Tuesday, April 2, 2002 14:47
Weather: Some high haze, but still sunny and warm, not too hot
Location: Interpublic Communication Services, Carrera de San Jeronimo, Madrid

Today we´ve got a long techno soundtrack in the ´net café, which is almost at capacity.

Yesterday went on according to plan. I walked down to Atocha with Paul and Patrick and we had no trouble booking literas (couchettes) from Madrid to Barcelona for Tuesday night (tonight). Paul and Patrick found that they could book return tickets for a mere €31, which seems really cheap for a 7-9 hour journey.

I went for a long leisurely stroll up through the Parque del Buen Retiro, taking a detour to see the crystal palace (unimpressive, unfortunately) and to go to a couple of newsstands for the Herald Tribune and the Independant. Then I made my way up to the Gran Cafe de Gijón, had a cappucino, a ham and cheese sandwich, and a big bowl of ice cream, while reading my papers and watching the world go by.

A couple of hours later Paul and Patrick met me there, enjoyed ice creams of their own, and we walked back to the hostal to meet Kelly. She hadn´t arrive yet, but was there shortly afterwards.

A bit after 9pm we were ready for dinner. We knocked on Alex and Justine´s door, but Alex was not feeling well so only Justine came out with us. With five people, we decided we had enough to really enjoy a tapas menu. Kelly was avoiding seafood (possible developing allergies) but the rest of us split calamares, sausages, patates bravas, sardines, and anchovies, while enjoying more of the tasty (and cheap!) beer. Afterwards we went down the street to our ¨regular¨, continued chatting, and had some more to drink. We ended up making plans to all go see the Museo Arqueológico together the next day.

I forgot to reset my alarm clock, though I did remember to turn it on, so Patrick and I woke up an hour later than planned, at 9am. We got up, had a shower, met up with Justine again and headed down for breakfast, where we found Paul and Kelly. (We´d been knocking on their door, but assumed they were sleeping in when they didn´t answer.) After breakfast we checked out of the hostal and headed off for the museum. Justine´s degree, in Biological Anthropology, included quite a bit of archeology so she was able to give Patrick and me very educated notes on the neolithic flints and other early tools. We went through about half of the museum´s collection, including a temporary exhibit of Roman construction techniques (interesting but difficult to translate).

After lunch we all split up to do separate projects for the afternoon, with a plan to meet for dinner at 7. I walked with Justine back towards the hostal (and in my case, the Internet café). She was going to check up on Alex and go off to the train station to book their tickets to Bilbao for tomorrow. Patrick was off to the Naval museum. Paul and Kelly were still discussing their plans for the afternoon when I left, Kelly planning to walk around and get a feel for the city, and then tour the Monastiero de las Descalzas Reales, while Paul was going to pick up his visit of the Thyssen-Bournemisza where he left off on Sunday. I´m not sure what I´m going to do for the afternoon: I bought a paper and may just end up sitting in a park somewhere for a while. It´s really nice out, so I may do some more wandering.
posted by Tom at 8:05 AM | link |