Houston - Day 1 of..............

ummmmm, back in Houston. over the last 20 days, most of the time i was waking up early (before 8:00am) only if i was rushing to an early museum opening, beating the queue at some popular tourist attraction, trying to meet a tour group, or rushing to catch a flight...but today, i have to wake up early, to go to work! that's right, today i head back into the real world - the rush of the American work world, no extended hour breaks for coffee, no afternoon siestas, nothing!

i still owe my blog a final post from Madrid and a quick splash on my one night stand with the city of London (rode the London Eye, Big Ben, and saw the Tower Bridge...that's about it) during my overnight layover. maybe i will get that up in the next few days. if you kept up with the blog over the past few weeks, thank you! it was nice to know some people were keeping up with my travels back home and i really enjoyed writing it all every few days.

that's all for now! gotta go put on that work suit and head to the office....

-zack! the working man

Madrid - Day #2 - "pizza", the Apple Store Madrid, and the green part of Madrid...the beautiful parks

I made my way back into the city on the Metro and headed to an area with a lot of retail shops and retaurants. I actually had some Italian food, though it had its own Spanish flare to it. I had a "pepperoni" pizza, where the "pepperonis" i believe were actually applied to the pizza after it exited the oven and were similar to the "chorizo" (sausage) that you get at most Tapas bars. Still quite a good pizza.

Just after leaving the restaurant, I noticed the local Apple Store! Being the apple dork I am, I popped in and checked out the recently released new iMacs and Macbooks - unfortunately, the new "Magic Mouse" was not on display, so I will have to wait until I return to the States to play with that new gizmo.

I kept wandering through this area until I found myself at one of the larger park areas that included El Parque del Oeste and El Parque de Campo (maybe one more too, they were all right next to each other). It was such a nice, breezy and what felt like summer day (temps in the 60's to 70's degrees F) that spending some weekend time in the parks was very relaxing and nice. They were Spanish people napping, picknicking, and strolling all around, as this is a typical weekend activity for most Spaniards - (Americans most of the time spend it on the sofa in front of the TV).

During my stroll I saw a monument from 2nd century B.C. Egypt (Temple of Debod -given as a gift by the Egyptians to Spain for their help in the 1960's in saving some of their temples), which was pretty interesting, considering how large and heavy it looked to move so far a distance.

After another 5 - 10 minute walk in the park, I got to see Spain's best rose garden, with dozens and dozens of different rose varieties, all of which were in bloom since the temperatures were still very nice and mild. They have a competition here annually to decide on the most beautiful rose variety - chosen by the people.

The flowers, a stone female nude statue, and the small fountain in the garden all made excellent photo subjects to appease my snap-happy nature, so I spent quite a bit of time in the garden.

Just another five minutes walk and I got to the Teleferico, a cable car that took you on a round trip, 30-minute ride over Madrid's largest park, El Parque de Campo. The views from the cars were fantastic!

You could see the entire city in a all directions, the Sierra mountains in the distance, and you could even reach your hand out of the car and take some candid shots of yourself! There was also an audio recording that detailed the sites you were passing as the ride took place...but it was in Spanish, leaving me to decipher myself as to what I was viewing.

Once I got back to the station where I originally departed, I heard a guy say real loud "DON"T CALL ME WHITE!". I had no idea if this was directed at me or someone else, but the guy just continued walking along as if nothing happened. I wasn't sure if he was Spanish and had just been called white, or what, but then I turned around and saw this graffiti, which is likely what he was referring to: Kind of pointless graffiti if you ask me...but I did take a photograph of it, and another guy read it aloud, so maybe the original "artist" got his wish.

-z!

Madrid Day #2 Photos:

Madrid - Day 2

Madrid - Day #2 - morning breakfast & "futbol" stadium tour

Day #2 in Madrid started with something I have come quite accustomed to here in Europe - a simple breakfast of a croissant with a spread of some sort (Nutella, Jam, Butter, or sometimes just plain) and a cup of coffee and juice. While the croissants were not nearly as good as the ones I picked up in France, they were still a bit better than what we have in the States, and they were provided free by the hostel along with the black coffee and juice, so I had no complaints. I really wish I could somehow have a fresh, warm, flaky croissant delivered to my house in Houston each morning - such a good start to the day!

Today, I decided to go take a tour of "El Estadio Santiago Benabeu", the futbol (soccer) stadium and home of Real Madrid (pronounced Ree-Al, meaning Royal). I really wish I could have taken in a game there - they actually played the night before I got into town and lost to AC Milan 2-3, and it was supposedly quite a match according to my dormmate Marcus from Australia.

They are the most succesful futbol club in the history of futbol, and they recently (2009) picked up some of the biggest names in the sport in Ronaldo and Kaka.

The tour was mainly self guided, leading you through designated points throughout the stadium including: the upper deck, the middle deck, the trophy room, and small history section, the locker room, the field boxes, the area where the players sit ready to enter the game, and the press room. As you will notice in the photo above of the field, they actually put articifial lighting on the grass that is shaded by the sun to make sure it continues to receive light nourishment and stays green, a practice I did not know stadiums ever undertook.

 

I managed to have a few people take my picture along the way at the other stops as well.

They also had an Adidas Real Madrid gift shop at the end of the tour where I picked up some new shorts, to add to my ever growing array of athletic shorts at home. It's only 11:30am, now what?....

-z!

Madrid - Full Day #1 - walking tour, art, and FLAMENCO!

I have likely mentioned this in another post, but I will reiterate it here - there is nothing better to do on your first day in a new city you have never visited than taking either a bike tour (Fat Tire Bike Tours if your city has it) or a walking tour. The prices are usually pretty reasonable, especially when you consider the wealth of information you learn in just 2 - 4 hours. After one of these tours, I usually know which sights I want to focus on and how much time to spend on each one. I took a walking tour in Madrid verus the bike tour because it worked with my schedule a bit better.

The tour began in Plaza Mayor and went down the main street stopping every few blocks for 10-15 minutes where we learned some history of Madrid. At one of the stops our guide mentioned that in our walk from the previous stop, he spotted no less than 4 pickpockets and to keep an eye on our belongings.

Side Note - pickpockets & cash
I will use this opportunity to say, I did not encounter any pickpockets (that I know of) and had nothing lifted from my body in my first 4 cities...hopefully my one night in London continues this luck. I actually didn't even use the money belt I brought as it really doesn't feel that comfortable unless you an old man with elastic pants who tucks his shirt in (doesn't work with Diesel jeans and a t-shirt). I did keep my wallet and camera in my front pockets the entire trip and I am really looking forward to returning to the states and putting it in the back where it belongs, so if you want to steal my wallet when i get back, that is where i keep it, so have at it! Another thing, I always did have quite a bit of hard cash on me at all times since it is rare places accept credit cards for small amounts / meals. In the States, there hardly is ever any money in in my wallet since the American way is just to use Check/Credit cards everywhere, which I am also looking forward to doing again soon.

...Madrid - Full Day #1 Continued
At the conclusion of our tour, it was about 4:45pm, leaving me 1 hr, 15 mins to visit the nearby Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and 2 hrs, 15 mins to visit the, also nearby, Prado Museum. By about day 15 of my trip, museum time was actually starting to bore me, so I decided to knock out both back to back. Even the lady at the Thyssen ticket museum told me "You only have an hour which is not enough time to see the full exhibit" - I finished in 45 minutes. No I didn't stare at each painting for a great length of time, but I took in the important paintings and since, unlike Paris, you could not take photos, I was able to breeze through the rooms with great speed. By the time I made it to the Prado Museum, it was actually free because it was so late in the day and it only had an hour left open. So day one, I completed not only the walking tour, but two of the three art museums. If there is one thing you should know about Spanish art, is its size - it is BIG! Compared to most of the works I observed at the Orsay and the Louvre in Paris, each piece in the Madrid museums was 2 - 4 times the size!

After my whirlwind of a day, I retreated back to the hostel, grabbing a quick bite along the way and was intending to spend the rest of my hight at the hostel, but on my way back I was flipping through my Madrid guide and noticed that the best Flamenco place in all of Madrid was actually located just 3 doors down from my hostel. Since the local futbol (soccer) club, Real Madrid, did not have a game scheduled during my stay, and bullfighting was done for the year (both activities I really wish I would have planned better around), I decided to take in a Flamenco show - one of the other Spanish unique entertainment events.

True to Spanish culture and their late hours, the show actually started at midnight. Luckily, I had made reservations as soon as I decided to go (around 8:00pm) because it was a full house. When I walked in, there were many small round tables arranged around a small raised wooden stage. My name "Zacharias - 1" was scribbled on a card and assigned to a table which I went and sat at. Luckily, I was seated next to 3 girls who were studying abroad and about the only other young people in the entire room. They were studying in Italy but were on break from school and were going to a few cities in the meantime - I still regret never studying abroad in college, what an opportunity missed! The show started and was about 1.5 hours with a short intermission, just enough time to grab another glass of sangria and use the restroom. The whole show was amazing and something I am really glad I decided to do as it turned about to be one of the cooler single events I did on my trip. You can check out the videos included in one of my previous posts if you are curious. That was it for my first full day in Madrid.

-¡zacharias!

Madrid Day #1 Photos:

Madrid - Day 1

Madrid - Night 1 - Cat's Hostel

I got into town too late this day to catch any of the sights, so I mainly hung around the hostel. Of all of the hostels I stayed at, this one definately had the least amount of ameneties - no kitchen, no "ensuite" bathroom (it had community bathrooms and showers, glad I brought some flip flops), no individual lights for the beds (necessary because there are ALWAYS people sleeping at hostels at all hours of the day), and no power outlets to charge your camera and/or laptop. All that being said, it still definitely had cool vibes (thanks Kirk for the recommendation).

Cat's Hostel in Madrid is in an old converted palace (of what/of whom i'm not sure) complete with a beautiful stained glass roof, tiled walls, old wooden floors/staircases etc. It also had a basement they called "The Cave" that had a really cheap bar (1 litre of Sangria for 3,50 euro), chairs to hang out in, and music. People usually came down here at night to hang before going out to the bars or Pub Crawl, I never went on one of the pub crawls as I learned my lesson in Paris on that, but it was fun to have drinks with people down there before they went out. The average time people "go out on the town" in Madrid is 1:30am which is when the clubs start getting busy. I actually didn't visit a nightclub in Spain (something that I would like to do in the future) because I only had 3 full days in the city, and with so much to see, I didn't want to spend my days asleep or hungover. So back to the hostel, if you ever visit Madrid, I definately recommened Cat's Hostel - not the cleanest and not feature rich, but I think you meet way more people at these kind of hostels because people tend to hang out in the common areas versus retreating to their suites in their rooms.

-z!