The High and Mighty Fall Hard in Madrid

My immune system has served me exceedingly well in my 24 years and I am quite proud of it.  I am very rarely sick, and when I am it is not for long.  Well, lo and behold my surprise in Madrid when I was taken down and taken down hard.  Day one in Madrid, Larissa and I met up with Steven, had tapas for dinner and hung out with some of the other travers at the hostel.  (Seany- I've even been talking to the occasional stranger!)  By noon on day two in Madrid, I was a little bit convinced that I was dying.  Now I love a good walking tour, but when I realized that I was nearly lying down on the ground of the Plaza Mayor 20 minutes into our tour, I decided it was a no go and went back to the hostel for a nap with one of my worst headaches on record.  Even after some additional symptoms joined in for the party on day three, I was still able to have a nice time in the city.  I would insist on tagging along to the various sites, and then Steven and Larissa would drop me back off at the hostel when I couldn't drag my body any farther.  I'm sure I missed quite a lot, as it is difficult to really take in a museum when you are sitting in one of the guard's chairs with your eyes closed, but it was better than nothing.  Thanks to my travel pals for taking such good care of me and for not complaining about all my complaining.

One evening that I really enjoyed was the night of the flamenco show.  Larissa and I went to a show in Barcelona, but this was much smaller and we could actually see the dancers' feet and expressions.  Even though it was so hot in there that I felt like my eyeballs were on fire, the dancing was spectacular.  We also spent one of our days in Madrid on a day trip to Toledo.  In the ninth grade, Toledo was the city of my dreams.  I couldn't tell you now what made Toledo so special then and would be hard pressed to even picture it at all, but I was eager to return.  Sadly, the magic was lost.  It was cold, windy and a bit rainy, and I think we were all relieved when it was time to catch the bus back to Madrid.  Besides seeing the cathedral (my favourite so far), the highlight of the day was when we opted to take a short cut back to the bus station.  Our choices to get to the bottom of a relatively steep will were A) to zig zag our way down along the road or B) to cut directly down the hill through a bit of wilderness.  Decision well made!  Taking the hill was great entertainment and also a time saver!

If I was going to take a guess at everyone's favourite part of our stay in Madrid, mine would be the cable car ride over the city, Larissa probably most enjoyed the sangria at the flamenco show, and I am quite confident that Steven is truely in love with the Museo de Jamon.  This place is something that you should really see for yourself.  Hundreds of ham haunches hang along the walls, each costing about 400 euro.  The best hocks have black hooves (oh, they all still have hooves) because they were fed a pure acorn diet.  After the alluring decor, the real draw is the prices and the food itself.  1 euro for a beer and 1 euro for a dlicious ham croissant.  I'm not sure there was a day in Madrid when Steven didn't pay a visit to the Ham Museum.  But I also don't think that anyone who has been to the Museo de Jamon themself would blame him.

*Update: now I'm stuffed up.  What a baby!  This is ridiculous.