I Am Wearing Pants

A nerdy basement, Madrid, 4.01pm

Arrived in Madrid about an hour ago, it's a beautiful afternoon here. One of the bus stops had a temperature guide saying that it was 19degrees, while another one across the street said it was 11degrees. I'm guessing it's in the middle somewhere, so let's say 15degrees! A tiny bit cooler than Melbourne, perhaps??

When last we spoke, I was headed for Málaga wasn't I? Well Málaga wasn't too exciting, I went there for a night because I wanted to visit the Picasso Museum, thinking that seeing he was born in Málaga they might have some good pinturas (paintings). They didn't. Took me maybe 20mins (and only because I was going really slowly) to look at some prints, a couple of ceramic pieces and a collection of photos OF Picasso taken by Lee Miller. So feeling a bit jibbed and hungry I headed back to the hostel for my first hot shower in three days. Hello country without water restrictions and therefore less guilt! My hostel was having a BBQ on their roof that night, so faffed around until that started happening at 9pm, then sat on the roof in about 5degrees (beanie - yay!) for hours, chatting to all the randoms staying at the hostel or had friends there or had stayed there....anyone and everyone basically!

This was when I first heard of the Erasmus program. Vaguely, it's for uni students to study in another country. So the semester starts next week and the hostels have been flooded with all these students looking for apartments. So in Málaga and then in Granada, the hostels were pretty full with students, lots of people to talk to and hang out with, which was great, plus being one of only a small handful of 'travellers' was a novelty.

Headed to bed, to discover the other person sharing my room - a lively Irishman, who'd had such a big night the night before he'd slept through the BBQ and was not impressed. 'Ah no, I've missed the f***ing BBQ! I can't believe I missed the f***ing BBQ! They didn't wake me up, the f***ers!', etc etc. It was like sharing a room with Father Ted. Certainly entertaining in the middle of the night. He was then all for us rolling a joint, which I politely declined and left him to trot downstairs and find some of the f***ers who didn't wake him up for the f***ing BBQ.

I headed to Granada on Sunday, really pretty drive in with the Sierra Nevada hovering in the background, all snow-capped and pretty. My hostel was in the Albayzin (Arabic quarter of the city) so to get through I was hauling my suitcase up this lane lined with shops flogging all the usual hippy/Moroccan-esque type stuff. My hostel was good, massive, and full last night, they also had activities every night, which was a great way to pass the evenings.

Sunday arvo I visited the Cathedral, someone needed to send Sadie in with a Pledge Grab-It to do a spot of dusting on some of the side altars. I also struggled up the hill to the look out at Plaza Sant Nicolas. It's on the hill opposite la Alhambra so if you want photos, that's the place to do it. Unfortunately, the HUGE population of the Great Unwashed (hippies) living in Granada have chosen this spot as their unofficial fiesta/sales position. So the little plaza was packed with them all dancing around, flogging jewellery, letting their free love offspring express themselves through juggling, playing weird instruments, breaking up their feral dog fights and just generally clogging up the view. So I took photos of them, not the view, and bought a postcard with a great pic of la Alhambra on it instead! Also had lunch at a tèteria, Arabic tea room, so a pot of bergamot tea and a Turkish pizza in amongst the cusions, rugs, candles and dinky little tables.

Sunday night was the tapas tour, so I wandered off with a massive bunch of randoms for the free tapas. In Granada, if you order a drink (sangria/cerveza) you get free tapas with it, some places you choose what you want, some you just get given something nibbly. It was good, for under ten bucks Australian I had dinner and a couple of sangrias! None of us could work out how you made money out of that kind of business, but agreed that it was a damn fine idea!

Yesterday I headed for la Alhambra, to see it all up close and personal from the inside. It's amazing, stunningly detailed and intricate, with some cats roaming around as well! Took hours to ramble through it all, took a gazillion photos, hard to do it justice really.

Bought one or two little bits and pieces of hippy stuff in the afternoon and more postcards. Managed to stop myself buying one of those Taliban-esque scarves that are all the rage, but in Granada more than anywhere. It's a uniform there, says you belong in Granada and that you are all about freedom, inner beauty and not washing. Needless to say, that doesn't quite fit with my image, despite the Sevillian unwashed glory.

Last night the hostel had an hour long Spanish class, so I joined that, met a couple of Aussie kids and an American, we all had a good time. Then they cooked up a cauldron of pasta for us for dinner and more sangria. Hung out talking to all the randoms till late, then had to get in the queue for the bathroom. Only bad thing about my Granada hostel - one bathroom for ten people. Yes indeed.

Oh my god! I almost forgot the Pantless German story!

So yesterday we got a couple of new people in our room, said hello to this dude as he headed for the bathroom in the evening. He came back out later when I was re-packing my suitcase and I thought he had no pants on, but didn't really look. Then I went in to where our bunks were to grab something and he was in there putting the sheets on his bed. Pantless. And proceeded to have a brief chat with me in only a Tshirt and jocks, while climbing and leaning over to make his bed because it was a top bunk. While I kept my eyes above the shoulders and tried hard not to giggle. PUT SOME PANTS ON MAN! I am definitely meeting a variety....

Tomorrow I head to the two big galleries here in Madrid - the Reina Sofia and the Prado. One of them, can't remember which, has Picasso's 'Guernica', his Spanish Civil War painting, very famous. So am looking forward to some good modern art action.

Heading back to my hostel for some clean clothes action and some food now, and maybe I'll even try and go to bed before 11 tonight - granny action española style!