On a train to Spain....

We left Lisbon on a night train to Madrid and were prepped to get some serious shut-eye as we were exhausted from our previous night out in Lisboa...we stepped onto this train only to discover six eighteen year old Canadians (fresh out of high school) drinking and playing "shake that ass" on their loudspeakers. We were NOT pleased...to say the least. Not only were these characters on the train, we also noticed a cross-stitching man beside them who we thought would be harmless (I named him cross-stitch Kathy) however what we didnt realise was that in his spare time, he was also a cross dresser. He proceeded to pull out his wigs, and give us a show. We had to laugh. Hysterically. However, the novelty wore off (as it always does) and after an hour and a half we decided to pay the fee and be moved to a sleeping car...with beds. This....was a great idea. We went to sleep and woke up in Spain...somewhat rested.

When we arrived in Madrid we had to meet Kevin´s co-worker to give us the keys to Marie and Kevins apartment. Once we had these....we felt a lot better knowing we had our own place to call home in Madrid. That day we explored the city and found the gem that is Retiro park. I was in tree heaven as the leaves were changing and we had a lovely picnic in the park followed by rowboating on the pond. I had been telling the girls since before the trip that I thought their blonde beautiful locks might draw some extra attention....and it turns out I was right. The spanish word for blonde is RUBIA and we have heard many men yelling this in our direction since we arrived in Spain, including our lovely rowboat dude. We took advantage of a kitchen that night and made Kates favourite meal....fajitas! We settled in and watched love actually as well....it was nice to relax a little. Our first whole day in Madrid was wet and cold as it rained all day. However, we still set out to explore and went to all the major sightseeing hotspots...Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor and the Museo Del Prado. That evening we met up with Laura and Jon (a friend of Sarahs from Ridley) for a night on the town. We went to Laura and Jonathans favourite restaurant and then for Sangria (copious amounts) and Mojitos. It was a very fun evening. The next day we went to Toledo....which came highly recommended by Ryan. It was very cool, and full of amazing history. We went to a few beautiful cathedrals, Museo El Greco (this is where the artist "El Greco" lived) and to a jewish heritage museum in the jewish quarter. We took a train back to Madrid and came back to make yet another tasty meal for ourselves. On Thursday we explored the Latin quarter and Old Madrid...both of which were amazing. That evening we went for another few pitchers of Sangria and to the oldest restaurant in the world....Casa Botin (this was also a fave of Hemmingways and was in his book, the Sun Also Rises). There, we ordered their specialty "Suckling Pig" (which I even ate!) and some other tasty dishes. This was a great conclusion to our Madridian experience. That night we came back to the apartment and I went to turn on the light and blew a fuse. I felt great about this. We went to bed and hoped to wake up to electricity in the morning. Unfortunately things dont fix themselves and we were still without power the next morning. I got my Spanish translation book (thanks Dan!) and headed downstairs to get some help. I knocked on a random door and using broken Spanish asked the man who answered if he had "electricidad". He did, and using hand gestures and a few spanish words he understood what our issue was. He was on his way to work but sent his son upstairs to help us. He fixed it almost immediately and Sarah was so happy...she hugged him. I am not sure he knew what to do, so he just left. That afternoon we took a train to Barcelona, our new favourite city!