El Sol en Madrid es Muy Bonita!

Hola! Yo estoy Madrid con muchos nuevos amigos. Y comida. Mmmm. Im in Spain!

First a bit more of France. I had escargoe. Um, amazing.




I passed an old woman in a red coat walking alone down this boulevard. This may be one of the ones to frame later on.






SPAIN!


So, Im writing this at the end of my time in Spain, just about to get on a night train to Portugal. It's kind of difficult to sum up these three days here...Ive felt like its been two weeks. In a good way. Everything is so rich here, and people really enjoy their lives in Madrid. My Spanish has rolled of my tongue here in Spain. I've had many conversations completely in Spanish, which really amazes me. I can't believe how much I actually know - but of course, I'm mainly conversing about food, traveling, where i live, what i like, what i do, etc. Not exactly pontificating on the meaning of life or politcal climates in Madrid. But then again, not many people do here I think. It's all pretty chill.

I spent three nights in three different places. The first was the hostel. Then from there, since the hostel was full, I went to a guys place on a moments notice. I got there at 11am, and this Spanish playboy informed me that he had just gotten home from the disco (club, haha) and that i needed to be quiet and take a nap because he had done a lot of drugs that night and needed to sleep. Haha, I'm sure I just made my family jump. Not to work though - dont forget in addition to my keen sense of judgement, im also a black belt and my Swiss Army knife has a toothpick. But in the end, he did my laundry for me while I was exploring the city, so there you go.

Then the third day and night I came over to Mike's place, an older gentleman from England who now teaches English here in Madrid (picture to follow on the next blog.) Very proper and English, he greeting me with breakfast and a refreshing conversation in English. It's been fantasic staying with Mike - many short conversation about fables, culture, and the many differences between men and women (and the art of wooing).

Now, come with me on a pictoral journey through Mardid. A few short videos await you and the end of this post...


Check out what i saw in the train station...



The first thing i did was seek out tapas, which are small plates of awesome food, usually some sort of meat, cheese, and or calamary. Or basically anything. Just grab a toothpick and eat something!




Spaniards love meat.



Sometimes a simple table in a square all to yourself is the most romantic thing.




Check out that refelction.





Yup, Im ridiculous.





A favorite people watching moment. A dad teaches his son to walk amoungst the flowers.




Here he shows his son some flowers.




Ole!





A famous tapas bar. All these bulls fought and died in the sqaure outside the restaurant. There are gory pictures on the wall of bullfighters encountering the bad end of a horn.




Check out all the people relaxing in the sun and enjoying food and drink.




Some friends from the hostel. I went up to each one of these people individually and got to know them, and then kind of brought them all together in this group. I was kind of the Kevin Bacon here (finally, haha)




Here's the common room of the hostel. Just imagine a bunch of drunk, smoking travelers from different countries watch TV, and possibly looking for a hookup. hahaha, that's traveling!




The hostel kept all there wristband keys on this huge stick, which I just thought was so cool. Hahaha. This girl was a little embarrased I think that more than one person wanted to photograph this cultural artifact.





This one needs no explanation. Im just a doofus.




Check this out: there's a projector TV inbetween subway tracks. People can catch up on current events and news by staring straight forward at this screen that just barely fits between the trains. Also a good distraction for pickpockets.




The 2nd and 3rd of May are big days in Madrid. There are even twin paintings of the same name showing their revolutiona and independance from the rule of Napoleon. This year marks the 200 year anniversary. So it was basically three days (culminating on the third) of events and fesitivals to celebrate. And I just happened to be here on these days by chance! Awesome, huh?




Check this out: they had a violinist standing next to this guy who cranked a wheel and spunt these guitars. Each one was tuned to a different key, so when spun it was sort of a Jack in the Box sound.








This was sooooo cool. They were using industrial instruments that made some sort of sounds when you hit or plucked them. Click on it for more detail. There was a symphony in the background, and in the foreground, factory type workers making music on forklifts.





It's funny what you see and remember on a trip. The first month or so of this trip I will remember many things, but one stands out: The movie 'Fools Gold'. Panned in the U.S., this movie just hit Europe. I've seen this dumb poster in three different languages now. I love it and hate it: Love it because it reminds me of something familiar, but hate it because I can't escape it. The title kind of changes to with the language. I dont have to worry about being lonely though: Wherever I go, Kate Hudson and Matthew McCaunaghy are with me.




This is part of the festivities! Children had built this huge puzzle of a famous painting next to this huge church.





I happened upon this mock wrestling match. Very Venice Beach style, but family friendly. These two guys had the crowd in the palm of their hands. They also liked to flirt with any women, which always equals good times in big crowds.





These guys were so funny. They had put the George W. Bush mask next to my one a kid at one point to illustrate that he was the villian of the wrestling match.






Life is a bit slower here in Madrid. Another favorite people watching moment.



Something with Sacramento in the title! Huzzah! It's the name of the street here. All the street signs here have drawings on them so that before the majority of the citizens were literate, people could still get around.




Selling stuff on the street here is apparently illegal, but shifty guys still try to get away with it, with one eye on the cops (which is easy because cops here wear reflecting neon yellow), and one eye on your wallet. Click the picture for a close up look to see the strings attached to all four corners of the cloth so they can pull it up and make a getaway at a moments notice.



In the evening, I happened upon these evangelists doing street evagelism in both English and Spanish. They've been here for over 20 years. Much similiar to the evangelism I did in India. This was so great!





In the evening, there was this huge fiesta in a major plaza with people suspended from cranes and inside huge hamster wheels in the sky. "Hampster Wheels in the Sky" - the next Radiohead song I assume, haha.




The crowd was worse than Disneyland on New Years. Not kidding. Ive been there. Maybe not as many strollers as Disneyland though, thank goodness.



Today I was sitting in the plaza reading, writing, and just generally people watching, and here are these old guys just chewing the fat. One of my favorite people watching moments so far. Almost as many canes as dogs in this plaza.







These stores are everywhere. They're kinda the Target of Madrid. They have everything you need, except instead of having them all under one roof, they're all spread out. So you may be shopping for clothes, but if you need toothpaste or a radio, you'd have to go to two different stores around the corner.








Madrid is very aware there are tourists, but also just very proud of their heritage. A perfect storm for scenes like this. Much like when I saw the Scotsman with bagepipes in Edinburgh by the train station.






Here's me introducing a fine, Spanish institution.






Here's a bit of the musial festivities to celebrate "3 de Mayo"!

Off to Portugal!

Hola, Amigos y Familia, de España!

Hey, I actually found the key on the keyboard with an ¨ñ¨! Cool. This is just a little short post to say hi to everyone from Spain, and thank you for all your comments and well wishes on my blog here. I dont have much time to write or put any pictures for Spain yet. Its a HUGE holiday here - 200 years independence from the dand French. Im at an internet cafe right now, and stayed at a hostel for the first time on the trip last night.

I´m staying with a guy tomorrow night, so if there´s time, ill put some of the amazing pictures Ive taken in Madrid thus far. All I can say is Madrid knows how to eat! Anyway, thanks again for posting everyone, it´s good to hear from you. Nice to know people are keeping up with it! I wish I could have some friends here in some of these cities, but at least you´re kind of here with me. Take care, Im off to eat dinner in about 6 different restaurants - tapas - and its 11pm!

The Longest Blog Ever from Amsterdam and Paris

Bonjour! Ok, there are so many pictures on this blog, whew. Right now I'm finishing my second day in Paris by listening to Elvis Presley and writing this blog to you fine people...whoever is reading this. Wow, pretty much anybody can read this...huh. Anyway, time to backtrack a bit and finish the blog on Amsterdam.

Back in January I auditioned for a sketch comedy troupe called Boom Chicago that performs in Amsterdam. I didn't get it (obviously), but i figured I'd see what all the fuss was about. The show was pretty good - high energy, and pretty "blue" actually. Not sure if I would want to peform that way seven nights a week though - mainly because you can still smoke in there - but not after June! Smoke 'em while you can, you Dutch. So anyway, Seth Meyers, currently on SNL, is an alumnus, and since it was alumni night, he was there and performed.




After the show, he remembered that wanted a picture from earlier, so he kinda approached me and was like "How about that picture now?" So cool.





Paris!!!! I arrived at my host's house, and within 5 minutes I had thrown down my bags and was riding a bike past Notre Dame on the way to a huge picnic on the banks of the Seine River. It was someone's going away party, and so at least 100 people showed up with all kinds of food and just partied right there as the sun went down. I met loads of people that were all fascinated with my 'Americanness'.



You know what's crazy about Europe? The little differences. Royale with Cheese!





People in Paris are so in love. Here's a couple lounging in the park.




Here's me looking like a dork in front of Notre Dame. It's really big.




This bookstore is famous. Ernest Hemingway used to shop at the original before it was rebuilt. Jack Kerouac actually shopped at this new version. See those windows above? To this day, struggling writers can still stay for free in the apartments above, as long as they write two hours a day. The view ain't bad either - only Notre Dame just across the Seine.




Some people relaxing and picnicing in a park along the Seine. This is a Sunday afternoon. Notice the guy smoking in the very center looking at me while I take this picture.





Come on Paris, a little insensitive, don't you think?





At the top of the Eiffel Tower! There were "Beware of Pickpockets" signs everywhere. Not as windy as I thought it would be (a la Empire State Building). Plenty of lovers kissing and taking self-portriats though. I have offered to take many of these types of pics for couples on this trip. I know how a picture looks with an arm in half the picture.




Hello, tourists! Sometimes these pictures turn out to be my favourite.





An interesting angle I thought. I met another traveler on this level from Nevada - from UC Davis! Just random who you meet sometimes.





Already showed this pic, but I thought it deserved a second look. Amazing. I think I'm gonna frame this when i get home.




Ok, so today I took a very early train to the beaches of Normandy. This is one of the things I have been looking forward to the whole trip. I dont quite know how to explain it, why I am so fascinated with WWII. I wasnt there, nobody I know died there, but I just felt the need to go pay my respects to the 1000's of young Amercian and other Allied men who came across the world and died on these shores. This sculpture is outside the WWII memorial at Utah beach.





Inside the museum, the exhibit is set up like so: as the story of WWI draws to an end and we see the circumstances following that lead to WWII, we descend deeper and deeper undergroud. The walls get darker and rougher as you go down, symbolizing the world's political, economic, and military decent into hell. Meanwhile, the big white globe in the center symbolizes the world, watching all this helplessly.





Out at the Utah beach, here's a German gun that was damaged from an American mortar fired from sea. Pretty good shot, huh?




It's pretty cramped in there. But really fortified. All of the bunkers are still over 90 percent intact.




A close up view of what the Allied forces faced on June 6, 1944.





A completely intact German gun touret. I only 2-3 years, the Germans fortified over 3,000 miles of coast, usually stealling materials from the counrties they occupied. I sure hope they got all the ammunition out of there....





Next was the American cemetary. All the crosses face West, to America. This classic lined formation usually seen in military cemetaries is meant to look like they are all marching together.





These crosses were solid. And very cold to the touch, in fact. If a soldier was found and they couldn't identify him, this is the special engraving he received: (click to enlarge)




This is Omaha Beach, the main front of attack for American soldiers. The opening scene from 'Saving Private Ryan'? Yeah, that's about this beach. On D-Day, the also called it 'Bloody Omaha', because so many soliders were shot here that it turned the water red. Many sunk boats, obstacles, and I think even drowned soliders are still out there.




This was the main cliff occupied by the Germans on D-Day. Notice all the craters - those are from Allied air stikes that dropped bombs on the Germans, trying to take out their guns, weeks and days before D-Day. Our guide told us that enough force was dropped on these cliffs to total nearly half of the descruction power of the H-Bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In fact, they are predicting that this whole cliff will eventually and crumble onto Omaha Beach below it.




Here's a couple of videos! I'm pretty tired now, so that's it for me. Tomorrow after another day in Paris, I take my first night train..... to Madrid.