Spain

Alrighty!!!!
so yesterday was a great day! :D - far out i love spain. so in the morning, we had breakfast, then i went on a walk to the plaza mayor, which use to be the main plaza in every city built in spain. its very pretty! still have to visit it however and take photos ! went to the tourist office and got a map and the guy at the office was very helpful to tell me where to visit and where to see the match!

so then, i looked at a few of the shops there, and found this amazing store that makes a poster of your last name, and the story of it, im very very interested in getting one!

then back to the hotel to get everyone out of bed, and then we went to the stadium where the bull runs are, we took the metro, which i was very impressed with, 1 euro to go as far as you want, a train leaves every 5 min, and its very very quick! we were at the stadium within 5 min.

So we got out and my goodness it was BOILING, the stadium is huuuuuge, 60 meters in diameter to be exact, its also the biggest in the world. we entered through what is like royal gate for bull fighters, as the tour guide said, its like winning an Oscar for an actor. going inside was very interesting, there is a culture to bull fighting that i had no idea existed, the tour guide was explaining that the bull fight lasts for 20 min, thats how long the torrero has, to kill the bull, but its in 2 parts, the first is for show, where the torrero has a wooden knife and "dances" with the bull, then the next 10 min he is handed a real knife and thats when they have to try to kill the bull. The bulls actually have a very small heart, well the ones that are bred for bull fighting. The bull fighter is judged by both the audience and also the president of the stadium, how they show this is with colored flags, there are many but the 2 most important are the white, which signals important events, say to start the fight, and if the audience liked the torrero, they put up a white flag, and also the organize flag, which is to save the bull. at this stadium it has only been shown ONCE because the president was saying that the bull was fighting like a real person, so it was sparred. Now i thought, what the hell do they do with these bulls? - they eat them! so once the bull is dead they make a traditional dish, which im kind of dying to try, but i dont think we have time! .
so other than that, i also found out bulls can jump into the audience! the tour guide was saying that they can almost fly, because they jump off the side barriers, that are very very heavy , made from olive tree's .

so once this tour was over, we went back to the hotel and then i went for a walk to find food, ended up finding, a great Argentinian parillada, had a MASSIVE milanesa sandwich, nom nom nom, then i went for a walk with nat to the huge park here, on the way we went to a free exibition oh photography, and saw and amazing series of photos that were of the rooms of people who had committed suicide, very heavy to take in.

then later we went back to the hotel and got ready for the Uruguay match! - how sad that they lost but there were three spanyards there watching the match too, and i ended up eating tapas just across the road with them, chatting and laughing which it was still 27 degrees at 2am! it was great to eat jamon serrano again, also had tuna, bread with tomato smooshed on the top, spanish omlette, cheese, it was all just loverly! - and then to finish off we had what was like aguaardiente, but with herbs that help the stomach digest, i was told that it was usually something made at home in the country, as it helps "warm the heart" - tasted like a bad version of vodka to me! :O
i also have a few facts for everyone!

1. its called tapas because during the 17th century (or sometime around that time lol) a king use to love going out to have wine, and at this particular place they would place a piece of ham ontop of the glass to stop flies going into the cup, but then one day they forgot, and the king said "oye?! donde esta la tapa?" "hey! where is the lid?"

2. why do you have a lemon with a corona? because its hot in mexico, where corona is from, and there are many flies! - so to stop flies sitting on where you drink the beer from, they put a lemon there as flies dont like lemon

3. Spain is the only place in the world a corona is called a "coronita" because in spain there is a wine called "corona, de Aragon"

alrighty, so today we are shopping and doing some more sight seeing, so for now, i shall say
Hasta Luego - y
VAMOS ESPAÑA -

Hoooooooooooooooooooooooola¡!

so here i am in the capital, Madrid..... so first impression on the plane was....where the hell is this city, the airport is a fair way away from the actual centre, so when we landed we were sort of confused as to where madrid actually was! hahah, mark explained it as landing in avalon. what was kinda cool was that the airport looks like a giant mustache hahah, plane landed at around 3:30 in the arvo, and so we got our bags as quickly as we could (they took their time to get them off the plane) and then went outside in the sweltering 33 degrees to get a taxi, we tried to get a big taxi, but here for some reason they dont exsist, so we had to take 2 taxis. because the plane was late to take off lucky us got to be stuck in after work traffic (here work finishes at 330pm), so enjoyed, over 30`s radio.
the trip was all up about 20min, and from a taxi, the city really did not seem impressive, it looked dry....and dusty... no trees really..anyway, we got onto our street, which is like the George st of madrid and went into the hotel, :O, i picked a great hotel!!!
its just gorgeous, i will upload photos soon, the view from the window is just beautiful, let alone the roof !! - will get to that soon,

so once we settled in, my stomach was killing for a feed, so we went to VIPS, a chain store, with a menu that could be a childrens book, ordered a turkey hamburger.... most interesting part of the trip no? :P
so what do i love about Madrid so far?? - HARDLY ANYONE SPEAKS ENGLISH!!! i LOVE it! my spanish is hopefully going to get some serious practice here, and im enjoying every moment! other than that....hmmm i think the general atmosphere of this place, i cant get over it, i have to say i like it a lot more than amsterdam, maybe because i speak the language though... either way, i'm enjoying being here.

once we had food we had a bit of a walk around to find our barrings, then we came back to the hotel, and because we are on holidays, it was time to relax in the sun on the roof of our hotel drinking absolute with sprite.... W.I.N

not too eventful today, but keeps your pants on everyone because tomorrow Valentina is putting on her tour guide hat! - Plaza mayor..first stop!