Dia en Espana

Last night at 3:00 am Autumn announed that she could not fall asleep. "Count sheep" I told her... a couple minutes later she informed me that she had killed them. Which caused me (I don´t know why) to have varying visions of sheep in different sizes alternately shrinking and growing while I attempted to sleep again... Needless to say we are seriously jet lagged and as I type this blog I have a feeling that I won´t want to sleep anytime soon. Okay, well I´ll probably want to sleep tomorrow at 11:00 am when my warm hotel room seems infintely more inviting than any cold Madrid monument.

We had three goals today: breakfast, bus tour, and El Prado (The great art musuem!!). We managed breakfast, barely, so we took a brief (two hour) siesta before our tour of the city. Somehow lost in translation, was the fact that we needed to arrive forty-five minutes before our bus left instead of fifteen. Well, one taxi cab ride later landed us in the square where the bus was to leave, but no bus. Beautiful old buildings, yes. Statues, yes. Bus? NOWHERE TO BE SEEN.

This piazza was beautiful I thought as I scanned the area for possible hints as to the location of our bus. If we have to stay here that could be good. But these internal possiblities didn´t stop me from walking around with great haste to be accosted, in Spanish, by someone sent looking for us. He grabbed the paper saying we were on the tour and with some gesticulating a little Spanish and English he led us away. This works too... and we safely boarded the bus.

The staute in honor of Cervantes was pointed out three times. I suppose when one has a great author one is bound to build statues in his honor and make sure that tourists know this is where the impossible dream was dreamed. I was duely impressed and felt that I should try and take a picture with Don Quixote and Sancho.

We were also shown two chapels in honor of the artist Goya. One of the chapels is a replica and is still currently in use. The original has Goya´s art on the ceiling and his body buried inside. That is, his body minus his head which somehow got lost. I spotted it later bronzed and on display as one of the many stautes in the city.

Our one stop was the Rocky Cola cafe where we were invited to have a free Coke (they must have figured that into the price of the tour). While there, we met three handsome Italian men. Unfortunately, I speak no Italian and they spoke little English... we communicated with smiles and I am under the perception that I told one of them I drove a bus (which I managed to correct) and that I am not a teacher. (He laughed at the thought). I think our cross culteral communication was a sucess however, because they seemed taken with us... and I don´t think it was just our brilliant conversation.

We passed the bull ring. (I took a picture) And drove up the street that in days of old the bull fighters paraded down, which made me think of Hemmingway... the partial English major coming out in me.Finally, they dropped us off in the shopping district which we resolved we must visit the next day.

We did make it to the The Prado, which one could spend YEARS in. I found the historical art quite fascinating. There was one wall to wall painting of the liberal government executing some absolotionists (all the power to one person) on a beach. It was a warning. Don´t rebel against the Spainish government. Another picture depicted Mad Queen Joanna trying to make her husband rise from the dead, and another showed Isabel giving a kiss to her dead lover who she rejected before falling dead over his body. Dramatic, but interesting.

Our final destination for the day is churros and chocolate... I hope the caffine doesn´t effect Autumn. We need to sleep tonight and the sheep didn´t work last night. Adios.

-Leilani