Holy Toledo!

Sunday I arrived in Madrid, dumped my bag at the hostel and headed straight for the Museo del Prado. Home of hundreds of delicious paintings. Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" is a favorite.

After chilling out in the atrium in my hostel (it's a converted "palace", aka "big house" with a moorish style fountain in the center and islamic writing carved into wood panels on the walls.) I met two Vancouver girls in my dorm room. Been spending the last couple days with them.

Yesterday we headed to Toledo. Neat place. Small and medieval-ish with twisting streets and outrageous sword displays in the tourist shops. Apparently sword craft is a toledo thing. But why all the Lord of the Rings stuff? Frodo doesn't exactly scream spanish. It took all our willpower not to break out into a sword fight. And yes... I did get to shout "Holy Toledo!". Unfortunately it was when about 15 men decided to voice their appreciation for blonds. Was actually a bad day for that. When we got back to the bus station in Madrid more men made with the cat calls and the rude gestures. All time best one had to be when I walked by a guy I assume as northern african and all he said was "Hey... I fuck you." Well at least it's the most direct pick-up line I've ever received!

Today we pretty much just wandered around in a daze. It's Tawney (one of the above mentioned Vancouver girls) birthday today so last night we went out to sample some of Madrid's night life. And well... most venues don't really open in Spain until at least 1am. So it ended up being quite the late night. Got some good dancing in though and have the sore abs to prove it!