Our Last Night in Europe

We got into Madrid (for the third time) at 2:30 PM and I managed to sleep pretty much all of the train ride because you feel a lot more comfortable knowing there isn’t a risk a group of gypsies is going to come by and steal your shit. Once in Madrid we headed straight to our hostel where we had a two bed private room book for the purpose of sleeping all day which we pretty much did. We set the alarm for 8:30 so we could watch the Spain v Germany game. When we woke up we were still pretty out of it and decided that rather than trying to cram into a hot bar and probably not get a very clear view of the game we stayed in our room and watched it there and decided to head out to the same plaza we did last victory if they won.

After Spain won we bought a bottle of wine and a liter of beer and headed to the square. On the way we ran into a this Canadian girl who told us about Orange Café and how it had a happy hour from 11:30 - 12:30 in which you got unlimited free drinks. Jeff got the directions from her as they headed off t Jeenff and I stayed in the plaza until we finished our drinks and took in the celebration. We noticed a lot of people kept staring at us and we figured out why. One of the people looking at us came up to us and asked if we were German. I am not sure if Jeff mentioned it, I know I haven’t, but it has come up quite often that people think we are German which is better than people thinking we are Canadian I guess lol.

When we left to get on the subway Jeff forgot the name of the station we need to go to, hoping when he saw it he would remember it which didn’t happen. He was pretty certain it began with an “a” and luckily there was only one station out of the three lines that were there that fit that criteria. When we got off at that station we still weren’t certain that it was the right stop but when we asked some people where Orange Café was it turned out to be right down the street.

The bar was hosting North America night so even though we were finally able to escape Aussies, we still had to deal with Canadians. Once we got our cup, we began pounding sangria and beer before the free hour was up. When 12:30 rolled around I was all set and ready to go to the dance floor. About an hour or so later the stage cleared out of everyone except two people up there making out. Trying to make them feel as uncomfortable as possible I began to dance circles around them until eventually they left and the floor was mine. I started busting out some pretty unique moves as now the sangria was in full force, and when I was near the edge of the stage I uppercut some girls beer from her hand which went flying in the air and then landed on top of another girl who was dripping in beer. After apologizing to her, her boyfriend shows up asking what the hell my problem was and my best response was “sangria?”. Well eventually this guy felt the need to prove his worth and began to threaten me and so being the testosterone driven person I am I walked away lol. Jeff was pretty much ready to head out at this point to so we left.

The subway system was closed so we had quite a bit of a walk back. At one point we were walking down a large pedestrian road that was crowded with prostitutes. Jeff kept asking how much and you can only do that so many times before one of them leaches on to you. The girl came up to me and after I kept saying no even after she cut the price in half to 25 euros (probably because I am a stud). She then grabbed my shirt and knotted it in her hand so the only way I could escape was by ripping my shirt so we went to her place. Just joking. After about a 5 minute struggle I finally freed myself and I looked around and Jeff was gone. When I got back to the hostel Jeff was already there. He said he also got corned by a prostitute and after he repeatedly sad no she said “fuck you” and left him.

I wanted to check my gmail, and when I went on the computer I saw that our mom was on skype and being just a little under the influence we decided to call her. We tried to bargain for her to bring us to a 5 star restaurant when we got back and then Jeff asked her to send him 25 euros for the prostitute. After our drunk dial to our mom we ended up going to sleep.

This morning we packed up our stuff and headed out to the airport. I am currently writing this on our plane to Atlanta where we transfer for our flight to Detroit.

Hopefully you found our journey entertaining and didn’t lower your view of us, which I know is pretty hard considering how low you viewed us before this trip.

B

Running (Scared) of The Bulls

We arrived in Pamplona at 10:30am. We walked around Pamplona aimlessly until we found a Tourist Information office. They showed us where our hotel for the night was… way the hell out of town. It could only be located on the metropolitan map. Accommodations become crazy expensive during San Fermin and people often book rooms a year in advance. This is why we ended up with a cheap hotel way outside of town.

I originally booked this hotel on April 11^th, but never wrote it down (or forgot where I did). After checking previous credit card statements I couldn’t find a trace of any booking in Pamplona so I searched out a new place to book while we were in Seville in a couple days before. I happened to find the same hotel, but I didn’t realize it at the time. Luckily I happen to love this dump, because when I got there they presented me with both of my reservations. When I saw this I was able to talk them down to paying only 50% of the bill for the extra room, otherwise I was getting charged 140 euro on my credit card (70 for each room). After checking in we went up to our room and took a 4 hour nap.

When we woke up it was 6:00pm. We wanted to head back into downtown Pamplona to buy our San Fermin outfit and walk the track that might claim our lives in a couple days. We bought pants, sashes, and white t-shirts. We got a Nestle bandana for free when we bought ice cream earlier. Technically, we were sponsored by Nestle when we ran it seems. The total for my outfit was 11 euro. Brandon’s was 14 euro because he got a little flossy with his outfit and bought the official festival t-shirt. We then walked the track 3 times. By now it was 9:00pm and we boarded the bus to shuttle us back to our hotel. We worked on our blog and cleaned up for tomorrow before trying to fall asleep a little after midnight.

Our outfits. This was just before entering the plaza to kick off the festival. Riot gear? Check!

Our room was real small and had ‘air conditioning’ that was definitely blowing out air, but not making the room any cooler. It was also complete with two twin beds, but the room was so small you couldn’t walk between them. I’d say 8 inches of space between the two beds. We also had the privilege of meeting the Pamplona police and fire department later that night.

The room next to ours was packed with roughly 6 Aussies (you’ll run into Aussies all across Europe, but in Pamplona they made up about 50% of the population). One of them apparently left a towel on a lamp. I know this because I sat next to him as he gave his testimony to the police. So the towel caught fire and they tried to cover it up. Since the front desk didn’t know where the smoke was coming from they called the police and fire department and gave us a wake-up call at 1:45am to tell us, “Something is happening on your floor. We don’t know what, but you need to leave.” After waking up and rolling over to answer the phone I looked up and saw smoke filling our room. I told Brandon to open the hallway door to get some ventilation in. I think he thought the hallway was on fire because he was worried if we opened it the room would fill with smoke. Luckily, I remembered my elemertary school fire safety classes and felt the door handle. It wasn’t hot so the hallway was likely clear. I opened the door and it was. Thank you Miami Elementary Fire Safety Day. Brandon figured it wasn't an emergency and left all his stuff in the room. I didn't know what the hell was going on and grabbed everything I had in 2 minutes, including my two 1-liter boxes of 83 cent sangria. It took the police and fire departments a half-hour to figure out what happened and then clear the hotel of smoke. Awesome, considering we got shit-sleep yesterday in order to make our 7:30am train and tomorrow night we would be sleeping in a park b/c hostels and hotels are too expensive during the festival, which started tomorrow. For example, our hotel shot up from 70 euro to 270 euro in one night.

We woke up the next day at 9:15am. We decided to sleep a little later to catch up on lost sleep from the fire last night. Our goal was to make it to the plaza where the San Fermin festival kicks off by 10-10:30am. The festival starts at 12 and people celebrate a couple hours before in anticipation.

By the time we dropped our backpacks off at the 24-hour luggage storage and got to the square it was about 10:20am. The square was crazy! We stayed on the outs of this rowdy mosh pit. Without a room tonight that meant no shower. We didn’t feel like being covered in sangria for 2 days. At noon the firework was lit signaling the beginning of San Fermin.

We left the square and started scattering around the city. So did everyone else. By this time we were working on our 2^nd box of 1-Liter (83cents) sangria. We walked around and all you could see was streets packed with people wearing white with red sashes and red bandanas. We went back to the grocery store where we bought our cheap sangria and I purchased a 1 euro baguette. The cheap sangria was doing work on Brandon’s stomach so he just picked up some 50 cent cookies.

Band

People everywhere

Brandon found the next-best-thing to a shower

We then continued to walk around town after our 1.50 euro meal for the two of us. It looked like people were having a great time inside bars and everywhere, but we couldn’t afford to have fun. After Brandon lost his wallet I was the sole provider and since Chase charged me $3 I refused to let them swindle another $3 out of me. We would starve in the streets before that happened. So we each had $45 to make it through the next 3 days of our trip. I would pay for accommodations with my credit card. Stupid? Yes. What’s $3? Probably a shot of Jager on a cheap night. But it’s the principal! So this is why we lived like the homeless.

Exhaustion was setting in as the cheap buzz from earlier wore off. We took our first nap around 2:00pm. We scored a great location near an abandoned building way off the beaten path. The abandon building was clearly being used as part of a Hobo Village. They also had things in the backyard that they had garbage-picked. Looking back, we probably should have slept in a more visible location in case we had a shank pulled on us. Brandon laid on some random gravel that had been poured against the hillside while I took the unfertile ground. We weren’t here long I think. I fell asleep for maybe 15 minutes until Brandon woke me up and said this wasn’t working for him. And so on we walked.

We realized that after we ran tomorrow we probably wanted to get the hell out of Pamplona and get to our air-conditioned (we paid extra to ensure this) private room at our hostel in Madrid. We went to see if seats were available for the 11:30am train tomorrow so we could leave before our 8:00pm train we had previously booked for the same day. Also, this festival was rowdy, but it’s almost too much. The streets get covered in broken glass and used cups and people are drunk everywhere. It’s nice to go to a bar and live it up, but then you can escape from it if you want. Here it was all day and everywhere. It seemed to be that the 2^nd day was much calmer so maybe it was just the first day that was this wild. I could have handled that, but I was worried tomorrow was going to be just as crazy as the first. Anyway, it turned out there were open seats for the 11:30am train. We would have to come back tomorrow to get tickets with our eurail passes, which were locked up at the time.

We walked back from the train station and into a park on top of a hill where people were partying. As we ascended the stairs we walked past a couple of guys doing lines of coke. The park had a bar where people were drinking and hanging out, as well. We walked a little farther into it and found a food court. Here, Brandon felt strong-armed into purchasing a 5 euro sandwich that wasn’t worth it. I saw baguettes standing 3 ft tall across the way and went to pick one up. 1 euro. Sold!

I had been wanting to see the bulls we were going to run with all day, so after eating we made our way to where they were being held. It was across town and a 20 minute walk. On our way there we walked the course again. I felt like I couldn’t walk it enough and took every opportunity to do just that. When we arrived at the corral where the bulls were being held they told us it was 3 euro to go see them. Are you kidding me? This isn’t a zoo lady, so why do I have to pay to observe my enemy. Obviously we weren’t paying, being on one of the best ‘tight-ass’ streaks of our lives. We weren’t going to let it end this way. So we went to the side of the building and Brandon tried to hoist me over the side of the corral where I could look down and see them. After a few failed attempts and a lot of dirty looks from people around us we gave up.

The corral was located adjacent to a small park. And this park was replete with benches. Benches were a hot commodity in a city where drunk people were passing out everywhere. So we laid on the benches that were a couple feet off from the main path. Here we slept about an hour. Brandon slept a little longer, but my spine had enough of the hard wood after an hour and woke me up to tell me it was hurting.

After this nap it was around 6pm. We continued to walk around town. After stopping briefly at one of the many concert venues, we went back to our favorite grocery store and splurged! I spent 3 euro on a Dannon yogurt drink, some ham, and another baguette. This would be the last money we would spend all day. My total spent for the day, including bus ticket from our hotel, was 6 euro. Trip record for money spent in a day! It was previously held by Brandon at 7-8 euro for the day. After that we headed back to the track to see the fire-bull at 10pm.

The fire-bull would be outlawed in the States. This thing showered the crowds on the bull-run path with burning embers as it shot fireworks out of it’s sides. I am typing this post 4 days later and still have a burn on my skin from one of the embers. One guy’s bandana caught on fire. It was a lot of fun, though. After that finished crowds headed over to the large park in the center of the city to catch the fireworks at 11pm.

The fireworks were some of the best we have seen. I don’t feel so bad about missing the 4^th of July fireworks back in the U.S. now. It was during this show that we realized how cold it was getting out. Once the show concluded we scanned around for other people that looked to be sleeping in this big park tonight. We saw two guys near us who sounded North American and had a backpack with them. By this time we realized we were going to freeze our asses off tonight if we didn’t find someone with a tent. I decided I would walk up to them and try to lead the conversation in that direction.

We approached them and discovered they were from Washington D.C. They were planning on sleeping in the park that night, also. So after bullshitting long enough to make it not seem like this was the reason I came over, I asked if they had a tent. They did not. Either way we figured safety in numbers while we slept in some random park was a good idea. So we all went out to look for the plushest patch of grass to sleep upon.

Everyone we had talked to leading up to Pamplona, and even people from earlier that day, said we would see a bunch of tents and people passed out everywhere. This was definitely not the case. We saw a couple of tents on the other end of the park and a couple small groups sleeping, but it was a little more desolate than we had hoped. We set up shop near a tree and prepped for bed. The temperature continued to drop.

As soon as I get some free time I am going to nominate these two guys, Matt and Matt from D.C., for sainthood because they saved us from hypothermia that night. Matt found a sleep sack in his bag and offered it up to us because both of them, being much smarter than us, were wearing thermals and had sleeping bags. Brandon allowed me to have it because he can deal with being cold better than me. I wasn't arguing. 20 minutes later the same Matt was complaining about it being too warm in his sleeping bag (must be nice Matt), so he offered Brandon his thermal. It wasn’t enough to keep us warm, but it was enough to keep us alive.

My sleep-sack was paper-thin. It was practically see-through and I felt every breeze blow through it, but it slightly trapped my body heat in and that helped. Temperatures continued to drop. I shivered most of the night and curled up in the fetal position as long as possible to keep warm until my should hurt from digging into the hard ground and I would have to adjust positions. Brandon seemed to have just as much fun battling the elements. He had the ingenious idea of doing push-ups to generate body heat and a few times got up to walk around (no surprise from Brandon the Wanderer). On one such walk he went hunting for food because his stomach ached from hunger. He showed up at a fry stand with 4.40 euro, which was all the money he had left. The problem was the fries cost 4.50 and these people weren’t gonna cut a deal. He returned to our homeless group cold and hungry. It was bad. At one point Matt overheard a French girl say, in French, “Those poor people have no friends and no home.”

The temperature seemed to drop portionately with how shady/seedy our situation became. Rolling gypsy groups huddled around us. There was a park bench 4 feet from where we were sleeping and this was not the only bench in the park. However, this is the one a gypsy grouped decide to sit at. One of the gypsies came up and offered sex. That was kind of her, but we were more worried about survival at this point so we said we’d catch her next time. The group of 5 women and 2 men had a heated conversation 4 feet from us as Brandon and I stared at them and laughed in disbelief. Finally they left after attempting to sell us stupid shit at 2:00am in the morning.

Then another group of gypsies approached. I was still up but acted asleep in case this group was also offering some gypsy loving. Well it turns out if they think you’re asleep they will try to steal shit. I heard one shush the group as they approached. As they bent down over us I looked up at them. Immediately they acted like they were selling something to cover up. We told them to get the hell away. We then saw them sit down at a tree 40 feet away. When they got up we realized two guys were sleeping there. These guys just got taken and we didn’t realize they were there to warn them. I decided then I would be lookout the rest of the night since I likely wasn’t going to sleep being as uncomfortable as I was anyway.

We weren’t the only ones that slept in ridiculous locations, however. That day we say people sleeping on the river bank, in every park, at the train station, underground subway stops, on basketball courts, near statues in the center of plazas… and these people weren’t homeless. They were like us; unwilling to pay The Man 270 euro for a shitty hotel.

People sleeping in front of the train station

Brandon and I were both able to get just under an hour of shitty sleep before the Running of The Bulls. It was just over 50 degrees (12 degrees Celsius) when we woke up from the wet ground at 6:00am. The four of us headed to wear the two Matt’s were storing their luggage. Here, we ended up losing track of them and headed to the track by ourselves.

This is the park we slept in on the following morning

We arrived at the track right at 7:00am. This was an hour before the bulls were going to run, but you have to show up at least 30 minutes early if you want to run. We chatted up some Aussie who was with his girlfriend and doing the run by himself. Suddenly, around 7:45, the police began pushing us forward on the track. I had heard they do this to create space between groups of people. However, it turned out we were being pushed off the track.

In the corral and waiting to run

Suddenly we were off the track and the 200-300 hundred of us that were pushed off were not sure if we could get back on. Everyone started running down side streets to try to get back on the track. I was a little relieved because I proved I had the guts to do it, but it was not the smartest thing I had ever done so maybe it was good that I wasn’t going to be able to. We were half excited, half disappointed when we found a way back onto the track. We were going to run with the bulls this morning.

As the minutes ticked by our fight or flight senses took over. I think everyone was on edge and the locals were kind enough to light off fireworks to confuse us with the true firework that signaled the release of the bulls. One of these fireworks triggered hysteria within the group and about 200 people came running at us. Brandon and I followed the herd down the course and immediately lost each other.

Brandon followed the crowd almost to the stadium before realizing the bulls weren’t released yet. I jogged skeptically with the crowd because I saw people on the sides watching us run by them like we  were idiots. Otherwise, I would have been in the stadium waiting for the bulls. I saw a middle-aged man (maybe late 40s?) who was running with his teenage son. He gave his kid a smile and wink as if to say, “Not yet. Just wait. We’ll be fine.” This guy was too cool-headed not to follow so I kept my eye on what he did as people rushed past. A few seconds later people came around the corner behind us at full sprint! It was clear these people had a 1200lb horned animal on their tail. The father and son started to run and I followed.

Brandon and I were separated and so had slightly different experiences during the run. I was caught in a massive crowd on the right side of the track and saw the bulls closing incredibly quick. Luckily this was a good run and most of the bulls were all together in a herd. They ran down the middle of the track and didn’t take a swipe at our group as they ran right by. I could see their backs and horns as they ran by. These animals were so much bigger than us! And I will never forget the sound they made as they stampeded by. After the herd went by I couldn’t be sure if there was a stray bull still behind us. Stray bulls are the dangerous ones because they become disoriented without the herd and start hitting people. So I kept running and there were rumors that there was still one behind us. I ran over people in the fetal position on the ground who I can only assume were trampled by the herd earlier. 

Brandon got much closer to the bulls. I believe he was on the left side of the street when the went by. he said he was almost in arms reach and actually tried to touch one of them until someone bumped his arm out of the way at the last minute.

Finally, the stadium! We made it.

Brandon and I both made it into the stadium, but neither of us saw each other while we were in there. Once in the stadium, after all the running bulls were put in their pens, little bulls with corked horns were released to go wild on the runners who had just tempted death. Apparently, that wasn’t enough for some people and so they released a hyper youth of about 300 lbs. Since it was the only bull out there it was very disoriented and started charging at the hundreds of people running around the bull ring. When Brandon and I saw the first one sprint out and start lighting people up we both headed over the stadium wall where half of our fellow runners hid in safety.

After watching the first youth run amuck I decided to go out there and run with the next few. I did this for the next two little bulls, but I didn’t let the bull get too close to me and eventually I became tired of running from bulls all day and decided to reclaim a spot on the sidelines. Some of the guys in the ring would pull on the tail, challenge the little bulls, and one guy even put an empty solo cup on one of their horns. There were 7 little bulls released I believe. When one started to tire a giant ox bull came out to gather up the youth. This ox bull wasn’t aggressive, but if you got in its way it would hit you. This thing must have weighed almost a ton, but it was slow. When the two bulls found each other they would both walk back into their pens and out of the stadium. Then another little bull would be released and the process would start over again.

The ox bull looking for the young'in

Alive and well!

The festivities ended around 8:45am. I went to Brandon and I’s pre-arranged meeting spot. I was the first to arrive and every minute that went by I though about how I would have to go get him from the hospital or be asked to identify his body at the morgue. After what seemed like hours Brandon came around the corner with all his appendages in working order. We did it! And I’m never doing it again.

We checked-out our bags and headed for the train station, hoping they still had seats available on the 11:30am train. Luckily they did, because we could not wait to shower and eat. I felt so relieved that it was over and we were okay. The rest of our trip was going to be cake. Board the train and get off in Madrid, the city we were flying out from. Our hostel was already booked. We didn’t have to plan anything else on our trip. We were halfway across the finish line.

Majestic Madrid (Diggin a lil deep for that one)

We got into Madrid (for the second time) around 9:30 AM on Saturday July 3. Because it was the weekend we weren’t able to book any of the hostels we wanted since they were all take so the first night we stayed in a hotel. When we got there, the “hotel” was located on one side of the 3^rd and 4^th floor of a 5 story building. When we got to the door we knocked a couple of times and there wasn’t any answer. One the other side of the building was another hotel that had a woman sitting at reception. She told us to go up to the 5^th floor. On the 5^th floor there was no marking for our hostel but we knocked anyways. Jeff continued to knock and knock until some old woman finally answered that looked like she just came out of bed (at this time it was about 11 AM) and didn’t speak any English. After a good 3 or 4 minute struggle we parted ways and went back down to the reception of the other place. She told me that the 5^th floor is where the owners live and when I told her what happened she let me use her phone to call them. When I called a woman answered and said to come to the 3^rd floor. So we went there and knocked continuously until an old man answered the door with his button down undone and his gut hanging out. He seemed pretty angry and just like the woman before didn’t speak any English and looked like he just woke up. After a couple of minutes the woman I talked to on the phone showed up and clarified everything. When she came back she said our reservation was canceled because the credit card never went through. We were both relieved (since the place kind of seemed poorly managed and a little unsanitary) and nervous since everything else we saw was booked and now we didn’t have a place. Luckily it was a quick fix because the hotel that had the receptionist told us she had a two bedroom room available for about the same price so we took it.

Jeff said he was a bit tired and wanted me to wake him up in an hour or so. I was debating heading out but instead ended up passing out myself. We both woke up about 3 or more hours later lol. We then headed out to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). King Philip V ordered it to be built as his own “Versailles” after the fortress burned down in the 18^th century and is Europe’s third largest palace after Versailles and Shcoenbrunn, both of which we visited previously.

Although the outside wasn’t as impressive, the inside was definitely a contender. However, you can’t take pictures of the inside and am pretty sure that most of the admission goes to employing guards to make sure you don’t take pictures since there was literally one in every room so we weren’t able to get any illegal pictures. Also located on the same premises was the Spanish armory museum and the royal family’s pharmacy.

The next stop was right next to it was the Cathedral of Almudena built from 1883 to 1993 for their patron saint, Isidro. Why was it not named Cathedral of Isidro? My guess is because that is to sweet of a name for a church.

The entrance was free, but when you enter there is a very intruding donation box that suggests a one euro donation. As we walk in there are three nuns directly behind me. Jeff blows by the box like its not even there. I on the other hand try to make it look like I care by taking out a 10 cent piece and slide it in without them being able to see the denomination. When I tried to pull this move off I ended up missing the slot and dropped the coin pretty much at the first nun’s feet. I quickly grabbed it before she could hopefully notice and slid it in as a made a remark of “wow all this only for a euro” (j/k).

Underneath the church is a tomb that has a lot of royals tombs in it. Oddly enough it is common place for people to get married in and it just so happened when Jeff and I visited a wedding was in precession.

We then continued on our walking tour with the next major point of interest being Plaza Mayor where they use to hold bullfights, fires, and torturous Inquisitions. It is also the location of many street performers. From Mickey Mouse and Winnie to Pooh to a box with three grotesque heads sticking out.

And Spiderman! I wonder if that is Toby under there.

After the tour we bought 2 bottles of wine for a euro each and drank and watched part of the Spain v Paraguay game before heading out to a bar to watch the last of it. After Spain won, the streets exploded with people and we headed down to Puerta del Sol which was one of the major plazas of the cities and right by where we were staying. There was also a plethora of vender's selling beers for a euro each, and by venders I mean guys walking around with grocery bags full of beer. Jeff was feeling the wine and beer a little more than I was and gave in to buying an Espana flag.

We sat on the fountain for a while and ended up meeting a group of girls from Brooklyn and talking to them for a while. We decided to try to go on a pub crawl that the girls went on the night before (most of the crawls started at 1 AM as this one did) but they couldn’t find the guy that gave them the discount before so we just headed out to some random club. It was pretty hot outside, meaning inside the club was close to unbarable, but after sweating for a week straight you began not to care so we tore up the floor there for an hour or so before heading home around 3 AM.

The next day we ended up sleeping in to 11:15 AM, since we had our own room it was pretty easy to just stay in bed. When we finally did leave, we had just a short walk to the hostel we were staying at. Once we ditched our packs we headed out to the Prado Museum which is an art museum. Since I lost my student ID the guy told me I had to pay the full price of 8 euros rather than 4 and since entry was free after 5 PM we said screw that noise and went to the park to wait for it to be free.

When we went to get into the museum there was a line wrapping around it, but since it was free and they were just letting people walk in it moved pretty quickly. One of the major attractions of the museum was Diego Valazquez’s Las Meninas, which is considered by many to be the worlds finest painting. It was also the painting that Picasso used to replicate (whether it was the whole painting or just portions) many times over with his cubism. I think our favorite was a guy with a murderous face and a long gray beard breast feeding a baby.

After the Prado we headed to Plaza de Toros to see one of the major things we wanted check off in Madrid, a bullfight. We soon realized that it wasn’t too much of a fight as it was a slaughter.  It was pretty much what you expected, except there were some things we didn’t expect. One was that they would bring out two people on horses that were wearing something similar to a flak jacket so they wouldn’t get gourd. Then bull would then rush the horse (one of the times the horse actually was totally airborne) and then the guy riding it would stab it in the back and try to force it away.

Another thing we weren’t expecting (or didn’t really think about) was after they took the bull down. After it was on the ground they would go up with a dagger and stab it in the neck usually killing it immediately. I say usually because there was one time (there was 6 bulls in total) when they carted it off its back legs were still kicking. Also when I say carted off I mean they brought out three donkeys and tied them to the bull’s horns and then dragged it out.

Once the six bulls were dead everyone clapped and whistled and we headed back to the hostel. The hostel we stayed at had a bar in the basement and was one of the few spots you could get wifi. We had to check some of our trip information online so we headed down there, and you can’t sit in a bar and not get a drink right? So we each got a half liter of sangria. We sat down there and gabbed with some of the people, most of whom where Aussies, and decided to make it a low key night since we had a 7:30 AM train to Pamplona and since it was the only train we could get that day since all the other trains were full we didn’t want to risk missing it.

The next morning we woke up a little after 6 AM. Once we brushed our teeth and packed up what little we took out we headed to the train station and on the way ran into one of the guys we were talking to last night who was just coming back from a pub crawl he was trying to get us to go on, so in hindsight I guess we could have done it. The closer we got to the station the more nervous I kept getting because of my no EURail situation. When we our train was assigned a platform a huge line formed and they were checking tickets before people boarded which made me more nervous since it would be easier for them to say no. Luckily when we got to the booth we told her the situation and she let us go. Once I got comfortable they started the in-transit movie, The Proposal. This was now the second time we saw this movie with the first being on our way from Seville to Madrid, however unlike earlier when it was in English with Spanish subtitles this was in Spanish with Spanish subtitles (very logical).

Since we have been slacking on the blog quite a bit I took this time to write up Barcelona and Seville. Oh yea I forgot to mention that the weekend we were in Madrid was also Gay Pride Weekend.

The answer is yes, those are leather.

B

We took the night train from Madrid to Lisbon. The air conditioning went out at 2:15am so I awoke in a sweat. Five minutes later it turned on and I went back to sleep. In a country this hot it seems their air conditioning technology is lacking… at least on sleeper trains.

We arrived in Lisbon at 8:00am. We checked into our hostel, which was very nice. It was breakfast time and they had eggs! Eggs with bacon mixed in. And it was delicious. It was well-seasoned and perfectly cooked. This blows away any breakfast we have had anywhere. They also have a meal cooked every day at 9pm. 9pm is an early dinner by Spanish/Portuguese standards. You have to sign up and it is 5 euro. This seemed like a pretty good deal to us and we had it the two nights we were there. The staff was great and helped us decide what to see while we were there. The hostel also had a great social scene. Other hostels should take notes.

As we were eating breakfast we talked to some people that were heading out on an all-day tour which left at 9am. I saw an ad for it and knew it cost 30 euro. It sounded interesting, but this was definitely something we wanted to hear reviews from before we signed up to go. A kid we met in Vienna, Austria was also staying at this hostel and going on the trip today. I told him I wanted a full report later.

There was no rush for us to leave our hostel that morning. Shortly after 11:30am we set out for Belem, which is a section of the city of Lisbon. This section contains historical buildings from the period when Portugal was a maritime powerhouse. It is also located at the entrance to the bay that Lisbon is situated on.

The first building we visited was the Mosteiro dos Jeronimous. It was in disrepair and needed a new paint job, but it was cheap so we were fine with the condition. The thing with Lisbon, unlike most other cities we had been to, is that it doesn’t have one specific site that is a ‘must-see.’ It has multiple places that are good to visit, but you won’t leave regretting not seeing them. It was easy to see that this Mosteiro was once a beautiful building, but it was disappointing in the current condition. The courtyard and cathedral within it was very nice, however. Feed the hungry? Clean the poor? Naw. Let’s build another sweet church!

The Chapel inside

I forgot to mention Brandon enrolled in an aerobics class where they do exercises on historical sights. Here he is with a classmate.

Continuing the trend of disappoint was the Belem Tower. This was the first structure sailors would see when they entered Lisbon. It was covered in gold and silver and a magnificent sight. At least the original was from what we read. This remake was not a remarkably massive structure and fairly plain. However, it was interesting and cheap so no complaints. Back in the States this would be something to visit, but in Europe it doesn’t compare with some of the other buildings we have seen.

From the tower we walked along the bay inlet until we came upon a memorial, Padrao dos Descobrimentos, to the famous voyagers from Portugal. Vasco de Gama is the most famous of these. Nice monument. Snapped a picture and moved on.

Both the receptionist at our hostel and Rick Steves told us we had to try these pastries that originated in Belem and are now popular throughout Portugal. They are called Pasteis de Belem. I got side-tracked on our way when I saw a menu listed outside a small fast-food joint along the way. The most expensive thing on their menu was 4 euro and I nearly snapped my neck when I saw it out of the corner of my eye. As we were glancing over the menu hoping our fluency in Portuguese would jump into action some man walking by stopped and asked if we needed help.

I was wearing my Detroit Half-marathon shirt and he noticed it while walking by. He told us he was from a suburb of Detroit also and had been living in Europe for over 20 years. He is an artist and first moved to a small town in France before moving to Sintra in Portugal, which is just outside of Lisbon. He told us it is a beautiful, hilly city and that we should go since we were whining about the heat and it was cooler there. He then helped us interpret the menu and knew everybody walking by on the street and inside the fast-food joint. When I went to shake his hand as he departed I decided now would be a great time to make an ass of myself; I flipped the try as I retracted my hand sending my delicious chicken wrap all over the ground. The staff just laughed at me and refused to allow me to pay for the new sandwich they made for me. When they handed it to me they mockingly motioned to use both hands when carrying the tray. Haha…

Then we went for our pastry desert. As I type I realize I should have taken a picture of it. Just know that it was really good and covered in brown and powdered sugar. We also ran into the group that went on the 30 euro van tour this morning. They said they had a great time and that we should definitely do it. We decided we’d sign up when we got back to the hostel. It was time to head back anyway and wait for our freshly-prepared dinner.

It was about 7pm when we arrived back at the hostel. I went out to the patio/bar because it was cooler than the inside of our hostel. I started chatting with another American, though I can’t remember his name. He was having some wine and in front of him sat a tray of chorizo, cheeses, plums, and ham. I was worried he might be a hipster and start explaining to me how much more cultured he is then me. He turned out to be a guy I could get along with. I couldn’t believe they were playing old bluesmen songs in the background (son house, john lee hooker… that genre) so I brought that up. I chatted with him, someone else (never found out where he was from), and Ben from Australia about the blues for a little. Brandon I think was showering and at this point he came down to join us. Shortly thereafter we met 3 very cool Aussies.

They sat down next to us and we began to chat. It was a married couple and the wife’s younger sister. They were a riot and we chatted for a few hours, ate dinner, and chatted some more. Other people came and left our conversation. Ourselves and the Aussies didn’t leave the patio until about midnight and then we headed up the street to the bar district. We somehow managed to pick up two younger kids (around 20-21 I’d guess) from California that wanted to head out, too. They were drinking some of grand dad’s cough syrup and were starting to zone out. They weren’t too much fun to converse with anyway, so maybe this was a good thing and they would be too drunk to notice we weren’t talking to them much.

The 7 of us approached the bar district and the streets were decently crowded with people. The little sister, Jenn, had one of the biggest personalities we encountered since being in Europe. She was a riot and definitely a fun girl to have at your party. She ‘took the piss out’ of everybody she talked to (Aussie-speak for bullshitting someone). She let loose while the rest of us danced a little, but for the most part we continued to drink and talk. We called it a night around 2:00am, maybe?

The next day we figured we would try to book our train tickets to Pamplona because it was a strong possibility that the trains were booking up fast for the San Fermin festival. From the train station we planned to walk back to our hostel and hit up some of the historical sights on our walk.

In any other city a walk like this would be maybe 40 minutes and no big deal. But Lisbon lays It’s foundation on 7 hills and it seemed like we had to scale all of them on our walk back. In truth, we walked up and down 4 different hills on this short walk. You are constantly walking up or downhill in this city.

Unfortunately I took this picture at a slight angle from how I was standing. Look at how high the road rises along the buildings to get a better idea of how steep the street is. This picture captures roughly ¼ of the climb to our hostel.

Leaving the hostel around 11am, we took the tram to the train station. It just so happened that the lady working in this particular train station is the most ardent follower of Eurail rules and regulations in all of Europe. She wanted the pointless book that came with my Eurail. Technically I am supposed to have it with me, but only one other person yelled at me for not having it and still accepted it. Obviously there was no way in hell Brandon was going to get past her in his situation. Guess we’d have to wait for our tickets to Pamplona.

The first site on our excursion was the National Pantheon. Started in the 17^th century and completed in 1960. Guinness World Record for inefficiency? We walked around the building and around the dome that capped it. It also had a nice vantage point from the terrace on the roof. This building is used to house the remains of some of the most important figures in Portuguese history.

Next stop was a church of course, because in Europe every other stop happens to be one.

A sweet tomb

Then another church

The closest thing to a must-see attraction in Lisbon, I would say, is the medieval castle atop one of the city’s hills. It is huge and well intact.

Here is a picture of the main shopping center (at least as far as we saw) in Lisbon. It was very different from the rest of the city, which is slightly rundown. We also didn’t have to walk far to get weed or coke here. One guy approached us offering marijuana and Brandon touched his nose to signal that he wanted cocaine. The guy got excited and said he had some. Brandon had to tell him that we were just browsing right now, but maybe later.

We got back to our hostel at 8:30pm and waited for our daily home-cooked meal to be served.  When we arrived the Aussies from last night were just getting back from the van tour. They said they had the time of their lives and that we should go. We were signed up to do it tomorrow and now were really anticipating it. Brandon and I went to the patio bar to hang out, but it was only the American wino from last night who was there with his tray full of assorted food in front of him. He said he did this every day. It was also happy hour and the theme tonight was “toss the boss.” Call the right side of the coin and you get a free beer. Get it wrong and you pay normal price for your beer. I went 2 for 3 on free beers. The people from the van tour began to flood in and we chatted with the Aussies a little. However, they planned to leave early tomorrow so the husband and wife went to bed. Jenn, the party animal, had ambitions of staying up all night. We told her she was on her own.

A reoccurring experience with hostels is the fresh faces that arrive daily. Today’s crop included 2 German girls. We also talked to Ben, the Australian, for a while and Jade, another girl from Australia. 

One of the girls from Germany, Jenny, was really interesting to talk to. It was to the point where I felt I was weighing the conversation down with my lack of stories. While in high school she went to the States for a year to live. She took a survey to match her with a host family and she was paired with a southern Baptist family. Jenny decided the survey was flawed. She made a friend whose family was travelling carnies. Jenny abandoned her host family and travelled the south as a carney working at a “basketball joint” game. She admitted the rim is slightly oval-shaped. Shady carnival games… She then went back to Germany and then moved to (I think it was) Spain for 2 years. After, she worked for AirBerlin for a couple years and traveled the world. I could not compete but I was too fascinated to walk away. Eventually the 2 German girls and everyone else at the bar went to the bar district. I had decided I wasn’t going out because of the long van tour we were doing tomorrow. Brandon had been chatting with other people, also, and went to bed a little before me. We both didn’t feel like fighting heavy eyelids all day tomorrow on our tour.

Jenny, Jade, and I

Our tour was supposed to start at 9am, but everyone was running behind. Portuguese, much like the Spanish, are laid back and in no hurry. We ended up heading out a little after 9:30am I believe. Our group of 9 included Nelson, our driver, 6 Australian girls, Brandon, and I. Aussies are everywhere! Luckily they tend to be really fun, interesting people to hang out with.

Our first stop was Pena Palace, which is in Sintra. The same Sintra where our friend from Metro-Detroit lives. It was built for a Portuguese queen and is surrounded by a huge garden full of vegetation imported from all over the world. We saw Sequoya trees from western North America, which wasn’t even colonized during the time period this garden was planted. Brandon and I accompanied the girls on the walk to the palace and then split off to walk briskly across the large garden in order to get a picture from its highest vantage point. It was a 15 minute walk at a quick pace and we barely fit it in before we left, but it offered a great view of the surrounding area.

We then went for a picnic at the most western point in Europe. Lunch was provided and he didn’t skimp. I was starving before lunch but left full.

From there we headed for the beach. Brandon and I realized too late why everyone from our hostel went to the beach. It was a nice beach in itself, but there was also a busy little town just off of it. You could easily spend the day here. I kicked the soccer ball around with Nelson and went for a swim while Brandon caught some rays.

Afterwards, the tour went to Belem and stopped at all the sites Brandon and I had already covered. We, along with two Aussies that had also already been to Belem, sat on our asses in the van while the other half of the group went exploring. Our tour ended at the same famous pastry shop Brandon and I went to on the first day. We got off our asses for this stop.

We got back to the hostel and I used a shower in the room of the girls we met today. We were checked out at this point and had no room. I needed to shower because when we were at the beach earlier I was the only one that went swimming. Before I did, though, I made the girls promise me I could use their shower when I got back so I didn’t feel filthy on the sleeper train back to Madrid. When I got out of the shower Brandon was chatting up two Canadians that were heading out for the same train as us. They just started travelling so we gave them our quick speech on ‘things we wish we knew when we started backpacking’ that we give to all the fresh meat we meet along the way. The sleeper train departed at 10:30pm.

More Moops in Seville (or is it Moors?)

We got into Seville around 3 PM on June 28. Our hostel was about at 30 minute walk from the station and to break it up we stopped to get some food along the way to escape the heat. After checking in we decided to go to the Alcazar which is the poor mans version of Alhambra, but it was still cool to see. On the way we end up seeing Scott and Steve from Barcelona. After talking with them for a while we all headed into Alcazar.

The courtyard

Inside the Palace

Within the walls of the Alcazar is a garden that included a “labyrinth” that only had one way in and out. Also the garden had peacocks although out. We followed one for a while hoping to see it spread it wings, but the damn children chased it off.

After Alcazar we headed down to the river where we watch the sunset because that’s what men do. The area we were at was also recommended to us by a guy that worked at our hostel about having some good bars. We stayed out till a little after 11 before heading back because Jeff and I were planning on doing a pub crawl that started at 11:30 and Scott and Steve had to wake up early the next day.

The pub crawl was pretty similar to the one in Barcelona in regards that we went to a couple nice chill bars and ended up going to a club nowhere near where we started. We ended up meeting these two Aussies on the crawl who ran with the bulls in Pamplona so we bombarded them with questions. We also met a guy from Michigan (not on the pub crawl, but at one of the bars) who said he was traveling with 20 single girls that he could bring us to go meet. We were pretty sure it was an attempt to rob and possibly rape us so we didn’t really pursue it.

The last stop, the outdoor club. It would be awesome if it wasn't in Seville because their average temp is about the same as Ricks at 1am on a Saturday so it is still just as hot.

The next day the only thing we had planned to do was see the Cathedral which was only a block or two from our hostel. Our train to Madrid was at 6:45 PM which once there would transfer to our sleeper train to Lisbon. The Cathedral is the third largest in the world after St Peters in the Vatican and St Pauls in London. It was built after they kicked out the Moors and wanted to show Christianity was there to stay by destroying a mosque to build it.

It also had the tomb of Christopher Columbus.

We then headed back to the hostel due to immensity of the heat. Even though we had already checked out we just sat in the main room. When we got back it was about 3 and you would think that it would began to cool off, but it seemed to just be getting hotter and hotter. We were just sitting there hardly moving and sweating like we just got done with a run. I know understood why earlier that morning when I went to take a shower the knob was turned all the way to cold, it was because people would come back to take cold showers to cool down. We left about 5 to go to the grociery store to get food and in hopes of getting some a/c both of which held true. When we got back to the hostel we planned out our route to the station that involved the most public transportation and therefore the least amount of walking. We had to change lines to go to a bus, and we were a little bit behind schedule and cutting it close. When we got to the bus stop we wanted, the bus we needed pulled up and Jeff said we should hop on. I wasn’t sure if it was heading the right direction (I think I lost my sense of direction because of the heat) and told him to wait a second and by the time I agreed it was the bus we wanted it began to drive off. So we started the nice hot walk to the station. At this time I thought I train was at 6:30 not 6:45 and so went it got a little after 6:20 I flagged down a cab and told Jeff I would pay for it since I messed up. When we got to the station I took out my wallet to give Jeff the money and then we ran out. Once we got to the platform at 6:30 on the dot we realized what time our actual tickets were. Slowing down to a nice walk we made our way down the platform. Once on the train we sat down and that’s when I had my “oh shit” moment, my wallet was gone.

I ran quickly to one of the conductors and told him. He went with me the check-in booth for the train and explained the situation. He told me I had 5 minutes to which the woman corrected him by saying I had 4. I bursted into a sprint and made it to the front of the station in a little over a minute. I quickly scanned the taxi cab drivers because I am pretty sure what happened is that when I went to shove my wallet back into my pocket when I was sitting I didn’t put it in all the way and it fell out. Not really remember what the cabbie looked like and realizing I only had about 2 minutes left I headed back because if the train left with Jeff and my pack on board leaving me with nothing more than my camera I would have been really screwed.

I made the train in time to realize Jeff got kicked out of our originally seat. It turned out that we did have the same seat assignment as the people that were sitting there, but what took about 7 different people looking at it to discover was that our reservation was for July 29, not June 29. The conductor just reassigned us seats without charging us and we made our way to Madrid.

Getting on the sleeper train to Madrid I began to get worried they wouldn’t let me on, because legally they shouldn’t. One of the glories of the EURail pass is that if you lose it you are screwed. It cost us about $1000 for 2 months and they just give you the paper in return. Nothing is entered into a computer so they can access it, or a back up made. Instead you can buy insurance that will reimburse you for the prorated amount of your trip that is left. Luckily they didn’t check our tickets before getting on so when I did get it checked I was already on the train which I think help because I imagine they are much more willing to say you can’t get on then kick you off. Luckily I made a copy of my EURail (even though it was before it was certified) that I could show him and he let me go. When we got to Portugal the conductor also let me go even before I got done telling him what happened.

So we made it to Lisbon with 90 euros less, no credit card, no debit card, no state ID, no student ID, and no EURail. I couldn’t have been happier.

B