Who loves hugging Saints? I DO

First and foremost, we have now survived two night trains...only mildly the worse for wear. The first one we were in a compartment with these funny seats that reclined all the way, so it was us and this business dude, with six seats all flat as though we were in some kindegarten nap time. Skipping ahead to discuss second train, last night we were in a big car of seats that didnt recline at all... so there was little sleeping, and much sadness, possibly with a little crankiness mixed in. However, we did check in to this hotel in my guidebook(one of its first moments of real usefulness), where for 17 euro each we have amazing beds, soft sheets, an awesome shower, and in fact the first place we´ve been in weeks that didn´t in some way smell like mold. Its a little bit of heaven!

Also, i´d like to take a minute to discuss something else on this trip you havent heard about, we like to call it ´The Hopputtle´ what it is is a baguette, with a good bit of salami on it, a cheese: generally white(today named queso sandwich), and our secret ingredient...... Baked Beans. i swear, its delish, and costs under 2 euro each....i´m going to start it as a food craze when i get back to the states...

Anyway, more on places we´ve been. We were in Madrid for a hearty 14 hours, highlights being the Prado....where i saw paintings of monkeys involved in all sorts of human activities, and a hilarious Reubens where some goddess is creating the milky way with an arc of her breast milk....we also saw a lot of actual amazing art. Super fun to do it with an art history buff who knows a little spanish. I´d get an, OOOOH i studied this, theres something about the light...and then she´d read a bit of the plaque and go, oooh yeah it says something about the light! all told, way more informative than if i had done it alone. We also went to the reina sophia and saw La Guernica(picasso´s giant piece) really nice, so angry. There is also a series of photos taken during its making where you can see the progress, and how he actually did quite a lot of moving and changing of the piece, really facsinating.

Then we wandered Madrid a bit, found some cool stuff, inculding a really interestingly decorated cathedral(the ceiling looks a lot like russian or greek folk art? very colorful geometric designs). Then we found a restaurant where we ordered quite a lot of sangria, and tried our hand at some tapas...where due to a little incomplete translation a la erin, we ended up with some odd foods which we couldn´t identify, which were mostly tasty, except for one which we thought would be eggs, when we came we thought it was cheese, and then decided it was fishy, and thanks to erins translator thingy we think involved fish roe? It was an adventurous meal to be sure, but damn funny, and heck without erin i would have been lost entirely. We may have some problems in portugal..... OOOH also, apparently sundays are a great day for traditional garb! so fun, people running around all day dressed up...i wanted a pretty dress! OOOh and who doesnt love sundays...alll the museums were free.

we wandered back to the train, played some very competitive cards and ´woke up´in santiago de compostela. After a 4 hour nap in the joy of our hotel room, we showered and went to the supermercado in order to pick up breakfast and supplies for todays hopputtles.... Then we headed to the cathedral. It supposedly houses saint james remains, and is the end of the pilgrims trail from the corner of france. The front is this baroque craziness, very imposing, very cool. Inside we opted to spend the euro to figure out what everything was with the funny audio box in the wall, were we found out: a) there is a door which is only opened during the years that st james feast day falls on a sunday, and for that year all who enter receive plennary indulgences, b) there is a place you are supposed to put your hand for luck(which is touched so often there are actually huge holes for your fingers, really neat), then you knock your head on the other side on the head of a statue of the guy who carved the whole front of the nave in order to try to knock some of his genius into you. and c) you can go up and hug or kiss the statue of st. james which is the traditional end of the pilgrims path. So we went up, but you actually get to climb into the alter, its this huge ornate gold and gilt ridiculousness with giant angels and stuff and then you go up this little staircase and all of a sudden you´re a part of it! It was sooooo facsinating, i´m glad i had a background in pilgrimidge and forced us to go here, its way neat.

Tomorrow we´re getting up early again and taking a train that will drop us off in Porto, Portugal...where they make a lot of....you guessed it PORT!
beyond the port its supposed to be a really nice town.

I can´t believe that we´re only here for another 10 days, very sad.... But it will make me appreciate all of the day to day stuff even more...like unmoldy showers, and beds!