The Most Shocking Thing I've Ever Seen!!!

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And No.... I Didn't Shave My Goatie Off

But before I get to that.... I arrived in Madrid thinking "it's the capital, they'll have lots to see and do" and was disappointed almost immediately. On the up side though, it is a great city for just walking around as everything is all in the centre of town.

Meeting a fellow Aussie in the metro station (they're bloody everywhere I tell you) that was staying at the same hostel as me, we headed out to see some of the sites together with an American that had been on the road now for over 15 months (and I thought my trip was a long time though he spent the entire time just in Spain and France!!!) Just down the road from the hostel is the biggest street market in Europe, and I mean BIGGEST!!!. They close off about eight blocks just to set it up every Sunday morning and it sells all the usual market kind of stuff with some slightly left of centre stuff as well. We found a stall that sold all sorts of hardware from nuts, bolts and sockets to used door knobs and even vintage welding goggles. Dad would have been in heaven.

Heading past the Sofia Reina Museum, we were on a mission to find the bull fighting ring to organise tickets for that night. Eventually finding it about four kilometres away from where we thought it was didn't matter too much as it provided an excellent walk through the main parkland in the centre of town. Filled with buskers playing instruments in string quartets, solo saxophonists, trumpeters and accordion players, there was also the ones doing puppetry and still life statues. A fantastic find for something we were just cutting through on the way to somewhere else.

Finally getting our tickets after walking so far, it was now scorching hot and nearly mid afternoon so a Menu Del Dia was in order. The Spanish, like most Europeans, have lunch as their main meal for the day so all the bars and restaurants do a kind of lunch special for about nine Euros. It includes three courses starting and there is so much food all the three of us wanted to do afterwards was relax.

Off to the Plaza Del Torros that night, I only kind of knew what I was getting myself in for. The tickets we got were good seats, only about ten rows back and in the shade on the side of the ring where most of the action is shown because the dignitaries were seated in front of us. The fanfare and pomp that starts the night is very traditional with the matadors coming into the ring with their helpers and some very well padded horses. Then everyone hides except for the matador who entices the bull into the ring. What follows is gruesome to say the least and by the end of the first fight I was wondering if I could sit through the rest. I drank some concrete and sat it out as the local crowd really got in to it and creates a lively atmosphere. I know some of you are appalled that I even went in the first place and I must warn that some pictures are not for the faint of heart but, as the saying goes, when in Rome.

The last day in Madrid was spent lazing around the hostel, drinking sangria while the temperature soared above 40C before an early night for the train to Granada the next morning. Final words on Madrid.... I wouldn't bother to be honest. The country is amazing and has too much to offer to be stuck in the city.

Granada appeared in the distance after about six hours on the train passing through a landscape that became more and more arid. What's amazing is that in Australia we wouldn't be out in that kind of environment and the Spanish have orchards that are irrigated. This provides a vista of lines of scrawny trees in dry, rocky earth, broken more than occasionally by great mountains of rock that has been thrust out of the ground in ages past. Stark but beautiful in it's own way.

The city of Granada was a lot bigger then I expected it to be. I had in my mind a country town with quaint little lanes, and I was right about the lanes but that was only in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Albyzin Quarter. Outside of that is a sprawling city. Luckily for me, the hostel I had booked was right in the middle of this area which even has a gypsy community where they live in caves built into the side of the mountain. Surprisingly enough, this area is also a great place in Winter as the mountains surrounding it get good snowfalls and create a real Winter wonderland.

Spending the afternoon meeting people in the hostel, I woke the next morning early to beat the heat and headed up to The Alhambra, an imposing Arabic fortress built on the top of the hill. This is the real reason for the visit to Granada. Another UNESCO World Heritage Site and rated very highly in the Seven New Wonders Of The World, it was a palace for the local royal family and a fortress to stop invasions from the South. A gem in Spain's crown, it is also one of the most visited sites in the country and the queue to enter was already enormous before it even opened.

Back at the hostel before midday was the plan as here in Granada it get pretty warm as I was about to find out. As the sun beat down I spent the afternoon sipping sangria while in a hammock and chilling out waiting for it to become a little more reasonable out. Have you ever noticed that when you actually find out how hot it is, you automatically feel hotter then you did when you didn't know. Well... when I found out it was 49C I don't think I could have gotten any hotter until some said those words that makes you want to hit them... "Hot enough for you?" "If you think this is bad it got to 51C in Sevilla today!" Thanks!!! I don't care about Sevilla... just get me another sangria!!!

Once it cooled down enough to face the world again, a group of us headed up the hill above the hostel to a lookout point that stretches out over the valley and the Albyzin Quarter to the Alhambra. At night, they light it up on the opposite hill and it looks almost magical. Surrounded by buskers, tourists and locals alike, all taking in the breath taking vista, it was a good place to sit and relax as an end to my time in the city.

"Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am....Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of your food, your closet full of your clothes, you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience. That's not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating." - Michael Crichton

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Comments

[amy denning]

WHAT??
well, i managed NOT to get a glimpse of the graphic pics that u posted!!!!! crazy or what?? ewwww! and 49 dgrees?? WHAT THE HELL??? i don't feel so bad about starting work when its 2 degrees anymore!