Hello from Spain! We are having quite the whirlwind adventure already! We spent three days and two nights in Madrid and really got the flavor of the city. We walked the entire old town, went to the Museo del Prado and all the old historic buildings. We walked over to the Imperial Palace and, though it was closed for tours that day, we still got to see the grounds and the gardens. The main area where our cute little hostel was located was right in the center of everything and it was really nice to have our own room and bathroom to sleep and get over our jetlag. We seemed to fall right into sleeping until noon and staying up very late with the rest of the population. Though we did fall into some very bad tourist food, we managed to find a couple places with very good wine and tapas. I think the key is to go to places where the menu is not translated into English. The Plaza Mayor is very beautiful and the area around there had some great little bars and restaurants. Our last night we ventured out to the discos, as well as going to see some Flamenco at a little club in Huertas. Finding food was a bit of a challange sometimes (too late, too early, never know what to expect) but overall it has been really fun. We finally called Javier on the 20th and decided to take an overnight train to San Sabastian. Last night we got on our train at 10:45pm and ended up (after a bit of confusion) in a sleeper car with six bunk beds with a very nice brother and sister from Israel. It was a bit hard to sleep and in the middle of the night a young American couple joined us in our car. Finally we fell asleep and finally woke up 15 mintues before our stop in San Sabastian. It turns out that this weekend one of the biggest film festivals in Europe is in San Sabastian! Leave it to Chris and I to just luck into that one. When we got off the train, Javier picked us up at the station and took us to his home right downtown, just five minutes walk from the beach. Javier and his wife Maria have a 7 month old daughter named Rothia (can´t spell for sure) who is just the cutest little girl in the world. They have a beautiful home and have invited us to stay as long as we like. Since we arrived at 7am, we went back to thier place and slept until lunch. Javier came home and took us out to lunch to a place that he says is the best tapas in town - wow, now I understand what the guide books were saying about all the great food! We are now going to venture around town and go to the beach and enjoy the sunshine. Hopefully all is well at home and we will be sure to write more later. I have attached some pictures to give you a flavor of our trip so far!
Take care -
BDS & CSS