The Adventures of Kim and Pert Part Deux: Madrid

Kim and I took an overnight bus from Barcelona to Madrid and we woke up with bloated feet from not moving the entire night. Seriously, I'd taken a few overnight buses already, but never noticed bloated feet until Madrid. I couldn't even see the bones in my feet anymore and my flip flops barely fit! It was odd and gross. Anyhoo...

We headed straight to our next fancy-ish hotel in Madrid (also a bargain at $50 euro/night for a three star hotel) and immediately took a nap because we didn't get much sleep on the night train. After our early siesta and some weird, fevered dreams, we took the metro into the center of Madrid, Plaza del Sol. We did some window shopping, and then made our way to Plaza Mayor where we shared a Madrid favorite, calamari bocadillo (sandwich). It was tasty, but it was missing something: sauce! (Fast forward one day: we went back to Casa Rua in Plaza Mayor and ordered the same thing, but this time requested bravas sauce which is kind of like a spicy mayo they use on fries. It was super tasty this time. I guarantee you if more places in Spain used sauces on their sandwiches, they'd kill).

Window shopping near Plaza del Sol.

Wearing my bag "pick pocket defense" style in Plaza Mayor.

Bravas sauce made all the difference.

Back to the present. After eating our calamari sandwich, we wandered over to Madrid's uber fancy market: Mercado de San Miguel. It was smaller than the one in Barcelona, but way fancier. Think Metropolitan Market meets Pike Place. There were so many options for us to choose to eat, from tapas to paella to seafood to gelato. Just like with the bravas sauce on the calamari bocadillo, Kim and I spiced up a few more dishes at the market with our creativity. One such example is when we ordered some seafood paella and decided that adding chicken tandoori skewers was necessary. Mixing cultures never tasted this good.

Does combining different prepared foods count as cooking? Yes.

After our snackage and wandering a bit more, we took a mini-tour of madrid and its architecture. I noticed one lady on our tour had a Sounders hat on, so I asked if she was from Seattle. She was, as well as her husband and two daughters, and we eventually discovered that we live down the street from each other. So crazy. On top of that, we also found out that Kert used to counsel the younger daughter in summer camp. Even with me looking like hobo the clown, the family invited Kert and I over to hang out. Good people.

Some of the beautiful buildings we passed on our walking tour.

Our tour ended right at one of the Museums we wanted to visit: the Prado. Supposedly, it has the greatest collection of art in Europe...and it was free. So Kim and I went and randomly bumped into our friend Kamel, whom we met in Barcelona, waiting in line for the Prado as well. Just so you know that I actually looked around the museum, my favorite painting was Goya's painting of Saturn eating one of his children. Creepy and awesome.

What did I tell you? Creepy and awesome.

Our buddy, Kamel!

The next day, after Kim and I returned to the aforementioned calamari sandwich place with bravas sauce on our mind, we went to a famous churro place called San Gines. Javier Bardem has been there, so you know it's the real deal. Once we finished our churros with chocolate, we jetted to Retiro park, a beautiful and sprawling park with a lake in the middle. We took a little afternoon siesta there then headed over to another awesome (and free!) museum: The Reina Sofia contemporary art museum. Again, to convince you that I actually paid attention to something, I enjoyed Dali's stuff. Yup, that's a real guy.

Definitely better portion control than my first experience in Granada.

Beautiful Retiro Park.

Some interesting Japanese art at the Reina Sofia.

Interesting indeed.

Proof!

Of course, we ended our time together with another gelato run and some 30 Rock on my netbook. My 11 days with Kim were a blast and I was really sad to see her go. She's definitely the best, and if you don't agree, I'll fight you...as long as you're behind a gate.

Some tasty bruschetta for our last meal in Madrid...

along with some manhole sized personal pizzas.

Before heading to Italy, I Macgyver'd my backpack into working condition.

The Adventures of Kim and Pert Part 1: Barcelona

After our visits to the smaller towns of Spain, it was time to see head honcho: Barcelona. I had heard from almost every backpacker we met that they loved Barcelona, so I was really excited to see all the sights, museums, architecture, and beaches they all described. But most of all, I was really excited to see my friend Kim because, I must admit, that after more than two months of constant traveling, I was getting a wee bit homesick.

Before Kim got in, Carolyn and I spent the first couple of days getting ourselves situated with Barcelona because it was pretty big and crowded. We were able to meet up with our friends Angel and Chris, whom we met in Sevilla, and did a lot of walking and exploring near Las Rambla, the heart of Barcelona's activities and right where our hostel was. My favorite part of Las Rambla was the St. Joseph market, where they had a bunch of fresh fruit, pastries, seafood, and lunch. But the best part was the smoothies. There were a bunch of stands that sold about 15 fresh smoothie flavors (my favorite was blackberry/coconut). We also spent some time at the beach, where there were literally hundreds of people selling things from coconut to beer to massages to weed.

St. Joseph Market.

So many smoothies, so few free bathrooms.

One of our favorite bands that played by the beach.

One of about a million street performers on La Rambla.

When Kim got in, I was more than a little excited to see her. We unloaded her stuff and immiediately took a Gaudi walking tour to see all of his famous architecture. I didn't know much (anything) about Gaudi before going to Barcelona, so it was really interesting to see how unique, odd, and creative his buildings were (think Dr. Seuss...on acid). The day after the walking tour, we went to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous cathedral that has been in the process of being built for more than a hundred years and still has about 25 years left. Again, beautifully odd and really grand and detailed. Almost as if I was looking at something fake.

Sagrada Familia, so weird and awesome.

Inside was just as weird and awesome.

From one of the towers.

That afternoon, after a little siesta (and Kim clearing her system of jetlag...) we took a walking tour of Barcelona's gothic quarter, which was really interesting. After the tour, we grabbed a quick eat to bite at an awesome place called Bo De. They made really simple, delicious and cheap plates like sandwiches, salads and burgers. You must go if you go to Barcelona. We went back a few times because it was such a good deal. After gorging ourselves, we made our way to Plaza de Espana to see the fountain/light show that was meh, but still a really cool atmosphere.

Hamberguesa from Bo De with fries...with Bravas sauce!

Foundation show at Plaza de Espana.

View from the top of the bull fighting ring.

The following day I had to finally say goodbye to my traveling buddy for two months, Carolyn. She was headed off to Morocco and Portugal for the rest of her trip while I stayed in Spain and finished in Italy and France. Before sending Carolyn off, we visited the Picasso museum (free on Sundays!), where we were able to see his progression of artwork from a teenager to adulthood. His more recent stuff was very Picasso'y (colorful, weird faces, etc.), but his older stuff was a lot different and much more conventional. So yes, I learned something. After dinner and sending Carolyn off, Kim and I did what all the cool kids do - watch a Red Bull BC One breakdancing qualifier! It was part of the Greek Festival, and luckily it coincided with our dates. (Sidebar: people who live near the Greek Theater are absurd. Apparently the Greek Theater is pretty famous and the festival happens every year, but somehow nobody in that area knew where it was or what the festival was about. Kim and I spent a good hour walking around asking people where the theater was, but everyone was confused. There were even advertisements everywhere for it! OK, I'm calm now). It was a cool experience being at an official breakdancing competition, and again reminded me of how old and uncool I was in comparison to all the kids wearing skinny jeans and ironic t-shirts.

Learning.

Hanging out with cool kids at the BC One qualifier.

The next four days or so Kim and I spent eating and walking. We moved into a pretty swank, four star hotel ($70 euro a night for a place that's normally $470 euro a night!), where we kind of went to town on their breakfast buffet. Because food is so expensive in Spain (and Europe in general because of the weak dollar), we looked to be as resourceful as we could. So we definitely stuffed ourselves too much at breakfast, and we also secretly made mini sandwiches out of croissants and meats, so that we could snack throughout the day. It was stealth mode all the way.

Our swank hotel...where I stole soap from.

We did NOT practice portion control.

Stealth sandwiches. They tasted better because they were forbidden.

At the Olympic stadium.

One of our nights, we went to a jazz club where they had a jam session nights o we were able to see a couple of local bands, as well as a bunch of individual artists jam together who had ever played together before. We felt really hip being there. It was also literally underground, so we were kind of in the know.

I was also able to meet up with another Sevilla buddy, Zarina. We went to the Park Guell, Gauid's park that was originally designed to be a swank neighborhood, and soaked in the odd shapes and ergonomic chairs. Before saying bye to Zarina, we got gelato. So I'm not really an ice cream fan normally, but eating gelato in Spain got me started in a downward spiral that I'm still in (currently I'm writing this blog post in Italy, almost three weeks later, and my additiction is still going strong and unhindered). I'd have at least two scoops of gelato a day, and in some cases eight. Also, I'm kind of lactose intorerent. Yup.

Park Guell.

With Zarina giving a little birthday shout out to our favorite bru Daniel.

The beginning of a long-lived addiction.

Kim and I would spend most of our days navigating from restaurant to gelato shop to restaurant based off Trip Advisor and Rick Steves recommendations. One of our favorite restaurants was a tapas place called Maitea Taverna. It was a really fun atmosphere to eat in because everyone just sits at a bar, and there are plates of food that you just walk around and take. At the end of the night, you count up your toothpicks and that's your bill. It's delicious, but also dangerous, because of how quickly you can engulf the tapas. I'm not the biggest tapas fan, but this place was really fun and delicious.

Tapas at Maitea Taverna.

Baby eels and a quail egg.

Molten chocolate cake with blackberries.

Lastly, I kind of want to fight crime. After watching Kick Ass, I was weirdly pumped to find bad guys and do...something. I don't have the strength, smarts, or courage to really fight crime, but a guy can dream, can't he? Anyways, I'll use this post to kind of build of my resume in case anyone wants to (foolishly) hire me for protection. One thing I heard constantly about Barcelona was the pick pockets. There are so many scams everywhere, we had to be extra careful and always keep a lookout. One day on our way out of the subway, I noticed a couple of guys "helping" a tourist out buy guiding him through the turnstyles. The first guy pretended to help the guy out, thus distracting him, while the other guy walked really close behind the tourist trying to take out his wallet. I noticed it and yelled out for them stop. The guys looked at me, then ran away, but not before spitting at my feet. My heart was pounding, and I think my courage was only due to the fact that there was a gate between the bad guys and me. The best part is that the tourist didn't even know what was going on. He was confused about directions before the bad guys got there, while the bad guys tried to steal from them, and after the bad guys ran away. So yea, if you need someone to nervously yell at someone to stop a petty crime, and you can ensure there will be a wall or gate between the criminals and me, then I'm your man.

Will Pert continue fighting crime? Will Kim keep making forbidden croissant sandwiches? Will the next blog post please be less than 10 paragraphs? Stay tuned as Kim and Pert continue their adventures in Madrid!

Also, my backpack broke. I hate you, North Face.