HABLO ESPANOL!!

---

MADrid is one of those places that is constantly compaired to Barcelona. Alot of people say that if you love Barcelona you will hate Madrid and vice versa. As most people know, I LOVE barcelona.. very much thank you! But to be honest, I definitely did not hate madrid. I really like it actually. It´s generally a pretty relaxed feeling town, even with the huge motorways and Grandvia and such. And all the heaps of cars.

The hostel we stayed at was actually not that bad. The location was fantastic. Right beside the Opera House, and directly behind that is the Palace. Right close to a metro, and Sol, it´s pretty central to shopping streets, and most tourist sights.

The main touristy thing we did in Madrid was go to the Prado museum. Which is actually... an art gallery. I personnaly thought it was going to be a shoe gallery.. ahah kidding. Anyway. It is full of interesting works. I personally think I like Velascquez (sp?) the best out of everything we saw. It is really impressive work, and there was this one amazing painting that takes up almost a whole wall that is really breathtaking. There is alot of religious works and one random section of paintings of foods, and such, which was basically a six foot area and sort of appears out of nowhere. Some of the paintings are extremely wierd.. but I don´t think I can really explain it. I think you´d have to go there.

I also went to a huge park where supposedly the first statue that was dedicated towards the devil, or the fallen angel. It is a pretty impressive statue in it´s appearence, but it´s size is actually relatively small.. and carrying such a big title, I guess I assumed that it would be a little bit bigger.

On our last night, we went to a Salsa club that was really fun.. I don´t think I have ever actually dances salsa before, but with the help of a Brazilian bloke, I learned and was dancing away all night. It was a really fun night, and I think I will definitely seek out another salsa club somewhere along the way.

Besides that, to be honest, for sight seeing, there is not much to see in madrid and 2 days was definitely enough. Now I´m in San Sebastian! and will soon be writing about that too.. Catch ya later!

---