Madrid: It`s no Lagos

I probably shouldn`t be writing this right now because I am exhausted. I think we`re still recovering from Lagos. Kaje and I have both been feeling homesick--for Lagos. We were there so long (7 nights in the end...we kept extending whenever leaving time was coming on) and met so many rad people and Lagos was so amazingly beautiful and cheap that Madrid has paled in comparison...which may or may not have anything to do with Madrid.

By the time we leave tonight we`ll have been here three days, although the first day was a write-off as we were recovering from a really unpleasant overnight train. There was only one couchette available, so Kris and I shared it. I took the first shift, she took the second. It was the worst feeling when she came at 3am to send me to the chair--the worst sleeping conditions around. We slept most of that day (in the worst hostel situations we`ve had yet, despite the fact that this place was #1 world-rated) and then went out with this nerdy Long Islandian fast-talker that Kaje met on the train. We went for sangria in Plaza Mayor, a beautiful square that reminded me of Saint Mark`s in Venice and then out for an overpriced sushi dinner that didn`t really satisfying Kris`and my serious sushi cravings.

Yesterday, we shopped a bit and then decided that it was time to finally injest some culture, so Lagos was like a culture vacuum. We went to the Prado and pretended for about twenty minutes to be interested in the room after room of Jesus pictures and portraits of unfortunate-looking royalty and then both admitted that we were faking it. But...today we went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which is supposed to be like a 1500-to-present survey course in western art history, which it was. It was really cool to see art by painters that I`ve studied and my favorite Georgia O`keeffe painting was there, which was really cool. I was stoked by the time we left. Culture isn`t so bad after all (but I still really miss Lagos).

Last night, we went out with a strange mix of people for tapas and out drinking. Our tapas weren`t quite what we expected (but we had great sangria and a cheese platter that was unbelievable) and we drank too much sangria and ended up leaving the bar by 2:30. After what we`ve been doing lately, that felt lamely early.

Boring blog, hey? We`re heading to Barcelona tonight...Hopefully that`ll compare to Lagos, but I somehow doubt it. It`s all downhill from here...(haha).

Love,
chelsea