Valencia to Madrid 9/5/2008

Our room in the hostel last night had 14 beds, 12 of which were occupied by the loudest snorers on planet earth. Anyway, we got up and checked out of the hostel. We had bought tickets the day before for an IMAX show about the Swiss Alps, namely an ascent of the Eiger. So we walked back to Center for Arts and Sciences after leaving our stuff in the hostel.

The building with the theatre inside is my favorite at the CfAS (pronounced kuh-fahs). It is basically a giant eye. There are pictures of it in my previous post and you will notice that the eyelid is open around the eyeball making an open area to walk around outside. Today when we went, the eyelid was closed making the outdoor space more secluded. The theatre is inside the eyeball. The film was pretty cool; some very pretty scenery that we may get to see later in this trip. After the film, we took some more pictures of the CfAS then picked our stuff up from the hostel and caught the train to Madrid.

We got to Madrid after dark. We walked to the hostel and checked in. We are in a large room again with like 69 bunk beds, but our hostel seems pretty AOK. There is a neat closed in courtyard that all the rooms surround.

After checking in, we found a place to eat. A guy at the hostel recommended Tapas del Mundo. Kelly and I split a platter for two of a bunch of Spanish food that was way good. We found some churros with chocolate for desert which was yummy.

Downstairs in our hostel is a bar where all the college age kids meet up before going out till 5am. We went down there for a little bit and had a few beers. They had a DJ that it seemed like everyone was trying to ignore until he played “Space Jam” by Quad City DJs, when everyone immediately started dancing and singing along. (Space Jam was a song that reached peak popularity in America 11 years ago among the age group of 8-12 year olds.) Both confused and amused Kelly and I went to bed.