Green, growing on trees: Madrid, Spain

Up until now, I've yet to have the feeling that I'm on a vacation of any sort whatsoever. On my first day of discovering Madrid however, it hit me. I'm not sure what caused it, but my theory is the warm(er) weather, coupled with the palm trees, blue skies, and sunlight. Madrid reminds me of a place where traveling for the sake of relaxation would be the objective. Time is money, so relaxation is not exactly a luxury I can indulge in quite yet.

I give Spain credit for having the most "secure" rail system I've yet to see (or at least a good try). They have airport level security checks at the gates, and lots of scanners/dogs/personnel. The only problem is that they only check your bags/backpack, and leave the traveller completely unchecked, which of course makes all the other security checks a complete joke and waste of money. I could walk onto any train with a hunting knife, two pistols and a grenade launcher if I wanted (whatever I can fit under my jacket), and they would never know. The camera and bananas in my backpack are a real danger though! Watch out!

Madrid is almost exactly how I imagined the stereotypical Spanish city. Hilly/mountainous landscape littered with sand and short (round) trees, an inner city core of red/rose coloured plaster/brick, and police everywhere. Let me put that in bold. Police are everywhere!. You can't walk two blocks, or even trip an old lady, without ten officers breathing down your spine. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or bad, but I choose to believe the former.

The compact city streets of Madrid are barely wide enough for a small car, yet traffic is everywhere. Everyone's home has a balcony facing the street (with clothing or plants hanging off the rail), and for the most part, every street is colourful and bright. Lots of red, orange, and yellow make up the city, with blue and green making an appearance as well (cops, and trees). Street navigation in the old town is for the most part, a futile attempt. The street names change almost every block, and there are only two major roads in the whole area. I gave up the map (I was wasting time constantly trying to figure out where I was), and just decided to walk aimlessly for a while, and worry about finding my location later (which worked quite well in the end, thanks to the sun).

Madrid (unlike Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, Prague, Brussels, Amsterdam, Oslo, Helsinki, Luxembourg City, and Copenhagen) kind of lacks the "capital city" vibe. There are certainly some nice things to see here, but for the most part, it just feels like a big metropolis. The two major highlights I've seen so far would have to be the view from the Temple Debod (an Egyptian temple donated to Madrid), and the Cathedral de la Almudena. This Cathedral was certainly something special, because it was completely different from all other cathedrals I've seen so far.
1)It has a stereo system that would hold up to almost any U2 concert (4 large BOSE speakers on almost every pillar, and there were a LOT of pillars)
2)The interior was extremely bright, clean, and pure (lots of white stone).
3)The Ceiling, paintings, and stain glass windows were all EXTREMELY colourful. Much like the streets of Madrid, the interior of this cathedral was red, orange, and yellow for the majority. The light from the sun would shine in, and all the walls would glow from the coloured glass.
4)Artistic themes were positive, and cheerful. No solid gold statues of angels stabbing devils in the face. Nope, not here.

I realized very quickly that three nights in Madrid would be more than enough time to get a good feel for the city, so I decided to make a day trip out of Madrid to nearby Toledo, which was awesome. Due to the occupation of Roman, Visigoth, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian armies, the city had a small identity crisis. Learning from my downtown Madrid experience, I once again made away with my map, and just got myself lost in the labyrinth that is the old town Toledo. For the most part, I spent the entire day just wandering around and enjoying the scenery, weather, and architecture, That is, except for the one sight I did take in; the Cathedral of Coro, Sarcistia, Capilla de la Torre, and Sala Capitular (all one building). This particular cathedral is the second wealthiest church in the world, behind the Vatican. It shows! The interior was completely over the top luxury. The ground was literally paved with solid gold in places, and the use of sculptures, pillars, paintings, and tapestries were also complete extravagance. The main problem was their policy against photography of ANY kind within the church. That being said, I've learned from my parents that "do not pass," "no trespassing," and "no photography" do not apply to us, so I snuck a few photos while I was in there.

To go a little bit deeper on the photos I took, I will have to explain the level of security. Security was everywhere, in the forms of personnel (uniform, and plain clothes), cameras, and a deadly quiet echo (I wish my SLR shutter had a silencer). It came to the point where I walked into a room, located the video cameras, walked to the blind spot, waited for the guard to make a round (further away the better), then snap the shot, and casually walk away. After every photograph, I even changed what picture my camera would show if "review" was pushed, just in case one of the security agents got suspicious. I love this sneaky stuff, it's kind of fun, haha.

Tomorrow night will be a night train to Lisbon, and then in the morning of my arrival I'll be running over to Faro for two nights, then Porto for a single night, then to Lisbon for an undefined period of time. My rail pass will expire the day after my arrival to Lisbon, so I'm gonna have to evolve my traveling style for now. I was hoping to get a new flexi-pass mailed to my hostel in Lisbon, but I'll have to wait to find out if that's even possible. For now? I wait.

Kyle-enjoying the green-out