It's only been a month!?

Day 30. This is the part where I wake up and realize how long I was in the sun without sunscreen (insert curse word here (and you have to do better than cruciatus curse)). The worst of my burn is on my shoulders, it’s a good thing I don’t have a big backpack I have to carry around today… oh wait. Today I am catching a train to Madrid for just a couple days before I pop on over to Lisbon, Portugal, to meet up with Whitney!! I slept like a rock last night and am sad to be leaving the amazingly sunny southern Spain Seville for the overcast and just not quite the same middle of Spain Madrid. I am also realizing just how unplanned and rather silly my path through Europe is turning out to be. You would have thought I never even looked at a map before I went backpacking through Europe. But that’s alright, you live and you learn and I am having one hell of a great time learning. I got to Madrid and found my hostel just fine and met an awesome guy named Taylor from Texas upon entering my new room. After getting settled in we decided to go to some art museums here in Madrid that has free entry after 6. Win. We went to the Museo del Prado and the Museo Nacional Centro Arte Reina Sofia. Both museums were very nice and I got to see some incredible works from Velasquez, Goya, El Greco, Salvador Dali, Picasso, and many more amazing artists. Dali’s artwork was crazy!! (Babe you would have loved it). And I got to see Picasso’s Guernica in person, which was mind blowing and so massive (I wanted to take a picture so bad but security was on you like a hawk). There were a couple other nice exhibits, but I really liked Dali’s and Picasso’s work the best. Dali's was just so different and took your mind to so many places. I got home and made a quick dinner and did some research before calling it a night. I am only in Madrid for 2 days so tomorrow I am going to go on a walking tour and explore the huge city a bit before catching a night train to Portugal for a few days and then a flight to Switzerland. Yippee!!

Day 31. WHAT?! It’s only been a month!? When you are traveling, time becomes this irrelevant notion or perception. It feels more like it has been 3 months than 31 amazing days, and if not for this blog I certainly wouldn’t be able to tell you how long I had been gone for. I didn’t get good sleep last night for some reason (probably the guys coming into the room quite drunk in the middle of the night, and after that I just tossed and turned). So I laid in bed for a bit and then jumped into a cold shower. To turn on the shower you had to push a button and then the water wouldn’t turn off for like 60 seconds. It was on a timer so the water was cold and I couldn’t turn it on and then off really quick like I would a military shower; it was quite the lovely way to start the day. I desperately need to do some laundry…and my towel does not smell like roses and lilies. So because I was only staying that one night in Madrid I improvised and used my sheets as a towel, haha, win. After some breakfast I went on a walking tour of Madrid to see some of the sights. The walking tour was ok, not the best guide and I had heard a lot of the stories and information she was telling in Seville, but it was still nice to see part of the city and meet some cool people. The weather in the morning was so cold and it even hailed! But luckily the sun broke through later in the afternoon and it warmed up to be quite decent. After the tour a big group went out to lunch (Yummy paella and barbeque ribs with a dessert, drink, and coffee for so cheap!). I wanted to go see an Egyptian temple after lunch and invited a couple people to go with me, but as word spread the entire group decided to join in! So 11 of us joined forces and made our way across Madrid. Madrid is a nice city and beautiful in its own way, but coming from Barcelona, it was only alright and I am glad I was there for a short time. We stopped in the plaza de Cibeles where the Madrid soccer team celebrates after winning games, and then walked down the gran vie shopping district towards the plaza de Espagna and the Egyptian temple. On the way I saw the Spanish Justin Beiber!! Seriously, his exact look alike so I snagged a picture of course. But the temple was a gift to Spain and it is in a park with an excellent view of the city, we arrived just in time for the museum to be opening to the public and we got to go inside and see some pretty cool hieroglyphics. Afterwards we made our way all the way across the city and split up, I wanted to go to a park behind the Museo de Prado, while others wanted to go inside. So two lovely girls from Hong Kong and I made our way to the park. It was beautiful. There was a half circle of pillars and a massive statue in front of a big lake where people were rowing, and the Palais de Cristal was fantastic. It’s an all glass building that looks almost like a super nice greenhouse, but way classier. We arrived to it just as the sun was setting behind it, streaming through the glass. It’s sitting right on a small lake and there is a waterfall off to the right and a fountain in the center, black swans swimming across the lake, ugh, so gorgeous. Ever since the Alcazar I have been wanted to smell flowers, and I found a flower that smelled just like blueberries at the park. Another thing I noticed was the amount of stray cats and fat pigeons in the park, I tried to approach one of the cat/kittens and it was not having any of that. Whereas the fat pigeon just tried to wobbled away (it couldn’t go very fast or far, ripe pickings for the cats I say). After the park it was getting late and I needed to catch a train, so I said my goodbyes to the girls and walked back to my hostel to get my bag. I made a super quick dinner and said goodbye to all my hostel friends, snagged a quick dash of sangria and was off! I made it to the train station without any problems and found my train and bed easily enough (I think I am becoming more comfortable at traveling now that I kind of understand the system a bit). In my train room there are 2 elderly gentlemen and they had lots of stories to share and really liked talking, haha, but I didn’t mind because when I wake up I will be in Portugal and will get to see Whitney!!!!!