spain

went to spain, flew to madrid then valencia. early wednesday morning, like 6, took a train to bunol, for the tomato fight. had a beer and a sangria and a sandwich for breakfast. they grease up this 30 foot pole and hang a ham on top of it, and get people to climb up and get the ham before the tomato fight starts, i don't even know. meanwhile, people were getting antsy and began throwing wet balled up t shirts at each other. i'm pretty sure i got hit with one in the chest. the streets were filthy to begin with. then the tomatoes started, these big trucks rolling through, people tossing them off. i got behind one of these trucks, and then it dumped all the tomatoes out. i was quite literally drowning in tomatoes. there were people with massive water hoses spraying the fight, which was so necessary and appreciated. an hour later, everyone is just disgusting. taking the train back to valencia was fun. after one of the greatest showers of my life, we went into town, and to the beach, just chillin out in the mediterranean, no big deal. then ate paella for dinner. then went to sleep, so tired. also a legitimate "hostel" which was actually a hotel room in a best western, for 20 euro a night. also it is hot in spain.

there are these sweet buildings in valencia, the city of arts and sciences, with an aquarium, science center, etc. so the next day we went there. saw dolphins, walruses, sea lions, sharks, other awesome stuff. i realize now, that i had never seen those animals before i'm pretty sure - at the time i didn't really think about it. took the bus, 4 hours to madrid in the afternoon, got there and went about the town late at night, got a kebab, still +30 at midnight, it was good. some beers and some sangria. spanish beer is not very good i've concluded.

next day went to the royal palace, i guess i've never been in a palace before so that was alright. so ridiculous, i wonder what it'd be like to be the king of spain. went to this park, slept in the grass as per usual. ate a spanish omelette sandwich. went to the reina sofia museum, some sick art, i really liked a couple of the exhibits, and then there's a bunch of dali and picasso stuff. went out for tapas, ate a big plate o' octopus. went to see a flamenco dance show, that was cool. got some churros and chocolate. bought a wine bag for like 5 euro.

got up early to try and catch a running of the bulls, but got there just a little too late, but got tickets to the bullfight that night. returned to the city, ate a calamari sandwich. went shopping a bit. stuff is cheap. found a sweet market. it was awesome, seafood, fresh bread and fruit. also spanish people love ham. just ham everywhere, just big ham legs everywhere. found a park to sleep in for the afternoon again. went to this bullfight. it was alright. quite gory, lots of blood. at this point, i was prepared to spend the next 12 hours in transit. so took the madrid metro an hour to the bus station. actually, on the way i passed a stop called santiago bernabeu, and i recognized the name. and then about a million people crammed on the metro and i realized that it was real madrid's season opener. it was cool actually, found out that they beat deportivo 3-2. also ads with cristiano ronaldo were everywhere. missed the 10:30 pm bus by 15 minutes, got a ticket for the 1:00 am one. slept in the bus station - on the floor of course, for a bit. slept on the bus. quite cramped, the AC was blasted too. arrive in valencia at 5:30 am, take a taxi to the airport, get on the 6:30 am flight back to madrid - stupid eh? probably, i would say don't fly with iberia, they're terrible. slept there for a bit, caught the flight back to zurich. took the train back to baden. yep, used pretty much every form of transport possible there.

just chilled on sunday. some pics of spain up now, some old ones i found of the eiger, jungfrau and monch too - somehow there were some of those just hangin out on my computer. back to work now, not too much is goin on. gonna learn to ride a unicycle now, should be fun. should train for the half marathon i've signed up for, septemeber19th - it's like 2 weeks, i'm terrified. going to zermatt this weekend, gonna see the matterhorn! i love mountains.