Day 16 in Europe (Madrid)

I thought it was a good idea to sleep with the fan off for a night as it wasn't very hot. Unfortunately I didn't realize that the soft droning sound of the fan masked a viciously snoring person in the room adjacent to mine. In any case I woke up feeling drained and thinking oh no it's 'one of those days'.

Actually the day started off with a small win. I managed to have desayuno (breakfast) without saying a word of English. Granted there wasn't exactly a conversation but still...

Today was meant to be museum day. I was gonna do three art galleries. The first was Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and just wow. If you ever need a high quality crash-course through the history of European and Euro-American art then this is it. From a beautiful 15th century diptych by Jan van Eyck to 17th century Dutch realism to Monet to Van Gogh to Picasso, there was something nice in every room. My favourite being this piece by Gustave Courbet. The only downside was not being allowed to take any photos at all so other than telling stories here I have nothing to show for it.

A little hiccup during the visit was when there was a super cute Spanish museum-staff guy distracting me from the art in one of the rooms. My conscience kept pestering me with 'grrrrrrr concentrate on this art dammit'. I caught him looking at me many times while I was checking him out but didn't end up finding out what that was all about. Story may be worthy of /sadface but who knows.

By the time I was done with the Thyssen it was almost 16h00, perfect timing for lunch in Spain! At this point I was really feeling the lack of sleep so I gave up on the other two museums and headed home. On the way I stopped by for some jamon and huevos fritos and tinto de verano. Ok a couple of tips for future travelers; 1, jamon is theoretically delicious but if like me you don't like meat, then don't try it; and 2, many glasses of tinto de verano can be pretty lethal when it's a hot summer day and you're dehydrated!

So by the time I went for my siesta I was quite happy. :) :)

Have to cut this short, way too long already! In the evening I was on the internet, sitting under the air conditioner at my hotel lounge when I started chatting to a nice fella and we hooked up (yeah yeah too much info, but this is my trip diary too). At night 22h00 I went out for a dinner of paella and a copa of cuerveza.

I'm glad I dragged myself out of bed because I had one of the best days of my trip so far. Maybe not THE best but it would be close! (Dammit museum guy you ruined my perfect day!)