The rest of Spain

Also in Barcelona we came across a man just walking around town stark naked. From barcelona we took the train down the east coast of spain for 1 day and night in Valencia where we just took it easy, walking around the town in the afternoon.
The following day was spent mostly on the train to Seville as it took about 7.5 hours, enabling me to catch up on a dose of music from my ipod. Speaking of music, it was interesting to note that Old man river was very big in italy (not sure if i mentioned that), xavier rudd was playing some shows in barcelona, and skipping ahead to toulouse (where we are at the moment), there are posters everywhere for architecture in helsinki who play here on the 21st.

We arrived in Seville to our nicest accommodation of the trip - somehow we had managed to get a 4 star hotel for the same price as all the other hostels and 1 - 2 star hotels we had been staying in. People in spain dont eat till very late (lunch is between 1.30-3.00 and dinner is normally after 10pm) so they have tapas, which is basically small servings of traditional spanish foods in bars and cafes. There was a great bar near us that we went to both nights for some drinks and tapas, having mini paella and patatas bravas which is basically potato wedges with the bravas sauce, a combination of peppers and mayonnaise.

We did a tour of one of the main bullfighting rings in spain.
We also went to see a free flamenco show which was amazing. The place looked more suited to a beach in australia then in the middle of spain and it was packed (im sure the cheap drinks helped that as well). There was a tiny stage set up and the performance was done by 3 people - a guy with an accoustic guitar, another guy that did vocals and percussion (by percussion i mean hand claps and foot stomping) and a chick dressed in the traditional flamenco who did dancing and foot stomping.

They got huge sound out of simple hand claps and did, what seemed like just a jam, except they would have these huge buildups and all finish perfectly, the timing was amazing. I also now have huge admiration for flamenco guitarists, using no pick and alternating so smoothly between strumming and picking the strings. i dont know how the guy didnt get a sore hand, as they did 2 25 minute performances, and he was hitting the strings pretty hard.

From Seville we made our way up to Madrid, where we did some much needed clothes washing (dont worry though this wasnt the first time we had washed our clothes). We found a fantastic restuarant here where we ate for 2 of the 3 nights. It was an old cathedral that had been converted into a restaurant and served up suckling pig, vennison, rabbit etc. The second time bindy and i got the meat platter to share, and it was piled with so many different types of meat we struggled to work out what they all were.

We did some shopping here (i picked up a few good tshirts) and we also went to another flamenco show, although this one was more professional as we bought tickets for it and it was performed in a proper theatre and featured 12 dancers as well as a vocalist, guitarist and a guy playing what seemed to be a wooden box.

Drink cards are given out everywhere in madrid so it was easy to find cheap drinks, especialy when one place has a 6 hour happy hour featuring $6.50 cocktails and a free shot with every pint ordered. Finding clubs has been more difficult than i had thought, as brisbane seems to be quite unique in having all its clubs in one area. We did go to one in Madrid, and it was quite impressive as it was an old palace that had been converted. Once entering we had to walk up this dramatic stairway, and once upstairs we kept expecting James Bond type characters to walk around the corners. However, it was a tuesday night and tuesday night was 'gold music revival night' as far as the music was concerned (just another name for shit latin pop i think) so we didnt stay too long after our free drinks.