Saturday April 13th
My train arrived in Madrid at 7 in the morning. I spent the night sleeping on my bag out of fear of it being stolen from me. (turns out fear of thievs in Spain is a valid fear.)
I grabbed a cab to the hotel where I found my parents and grandparents having breakfast. It was rainy and after breakfast we decided to do our own little walking tour around Madrid.
I was really tired all day Saturday and after walking around downtown and seeing the palace and a cathedral I was pretty much spent. I went to the hot tub for a while and tried to catch an unsuccessful nap.
After my failed attemtp at a nap we began our quest to find a place to eat, which sounds relativly simple. The Holiday Inn in which we were staying was in the business district. This was holiday time and there werent many restuarnts in the area. Another hurrdle that we were constantly having to deal with was the fact that Jerry likes to eat dinner at like 6 and the Spanish dont really start serving dinner until around 8-8:30 so needless to say I felt like the fact that resturants dont open thier doors until 8:30 was getting on Jerry's nerves the whole week. We had some drinks and waited until this Italien restraunt opened. The food was outstanding and that concludes night one.
Sunday April 14th
Sunday marked the begining of our tour. We were to wake up real early in the morning and go eat breakfast before we were to be on the bus at 8:15. (this is the start of a trend of waking up early) We hopped on the bus and went and visted the sights that we saw the day before...It was nicer on day two because we werent walking around looking at all this stuff.
after walking around looking at the palace and all the stuff in that area of town the tour for the day ended around like noon and we were dropped of at the Prado museum. We rented those little phone things and listend to hours and hours of information on the paintings hanging on the walls. We needed a break about half way through and all went and sat down for a while before taking on the second floor. We saw lots and lots of art that I'm sure was real famous and all like Rembrandts, El Greco, ect... but I prefer modern art to the dark stuff that was there
one of the funniest things that happened while we were there was when dad tried to take royce and my picture with the flash off...however, the flash wasnt off and the guard at the museum kung-foo chopped dad right in the left eye!! We'll she didnt really whack him but I could see in her eyes that she really wanted to give him and indian burn or something along those lines.
we left the museum got some food across the street and caught the next bus home to rest up for the bull fight. Cathy was pretty sure that we would not be able to navigate our way through the madrid subway and thought it would be a much better idea to take a cab. After mild convincing we were on our way to the subway which was the least bit challenging.
we came out of the subway at this plaza outside the bull fighting arena. It was a really spectacular museum. Right away we started our quest for some tickets and found some for aroun 17 apeice. the doors werent open so we went and found a bench to rest on. The sky was really overcast and there was a really strong wind blowing this tarp everywhere creating this loud annoying effect. Eventually it started sprinkling and we went and stood under shelter until they opened the gates. Before we found our seats dad picked up some absolutely necessary seat cushions. we were sitting in off and on drizzle for a while before my dad decided he'd go get us some of the poncho's everyone seemed to be buying. The minute he left, the man who was selling them appeared in front of us. About 35 minutes later dad showed up empty handed. Royce eventually preveiled with some rain gear but dont be fooled we had already endured some rain.
So, anyways now we are starting to see some action around the back stage area as the team of matadores start showing up at the gate, and eventually this team of people take the stage. After their little show which in retrospect wasnt cool enough to justify the brutality of the bulls, we had our first bull charging out of the gates. Everything was what I had expected of the bull fight as the matadores lured the bull around the ring with thier little capes, and running like cowards behind a wall when the bull came near. Eventully this armored blindfolded horse came into the ring carrying a man with what would look like a jousting spear. Eventually the matadores had this bull close to the horse and completely to my surprise the bull tears into the side of this horse and the man on the horse is repreatedly stabbing this bull in the shoulders with his spear...I had no idea this was planned, I felt terrible for the blindfolded horse for getting nailed by the bull and for the bull for getting stabbed by this coward on the horse. This was maybe one of the most shocking aspects of the event.
So the matadores eventually lure the bull away from the horse and begin part two of thier torturous game. They came out with this decorated poker things and they begin sticking these things into the back of the bull. Of all the different sections of the massacre this part was the most tolerable for some reason. So after they stick something like 6 of these poker things in the bulls back the "main matadore" comes out and wears the bull down a little more by doing some "oles" and then pulls out his sword (maybe 2.5 - 3 feet long) and this matadore sucked and had to hit the bull with this sword twice before the third charmed time where he was able to put the whole sword into the bull. It's especially gross to see because you know this bull has this sword (all of it) inside it. The bull staggered around a little bit before laying down to die next to the wall. Aparently the matadore missed the bulls heart because another "pee-on" matadore came out with a dagger and had to go up to the bull and stab it in the back of the brain like 5 times before it died.
I knew they were going to kill the bull, i just expected it to be much more humane...or atleast more fair. I think I was especially confused by the sport because the bull reminded me of Winston chasing the red laser light. So I was not feeling so hot after the death of the first bull and i think royce was in the same boat...we were able to stomach one more blood bath before we had to leave to prevent vomiting all over the people in front of us.
we made it through two out of the six bulls. Culture Smulture...this is one tradition they could let die and I would have no problem with it.
We went to a sports bar and tried to shake the nasty memories out of our confused heads. A few drinks later I think the tast of puke left and we headed back up the subway to our hotel where we went to find some food. We didnt go out because again the next day we were going to have to wake up early.
Monday April 22nd
Monday morning we jumped on the bus bright and early after a breakfast...we drove for a long ways heading towards Sevilla making a stop at gas station a while into the trip and then making another stop later on in Cordoba where we saw this extremly old mosque...it was raining which was all too common during the trip and our tour guide for the city of Cordoba had this scary tooth growing behind his "grown up" teeth. The mosque can be seen on the post card online here...it was intersting but I feel like going and visiting churches all over europe gets tiring...i know they are really old and all and if the walls could talk they would never shut the hell up but still, it seems like whenever you stumble into a new european city, one of its main attractions is it church which is really similar to the church you just saw in the last european city you just left.
Okay so we saw this really cool church and got i nice little history with it...then we got back on bus and continued on towards Seville. When we arrived there we really needed to relax for a while to unwinde from our 5 hour bus ride. We hung around the room until an hour before diner and then went downstairs for a drink before diner. Around 9 something when we had finished diner we caught a taxi and headed for "centro ville" to try to find some of the bars recommended by Debi. We strolled along the river for a while before settling at this place on the river. After a couple beers sitting next to these really loud drunk american gilrs we decided to move on and we found another little bar, hung out there for a while before my parents decided to head back to the hotel. The town was really busy. there were people all over the place because these strange processions were going on. Monday night was the first night we saw any Klan uniforms. Anyway, my parents headed home and royce and i were going to try to find some of the bars recommended by debi. When I realized that we dont speak any spanish and didnt have any idea where we were or which direction we should be heading I started to think this was a bad idea. My parents were hailing a taxi when i heard some english being spoken behind me..I turnded around and asked these two girls if they knew where "alfalfa" was. They pointed us in the direction and told us to walk for 10 minutes. My parents jumped in the Taxi and Royce and I began our long journey in the begining phase of a light rainstorm.
After finding a closed "bar alfalfa" royce and i agreed that we had been walking for somewhere around 45 minutes to and hour. (10 minutes right) anyway, the bar was closed due to the rain, we found another pub really close and hung out there until around 2:30-3 and caught a cab home.
Oh yeah, I came into the our room and caught royce with the blow dryer pointed at his crotch...He shot himself with the bidea (i dont know how to spell that)
I've lost track of what went on during which days so I'm just writing highlights right now.
Wednesday April 24th
On the way to Torrmalinos Royce and I did a little too much partying and I ended up getting sick on the bus...All I remember is that is was really embarassing. I was able to hold it off for so long, but about 30-40 minutes before we arrived I finally had to make the mad dash towards the center of the bus where I proceeded to toss my cookies in front of a bus full of people. It's probably needless to say that I am probably rememberd as the "puke guy" to all of them.
The hotel was really nice...It was very resort like. Big sandy beaches and lots of tourists gave Torrmalinos the most spring breaky sence of all the towns we visited.

It was very difficult to make the decision to wake up early again and leave our fantastic hotel in front of our fabulous beach which would have been a outstanding day of doing nothing to continue our pace....but I really wanted to see all these monkies in Gibralter. (I also wanted another passport stamp which never happened) It turned out to be the right move. Gibralter was nice, the monkies were cool, and we all got to see plenty. We went up the rock of Gibralter where there was a cave where concerts were held. On a clear day it would have been possible to see Africa from the rock, but it was a little too overcast.
Thursday April 25th
A few good meals later and having seen another country (Gibralter owned by G.B) we were back on the bus on our way to Granada.
Friday April 26th
Sorry I have no postcard from Granada, but we did stop in this little town called Ronda on the way there and it was an intersting little town.
Monday April 29th
this is where Picasso and his wife are buried...This castle was in the town of Vaubenargues...while fred was giving us a tour of Mt. Saint Victoire we stopped in this little village.
Tuesday April 30th
Monday April 22nd
Tuesday April 23rd