The Spanish Revolution

My first real taste of Spain was all I had hoped it would be. I think I got a bit of a whiff of the culture during my travels in South America, and getting to know some Spaniards quite well during my time in Copenhagen imparted nothing but positive impressions, so I was eager to visit. Well, I most certainly was not disappointed. My good friend Carlos invited me and his house-mate Nico, to join him on a trip to his home town, Madrid. We had 4 full days there and did not waste a moment...
Within a couple of hours of arriving in town we were off to the city centre to watch a flamenco show and eat our first of many tapas meals. Amazing! The music and dancing was fantastic, and although put on for the tourists, I can't complain because it was a great introduction to the dancing and the music - definitely lively, definitely entertaining, and put together with quality food and beer, the night was perfect.

The next day was spent on a high speed sightseeing walking tour of downtown Madrid. Comparing the capital of Spain to the capital of Australia would be like comparing my first car (1982 Toyota Rust Bucket) to my last car (2006 MX-5). Madrid is a beautiful city, with lots happening. The place is packed with people everywhere. There are gorgeously manicured parks, old buildings with real historical value, lively and passionate people, night-life that never sleeps, endless great places to eat food, and lots and lots of cheap drinks. While we were there the weather was balmy and the locals were out enjoying the sunshine and all that their city has to offer.

Me at a Museo del Jamon

Up until this trip, I had thought that my good friend Carlos exaggerated just a little bit whdoen he would talk about the prevalence of ham (in all its varieties) in Spain. So boy, was I surprised to find out that if anything, he was downplaying the truth. It began with my arrival at his parents' house where we stayed, and there on the kitchen table was a whopping big pig's leg. And I mean a full leg of a big pig, just sitting on the kitchen table. Of course some slices of meat had been cut out of it, but I had not expected it. Soon I discovered that massive pig legs is standard fare. It only takes a stroll down any street in the city to come across (within no more than 3 minutes of walking) a Museo del Jamon selling pig. Not only can you buy one of hundreds of legs, but you can by pieces and slices of ham and bacon in all its thousands of varieties. Quite a sight. This is definitely the place to take religious Jews or Muslims if you want to torture them!

Part of the oasis inside the main train station is a turtle refuge!

The 'hanging gardens' outside Caixa Forum

We did get to do some touristy things. There was a lot of walking around and exploring, people watching, enjoying the parks, as well as a couple of museums. Despite my desire to see the Reina Sofia Museum of modern art, it turns out that arriving at the museum at 2pm on a Sunday, which just happens to be the closing time, isn't the way to do it. So instead, we went to the infamous Prado (no relation to Prada apparently...). An interesting museum with some really great pieces of art. Of course there was a lot of stuff I just don't appreciate, but none-the-less, it was worth the visit. The other big tourist attraction was the Royal Palace (are there any other types?) - quite an impressive building and some very fancy rooms inside. Of particular interest was the royal armoury which housed some really cool swords, guns and armour from the middle of the last millennium. There were of course some interesting sights along the way - the beautifully manicured gardens of the parks all over the city, the busy streets, the loud and passionate people of Spain wandering around, and of course, the endless supply of great food!

Eating was definitely a significant part of this trip. Well, eating, and going out at night. Dinner in Spain is a late affair - never to start earlier than around 9pm. This means the night out starts rather late, and consequently the following day starts much later than what I'm used to. However, the nights out with the locals were great. The Spaniards know how to have fun and be outgoing - and I gathered this from the moment I stepped on the Spanair flight from Copenhagen - the amount of talking and noise on the flight was as if I had just walked into a party!

With all the eating, I did rediscover my love for anchovies. In fact, the Spanish form of marinated anchovies (which are also slightly larger and meatier than normal) as a tapas dish, was definitely one of the highlights...

The three Amigos enjoying yet another tapas meal (and me discovering that gespazio can be amazing!)

Of course, some time was spent being a total tourist. This included walking through Plaza Mayor and seeing the entrepreneurial locals doing anything they can to amuse tourists, and for some weird reason, partaking in the tourist act of standing behind mannequins in period costume and having our photograph taken...

These colourful street sights are all over Madrid - but they seem to have misspelt my name on this one...

The ancient Egyption temple of Debod - moved stone by stone to Madrid as a gift from the Egyptians thanking them for their help in the construction of the Aswan dam along the Nile.

We were in Spain over an election weekend. It was time for most of the regions to have their county and municipal vote. Turns out, Spaniards aren't particularly happy with the state of affairs in their country, so like everything else they do, there were some very passionate protesters out in the streets. Sol, the centre of Madrid (and indeed, the 0 mile marker for Spain as a whole) was like a hippy commune by day, and an outdoor party by night. People smoking, drinking, making pretty coloured posters (which with my limited Spanish I had a hard time reading of course) and generally being merry (or so it seemed). The protests were apparently against the general state of affairs, the corruption in the government, the fact that parliamentarians have a pretty good life whilst the general population deals with unemployment around 20% (and those who are employed, don't earn particularly high salaries). However, I can't say the message was entirely clear, but at least they seemed to be having a good time. And of course, in the evenings, there seemed to be as many (if not more) spectators than protesters - but perhaps this was aided by the beer sellers (illegal of course) wandering around offering stubbies for EUR 1...