll believe it when I see it. Luckily, I did have enough to buy a baguette, the juiciest peach I´ve ever eaten, and a pocket dictionary for when I want to figure words out. Dinner will be interessting though, if Wells Fargo hasn´t gotten their, for a lack of better terms, shit together (Sorry Grandma).

I will be taking the train to Valencia tomorrow, which I´m very excited for because it means a couple of things: I´ll be in a room by myself, I´ll be seeing Tom and Holly soon, and Tomatina will be in two days. I´m staying in a city in between Valencia and Bunol, where the festival is held, so I´ll probably be busing from town to town. Once that´s done, I think I´ll stay in Valencia for a couple more days, then head up to the French part of Switzerland. As much as I want to go to Portugal, I know if I go I´ll be too tempted to surf, and I just don´t trust my knee at the moment. So instead, I think I´ll go hike in Switzerland.

John