misspent

12/26: Found a cafeteria (Spanish word for little restaurant) and got a manchego y tomate (cheese and tomato) sandwich. Then headed off to the Prado museum, one of the world´s finest art museums. Saw work by Goya, Velazquez, Bottocelli and others. It was amazing to see how much of the work was of Jesus´s crucificion amongst other Biblical stories. Tried to also work out exactly what the immaculate conception was (lots of paintings on this). Many people say it was Mary becoming pregnant as a virgin, but I believe from what I´ve read, it is actually how Mary was conceived without original sin.

After a great day at the Prado, walked over to the Plaza Mayor where they were selling new years wigs and masks. I guess that is the thing to do in Madrid on New Years.

In the Tourist Information booth there, you can check e-mail for free, so did that and IM´d a bit. Then ran to the Hostal Catalan for our bags and off to the train station. Had some quick tapas at the station and then boarded the lovely Renfe train to Granada. The train was late getting in, and no hostels would answer the phone. We are at an abandoned train station with nowhere to go. We share a cab with an American we meet in the station. She has a place to go. We try a few hostels from our guidebook, but no love. Finally stumble upon Hostal Austria right off Plaza Nueva and they have a great room for 35 €. Drop bags and head out and find a falafel place open late (after midnight at this point). We then explore the neighborhood but the only place open is La Taberna de Irelandia (Irish pub). Hang out with some locals there listening to American 80´s music and drinking Spanish wine. Strange scene to say the least.

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.