madrid, spain

We arrived in Madrid in the evening after a 4.5 hour train ride. We took the metro a couple stops and found our hostel, which is pretty nice! Our keys to the rooms and our lockers are these plastic watches that you just touch to the door to unlock it.. fancy! Yeah it looks tacky wearing a fake plastic watch, but it's nice not having to worry about misplacing your key!

In the morning we went to the Masters Madrid tennis tournament that we had gotten cheap tickets for. It was pouring rain, and we totally walked the long way around the entire stadium to the entrance. I really need to get a new umbrella (lost mine in Switzerland =( )The tournament was pretty cool! Mike was really happy about getting to see Roger Federer play, because we didn't know who we would be seeing until the day of the match, since it all depends on who advances. We watched three of the quarter-final games, a doubles match between players whose names I can't remember, and two singles matches; one between Safin and Nabaldian and the other between Ginepri and Federer. It was even cooler when Federer won! We spent practically the whole day there, and afterwards just got some food and went back to the hostel. That night we gave our running shoes a much needed wash by throwing them in the wash machine they have here. They just haven't smelled right since we got soaked at Oktoberfest and stepped in those huge puddles by mistake on the way home. They came out so clean and fresh.. it was wonderful!

In the morning we got ready and headed out to pick up our bullfight tickets that we had ordered online. It was a nice day, but when we got to the ticket office we found out that because it had rained so bad the day before, the match was cancelled. We were told we could move the tickets to the next day when they had rescheduled it for, which we agreed to. Instead we went on a bit of a walking tour from the Puerta del Sol (big main square) to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). We sat and read in the park for a bit, then walked around some more before heading home.

The next day (today) it was raining again, so we knew for sure the bullfight would be cancelled again. I know it's something so traditional here, but I almost didn't mind that we didn't get to see it. Before coming here I thought that during a bullfight the matador just dances around the bull with the red cape yelling Torro, Torro! But talking to other people and reading about it I realized it's not like that at all. First the amateur matadors come out with their lances and do their thing and stab the bull a few times, then the big main guy comes out with his cape and dodges the bull for a while, also stabbing it multiple times. The bull dies, EVERY time. It's awful and really gory and I don't know if I could have even sat through it had we actually gone. Instead we went to the Prado Museum and saw paintings by Goya, El Greco, Bosch, Brueghels, Carravaggio and a ton more. I really enjoyed it, and along with the Belvedere in Vienna it's probably been one of my favourite painting museums so far. I got the audioguide, which really helps with understanding the stories beind the paintings. After the Prado I got some deep fried bread things called Churros, with a yummy thick chocolate dipping sauce, and then went to see a movie. I saw the Devil Wears Prada.. I had read the book on this trip and had been waiting to see the movie. It was good! It was in English with Spanish subtitles. When you buy a ticket to a movie here, there is assigned seating which is kind of weird, and they don't let you into the theatre until like 5 min before the movie starts; they make everyone wait in the lobby, heheh.

Tommorow we are going to Toledo, which will be our last stop in Spain before heading to Portugal!