Day 121: Madrid, Spain

OK, today was more the tourist track than yesterday. We actually went to not one, but two museums! This morning we checked out the Archaeology Musuem which was surprisingly small but still interesting. The best part was the free admission! We planned to get back to the hostel for the ”Tapas Tour’ but no one else showed up so it was cancelled. Unfortunately, everything here is so blasted expensive we end up eating either nutella sandwiches (can’t seem to find peanut butter in this city) or Turkish food. Admittedly, the Turkish fare is far more delicious and filling that a couple pieces of bread of a thick layer of chocolatey-hazel nutty goodness… And it doesn’t precede a wicked sugar-induced stomach ache either.

Interesting carving from the museum

Entrance to the museum

Since the massive line of people (probably close to the equivalent of 3 blocks long) was too much for us yesterday during the free admission hours, we returned to the Prado Museum of Art and paid the 3 euros (students) to get in. There are some interesting pieces of work there but nearly every room is relgious work after religous work. We don’t have fantastic attention spans anyway so after the fourth room filled with dozens of cruxification paintings, we were really really bored (no disrespect intended). We did find some very nice pieces in the “basement” area where it seemed we were the only ones besides a very bored guard.

Impressive painting in the Prado

Even though we knew what we were in for, we spent the evening putting back more of that awful Estrella Damm at the hostel bar (which plays surprising great music!) because (a) we were bored and, more importantly, (b) they were giving away a free plate of paella with every beer!! And it was actually the best paella ever. There! Now we’ve officially had Spanish food–for free!– so we can go on with our nutella sandwiches and occasional splurges on Turkish kebabs.