misspent

12/24: Get to JFK a little over 2 hours before our flight. The line is insane, but we wait on it as they keep coming out to get people who are close to missing their flights. “London, Paris, Frankfurt…” No Barcelona. Finally get to the front of the line about 50 minutes before our flight. They tell us it is too late to get on. Argue for a while to no avail. They tell us to come back for tomorrow´s flight. We say send us to Madrid instead and they finally agree. It is nice not having any firm plans in Spain so that flying in to a different city doesn´t affect us at all.

12/25: 9am Spain time get into Madrid. Call up a random hostel in the Chueca, the gayborhood of Madrid. They have space. After a cab ride and a quick nap, we head to the Museo Reina Sofia (modern art museum) to see the Picassos and the rest. It is closed for Christmas, ouch. Walk through the Puerta del Sol and have lunch at a churro place. Not much for the veggies, but we manage. Head to Atocha train station and book tickets for Granada, our next stop. Computerized ticket booth system much like waiting on line at the NYC DMV. Pretty slick setup.

Finally walk our way back to Chueca and engage in one of my favorite Spanish activities, tapas. Tapas in case you don´t know are little plates of food. You walk into a place, order a drink (Rioja!) and a tapa. Then you finish that and move on to another place and start over. Many Spaniards are out in the evenings moving from place to place eating and drinking. A lot of fun, and a great way to explore the local neighborhood. Not a lot of vegetarian tapas, but enough to make it fun.