Madrid

"!Un euro! !un eurounerouneuor!" This was the call of the street vendors as I walked through the largest flea market in all of spain, my friends had left me, choosing the comfy and significantly more expensive high speed train to return to sevilla while I had elected to take the six hour bus ride. I walked from stall to stall looking through the assorted antique spanish books and half finished coloring books for anything that might actually be worth something.
"its very nice!" said a particularly ambitious salesman with a designer coat that didn't match his pants. "yes" I said "very". "Five euros, for something so nice it is a good price" he bellowed, smiling all the time. His teeth didn't match. "I agree" I replied. "for a girl you love?" he ventured. A swing and a miss, I am currently quite single and being reminded of it isn't the way to sell me anything. My face soured as I brooded over the lack of romance in my life. His moment was slipping away, he had made the wrong move. Quickly, another tactic "for your mother?". Ah, the guilt sell. After all my mother has done for me, birthing me and clothing me and putting more money in my account if it gets to low which it will soon so heads up and sorry in advance, how could I not buy this obviously high quality...um...I didn't know what it was. Maybe an earing tied to a shoe lace? " Sorry"I said, "its fine but I don't actually know what I'm looking at and I have a rule about buying things that may or may not be a keychain wrapped in chicken wire. Adios."
Each vendor had their own knick knack to sell, some were really quite lovely, others were torn barbie heads reattached to a plastic fish. There was something for everyone I guess.
The flea market marked the end of a very relaxing trip to madrid. I went with four other very nice, very southern kids from my program and we all stayed together in a cute little apartment in madrid, very close to the center of the city. I arrived with much enthusiasm ready to make the most of my few days, but I was soon overpowered by the lackadaisical dispositions of my southern companions. We would set off in the morning with the intent of seeing three museums, a place and a show and would return to the apartment at lunch time having done only one of the things we had planned and chat about this or that until we had forgotten all the things we had already missed our opportunity to do. It sounds a bit wasteful of our time i know, but it was actually very relaxing and I did get to see a few museums before all was said and done, including the museo de reina sofia, which houses the largest collection of works of Picasso in the world and is also home to guernica, a massive ten by 18 foot masterpiece depicting the destruction of guernica with the exaggerated impartation of pain that makes picassos almost cartoonish style so moving. The whole thing is in black and white and the figures are very unrealistic, but the faces and the hands are so clearly expressive that one can fall headlong into the work, into the characters who can show the pain every one of us has known but don't have the power to convey because our faces are bound by the rules of physics.
All in all madrid was very nice, but not the most impressive city I've eve seen. It would certainly be an interesting place to study as they have more theater, dance, art, and political goings on than the rest of spain combined, but it was just a bit too new for my taste. Everything seemed a bit sterile without the spirit of history that is so characteristic of other places in spain. Still it is worth seeing, and the live version of beauty and the beast is playing there (in spanish) so if you go soon you can catch that, though I'm a big fan of the movie.

You're a joy grandma!! Thanks for the email again, I'm glad you are enjoying the blog. There actually was a lot of political unrest in madrid when we were there. A group of rioters staged a rally outside of our window and shot of fireworks into the plaza. There were riot police around and everything, though it never got too out of hand. Regardless we were all safe as can be and we are always very careful when we travel. My brother is going to have a baby, which is insane! so I will soon be and uncle and grandma will soon be a great grandma, though she's already pretty swell as she is. Otherwise all is well. I'm going to granada next weekend and after that north africa which should be amazing. I know I will get six emails telling me north africa is dangerous and I shouldn't go and if I do I BETTER be VERY careful, which I am and will continue to be. It is a trip that others have told me is really fun and not dangerous as long as you stay with your group so I will be just fine and I promise the pictures will be worth any risk. Take care all, especially you grandma, I'll be back with more soon.