ooooooh sole mio

There are a lot of things I can do by myself. For example, travel to a foreign country and wander around all by my lonesome for 3 days. But while you are traveling around a foreign country for a few days by yourself, you eventually need to eat. That's where I run into some problems. See, I just can't talk myself into going to a restaurant alone. I'll wander around by myself all day with no problem, but can't face the thought of sitting alone at a table in a restaurant. I've done it before. And would again if I needed to. But otherwise I stick with food you can take with you. Panini, kebabs, pizza.....Burger King......I know, I know. But it was the closest thing to my hotel tonight and I was tired and hungry and didn't feel like going far to get something. Or ordering from the (ridiculously expensive) hotel menu. Soooo a Whopper and fries it was. And a burger never tasted so good.

I spent the previous portion of the day wandering around again in Madrid. And getting lost numerous times. I don't know why its so hard to find the metro after you've walked around for a while. My plan for today was to go to the Prado museum and El Rastro, Madrid's outdoor street market. It's giant. Sooooo many people. And vendors. And fun stuff. I bought a little necklace, but held back on everything else :) After the market, I wanted to go to the museum. I read somewhere that Sundays are free at the Prado, so that's why I waited til today to go there. After deciding to leave the market, I had to once again find the Metro. Which took forever. After wandering around lost for like a half-hour or longer, I finally asked some random lady on the street. Then I had to find the Prado. I almost gave up and decided to go back to my hotel after searching for another half-hour or more. But right when I was going to turn around, I found a sign that said "PRADO --->" yay! Although the arrow was kind of ambiguous and it still took me a while to find it, I at least knew I was headed in the right direction.

Now, I'm not an art person. I can barely even name 5 famous artists. And I know nothing about technique or art history or any of that stuff. So really I don't even belong in art museums. They should just kick me out when I walk through the door because I won't appreciate it as much as art buffs. Anyway, I got there and they made me pay :( Apparently the free time is only between 5-8pm on Sundays. I got there at like 2 or 3. Oh well it was only 4 euros. According to Wikipedia, the Prado "features one of the world's finest collections of European Art, from the 12th century to the early 19th century" and has about 7600 paintings, plus statues, etc. Velazquéz, Goya....those are the only names I remember from the whole place. I was going to name more but can't. Embarassing. I spent a good couple hours there though. It's so quiet and peaceful. And nice and cool. And there are benches you can sit on to pretend like you're really examining and admiring the art (but actually you're just resting cuz your back and feet are tired...). Anyway, then it was off to find the metro again, which again resulted in me asking a vendor where it was after a while. On my way out of the museum though, it was a little after 5pm. The "free" time. Glad I didn't wait til then, there was a line around the whole building. Definitely worth 4 euros to not have to wait!

This was my last day in Madrid! Tomorrow I'll hop on a train and head to Sevilla, my home-to-be for the next four or so months. ¡Hasta luego! I'll put up some more pictures when I have more energy... :D