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June 16-July 3, 2010

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January 29 - February 5, 2011

seville and granada

hola and greetings from cold Madrid.  we are tired and hanging out at an internet cafe after finishing up a bottle of wine as part of a three course lunch that cost 16€ total.  nice.  i had rabbit with garlic after being talked out of cow brains by Tiffany for something she referred to as ¨health concerns and cleanliness¨.   blah.  Anyway, between this email and the last we have visited seville and the city of granada and therefore i will devote a paragraph to both.

in my last email i said i was soon off to visit the 3rd largest cathedral in the world.  i lied (and it makes baby Jesus cry when you lie) and i´m sorry about that.  you see, we tried to visit but it was closed.  blah.  everything in spain closes on new year´s eve apparently and also on the 1st and 2nd of the year but more on that later.  so we spent the day walking the city, visiting the university (which had a moat sans alligators, snakes, dragons, etc) taking awesome pictures by the bull fighting ring, and taking a nap that was so long that by the time we got up we couldn´t get into the the few restaurants open.  it got so bad we had to settle for an irish pub that played lots of queen music.  nevertheless, we dined on burgers and snuck Cruzcampo beers from the bar to the Plaza Nueva for the New Year´s celebration.  people were shooting fireworks there and the moment reached that perfect point of safe dangerousness (you know it when you experience it).  we counted down the time to midnight and when the big clock in the square stuck, people make out.  hard.  it was sweet.  i kissed and dined on grapes.  you eat one for every month and tiff mooched some from an asian couple who mooched them from an italian couple.  good times.  new years eve is consistently the most overrated holiday of the year (maybe it ties with valentines day) but this year was actually really fun so i was happy about that.

the next morning we strolled through the town before getting on a train for granada and the alhambra.  a wise man once said, ¨you have not lived until you´ve seen the alhambra¨.  this person was liar.  but, the alhambra was pretty awesome.  but before then we met a strange european who smelled and was named tom.  he was from england and he explained all the european soccer leagues to me and i was happy about that.  he also offered us chocolate which we declined because we had hairbo candy and paprika pringles.  anyway, that morning we went up to the alhambra, a really old moorish castle.  do yourself a favor and wikipedia it.  inside of the alhambra is a muslim looking palace, Nazir´s Palace, that was really intricate.  the muslims figured out water first (who would have thought you could figure out water) and so there was water everywhere.  there were also magnificant tiles, great architecture, and a bell to ring.  i guess the christians won the alhambra back from the muslims on January 2, 1492 (what a good year) and to celebrate, every year on that day they let people ring a huge bell at the top of the main tower.  we lined up and some weird brit guy in front of me decided not to ring it and quoted mozart as saying there´s no greater sound than silence.  that man may be right but he had a goofy beard.  i also made up for him by ringing that bell for all it was worth.  after the alhambra we went to a more lawless part of town (read: public drug use) to take a good picture and dine with stray dogs.  hopefully the pictures come out well.  the next day we saw the crypt of isabelle and ferdinand and accidentally walked into a catholic mass.  yes!  that´s extra catholic points for me.

yesterday we took a VIP bus which featured free headphones and mayoneise-y sandwiches, a bathroom on board, and ´superman´ and ´darkman´on flat screen tvs.   now we are enroute to the prado museum and fine flemish art work.  tomorrow the world…

Portugal and Seville (Part 1)

i´m chilling in seville, spain waiting on the new y ear and gearing up to hangout in the 3rd largest cathedral in the world.   what´s up?  this keyboard is strange so i´m sure i´ll misspell a lot.  also, the space bar is broke.  si!

We had a real good time and beautiful lisboa, portugal the last few days.   it´s real similar to san francisco, wi th the exception of athletes with huge steroids heads.  there are cable cars, huge hills,  th e first golden gate bridge (the SF  one copied the design), seafood, many delicious baked goods, awesome churches, catholics, mucho vino, super bock beer, cockes chips, dogs, cats,  castles, and fado singing.  fado singing is kinda like local poetry that is sang opera style minus the fat.   pretty cool stuff.   o ur h otel had an awesome view of the  city and we only got mugged 8 times.  ok, we didn´t get mugged but portugese is nothing like spanish (don´t  know why i thought it was).  anyway, by day 3 i had finally figured out how to say ´thank you´ (obrigado).  i suck at portugese and will now put off the purchase of my brazilian wax and thong  until i´ve figured it out a little  better.

anyway, tiff and i are now in seville, former home of wes carter and kevin osborne (i plan on making out with both of their house moms  later tonight with the pelota drops).  it´s quite walkable  here and the streets are really narrow and winding.  also, most everything is closed today as it´s sunday.    we did go to catholic mass this morning and while it was a little confusing, the cadence was  the  same and i was able to make out parts of the sermon.   we also went to a palace this morning that is used as a summer house for the king and queen.  high five!   the arabic architecture inside was very detailed and made my head spin.  i think i took about 200 pictures there as well.  by the time this trip ends i´ll have about 1000 pics.  our hotel here is at the very top of the  4th floor and  i´m going to have calves bigger than chuck norris by the end of this trip.   last night we went to a flamenco show an hour late because we didn´t realize there was a time zone change after our 8 hour bus ride here.  for those not in the  know, flamenco is a popular spanish dance popularized by the character Don Flamenco  in ´mike tyson´s  punch out´ for NES.  anyway, i got some sweet  new dance moves and will buy some castanets later today.   tiffany has been inspired by ´mr. jones´ by  counting crows and  plans on learning the spanish guitar.  tonight´s main plan is   to  figure out how to say ´show me your best square to get drunk in´ and then figure out how  many spanish beers 15€ can buy.   ahoy.