Madrid and Granada

Hola a todos . . . . I'm spending my second day here in Granada, in the south of Spain. It's a very remarkable city, full of history and hippies.

Madrid was very chaotic, but still great. I went out two nights in the heart of Madrid, and on the streets at 6am people are still out drinking in the parks and smoking. Public urination was a common, accepted occurrence. Lots of 80s fashion influence, with lots og guys sporting their mullets, rat tails, and tight jeans. Girls also sport rat tails and leggings with big leather boots. Very fashion oriented city. I went to the Thyssen and Reina Sofia museums. The Thyssen gallery was this impressive collection spanning hundreds of years, from the 1200s up to Pop Art. It was formerly a private collection but Spain bought it from this rich old Central European lady in the early 80s for something close to $300 million. The first few centuries were mainly lots of crucifixes, and lots of crucifixes. You realize how prevalent religion was, just prior and during the Reanaissance. Portraits of monks and nobles, and a whole lot of Jesus. Suddenly, once you hit the 1600s and the beginning of the Enlightenment, there were these impressive landscapes, lots of Dutch art, and paintings of common, everday people in markets and baking bread and daily life scenes. Made me realize how people started to observe the outside world, and artists started to move away from all religious themes.

Reina Sofia is famous for having Picasso's Geurnica, his big painting of a street scene during the Spanish Civil War. It's huge. He did a lot of sketches of mothers with dead children prior to the Guernica, and in these you see some crazy intensity. They usually have their mouths wide open, screaming with details of their tongues and throats, their eyes are jagged and their hands are huge, holding this baby whose head is upside down in the mother's arms.

Also saw a lot of Miro and Dali.

Hung out with some some Colombians in the hostel in Madrid, stayed out til 7am one night and people were still everywhere. The Spanish are on to something. They work for about 5 hours, go home and sleep and eat for 2 hours, go back to work for a little while, eat tapas and drink beer in the evening, eat dinner around 9pm, and party until about daybreak Thursday thru Sunday.

Granada is this little town with a big history between the Muslims and the Christians. It's really famous for the Alhambra, an amazing fortress-palace built between the 13th and 15th centuries. Google it and see the pictures. I took a bus down from Madrid and I'm staying at this fantastic hostel in town. Lots of interesting people here in the hostel. As soon as I arrived I realized I should have spent one week here! There was a big group dinner last night of delicious salad with raisins and nuts and spinach, and pasta. I've been on a strict budget and it was really the best, healthiest meal I've had, as I've been eating lots of bread, bocadillos *small rations of anything ranging from shrimp, meatballs, calamari, and chorizo, this spicy pork meal, and pastrami. The streets are all cobblestone and very narrow, and it's a very hilly town. Buildings have this Arabic designs on them and tend to be all whitewashed. There are tons of shops with lots of Arabic and Oriental crafts, like bracelets, jewelry, incense, wraps, and pillows with crazy designs. You hear Arabic in the streets, and can eat tapas and bocadillos for 3 euros.

I'm heading out to Valencia tonight, probably goning to take a night bus as it's a 7 hour ride and I want to spend the day here! I'll update this better when I'm back in Thonon, with pictures and stories.