Madrid

The next day we headed south to Madrid to meet Jenny. We arrived in Estacion de Atocha, which is renowned for its beautiful greenhouse (see below) and took the metro to Puerta del Sol, located in the heart of the city, to check in to our hostel. As we leaving the metro station, we walked through an anti-war demonstration being held in the plaza. It was a bit chaotic, but for the most part, it very civil. The location of our hostel Barbieri Sol, was pretty ideal, as there were lots of restaurants, mercados, panaderias, and clubs within walking distance. One of the things I had heard about Madrid was that it was a big party city in comparison to Barcelona. It seems to be true. I also had an easier time communicating with the locals, in Barcelona, Catalan is spoken and I could not always understand what was being said. In Madrid, I had no problem communicating. We had time for sangria and tapas before we set off to meet Jenny. It took us most of the day, but finally we found each other in time for a walk down Paseo del Prado, which is a street lined with palaces and museums. We finished off with dinner and drinks...it was so great to see her!
We were staying at different hostels, so we arranged to meet up the following day at about noon. We had brunch at a cafe then headed out to a street market held daily called El Rastro, in La Latina at the Calle de de Cortidores, which sells everything from antiques, clothes, jewelry, pets, ect. We spent a few hours shopping for deals and gifts for friends and family back home. Afterwards we all went back to our hostels to get ready for dinner. Since we were celebrating my birthday, I got to pick the restaurant. Eventually, we found a Cuban restaurant (ropa vieja is one of my favorite dishes of all time). We enjoyed fried sweet plantains, black beans, white rice, tostones, pork and beef until we could take no more! After that, we found a small, intimate jazz club called Populart. By US standards the decor seemed a politically incorrect (logo) but there is no doubt the people running establishment appreciate jazz. The Larry Martin Band was performing that night and featured a vocalist, guitarist, stand up bass, pianist, and percussionist. They were very good and we enjoyed the show. A few hours after that, it was time to call it a night. On our way back, Jenny bought me a churro at a panaderia and she and Erin sang happy birthday...they were so sweet! I had been missing my family and friends all day (thanks again for the messages and emails) they really made it a special day...thanks ladies!
Erin left the next morning, and I moved over to Jenny's place, the Way Hostel.
We walked down Calle Atocha to Estacion de Atocha to buy our overnight train tickets to Lisoba, Portugal for the next day. It was the first time I got a really good look at it. The greenhouses's tropical garden is stunning, and there are dozens of freshwater turtles piled up on logs in a pond. Construction is evident everywhere, as Atocha was the site of a series of terrorist bombings back in March 11th, 2004 that killed 191 people.
Jenny had noticed that the station was right across the street from the Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia and we decided to go there after a terrific lunch at El Brillante, an old school sandwich shop.
Reina Sophia is Madrid's modern art museum and was originally a hospital centuries ago. It now features the works of Salvador Dali, Juan Gris, Joan Miro, and Picasso and focuses on Spain's contributions to the Surrealist movement. This was actually the first modern art museum I have visited on this trip, and it was a refreshing change from the hours of viewing more classical works the last few weeks. One of the highlights was viewing Picasso's Guernica.
After making dinner that night, we joined a group of ladies from Australia and went dancing. Jenny is a fantastic dancer and we kept it going... the DJ played a lot of US pop music with some salsa mixed in.
The next day was slow going. We felt like shopping and went out to find a collection of stores, called Fuencarral that Jenny had heard about which carried a lot of local, indy labels. We both bought dresses, (Jenny picked out a beautiful one for me) and after a late lunch began to head back to the hostel. It was about 7 pm and prostitutes were now everywhere to be seen, where only hours earlier the same calle had seemed like an upscale mall.
Later that evening we caught the overnight train out to Lisboa at Estacion de Charmartin.
On the way to Madrid from Barcelona




Tapas y sangria, good times




Charmartin




































Let the birthday festivities begin!








Before....



...and after...



















One last coffee with Erin






The greenhouse at Atocha









26 what?!?






Reina Sophia


























Desigual, my new favorite store









The dress...





On the train to Lisboa, we celebrated with a glass of port wine, which Portugal is famous for....





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Barcelona

Erin and I arrived in Barcelona early in the morning at the Estacio de Franca. We headed over to a coffee shop in Pla del Palau called Negro Carbon and had breakfast. No more cafe creme, in Spain it's just cafe con leche. We took the metro to our hostel, the Garden House Hostel Barcelona, which is located in the northern part of the city, the Zona Alta region. Erin rested (she wasn't feeling too well, food poisoning ) while I sat up in the terrace and caught up on email. It was very sunny, palm trees with wild canaries here and there, and you could see the ocean off in the distance. We met some of our roommates, students on spring break from Connecticut, and they suggested a few places to go and have dinner. A couple of hours later, Erin decided she was didn't want to miss out on her two days in Barcelona, so we went for a walk, thinking we would try to make it all the way down to the waterfront. Walking through the northern part of the city was a great way to get acquainted with the locals, as we were far out from the tourist attractions to the south. After wandering around for about and hour or two, we realized we still had a way to go, so we decided to take the metro the rest of the way. We got off at a station that was located in front of an impressive monument honoring Christopher Columbus. We were in the southern part of the Barri Gotic neighborhood which is just full of tourists. We decided to try to go to a less crowded area, and went back to the metro section. As we were boarding, a guy jumped between Erin and I and starting pushing her backwards as if to push her back onto the train station platform. She pushed back with both of her hands, and at that point a second man reached into her front pocket and stole her iPhone. Apparently this happens pretty often, the second man then throws the phone to a third person waiting on the platform and then they run off, while the victim remains in the train car, not able to do anything but get off at the next stop. The police call it a sandwich. It happened very quickly, and it was very upsetting. Thankfully, Erin was not hurt. We went to the police station and filed a report. We also wiped the info on her iPhone by using the Find My iPhone app. The police said that the chances the pickpockets are interested in stealing info off of a phone is very low, they just want to sell it as quickly as possible. We were really bummed but realized it could have been much worse (and it was for someone else later in Madrid; a girl staying in our hostel had her passport, credit cards, and I.D. stolen right off the plane). The Madrid police were very helpful and after Erin filed a report, they let her use their phone to call the US to call her parents and AT&T to cancel her service.
Later in the evening, we headed back to the hostel. We another roommate, a fellow San Franciscan, who was headed to Madrid meet his girlfriend the next day to see a bullfight. He was really nice and shared a bottle of wine with us to celebrate his last night in Madrid.
The next day we were determined to let go of what happened and explore the rest of the city. We got off the metro in one of Barcelona's most eccentric modernista neighborhoods, L'Eixample, starting at La Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's masterpiece. We then walked the rest of the neighborhood, finding more examples of his work, including Casa Mila, which resembles a building made of coral. We then took the metro back to Barri Gotic, this time at the northern end, and walked down La Rambla, a street filled with shops, cafes, and street performers. We also managed to squeeze in a little shopping in near the Vila Olipmica, by the waterfront. It was a great day and we had managed to shake off the bad vibe from the day before. We headed back to the hostel for dinner that night, as we were leaving early the next morning to meet Jenny in Madrid...and celebrate my birthday!













Apparently, this is a desayuno americano. I call it desayuno d.e.l.i.c.I.o.u.s!!!






The view from the hostel's terrace.









































































La Rambla






Street performer






My kind of music






The waterfront





Columbus Monument






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