Madrid

Alright, so, here is my post for Madrid. Perhaps I am too ambitious to have thought I could get updated completely while in Istanbul... I have been sick. I finally went to the doctor yesterday and about 400 dollars later, I was diagnosed with sinusitis. I got my X-rays and a battery of antibiotics with nasal sprays and sudafed, so I feel better... a bit. I spent today making insurance claims for yesterday and my doctor visit in Cuzco, and I should be getting some money back two months from now - just about the time when I really won't be desperate for money anymore. Anyway, back to Madrid. The first cool thing about Madrid was my hostel. It was apparently an ancient moorish mansion before it was a hostel. I stayed for one night and was then forced to move to a less-moorish, less mansion-y hostel for the next two days.

Here is the ceiling stained glass from the first hostel I stayed at.

A marble fountain in the common area? Posh! ............posh? Yes, I said posh......

I have been accused of taking only "pretty" pictures of the places I go... so here is a regular street in Madrid. Yay!

A random church on the street.

The basilica of the royal palace.

The royal palace courtyard and facade of the palace itself.

The rear of the basilica. I couldn't go in because it was under construction... *tear*

Another view of the palace facade.

A beautiful ornate lamp outside the palace.

A statue of... one of the kings of Spain? I dunno. It merited a picture anyway.

Most of the ceilings in the palace were frescoed with amazing paintings like this one. The artwork was outstanding.

RAWR!

The Spanish royal coat of arms... I assume. I didn't have any tourguide, so these are all just assumptions.

A table just outside the throne room. Egytian-esque. Gilt in gold?

More ceiling frescoes.

And more...

A crystal chandelier. There were many gorgeous chandeliers that sparkled rainbow colours when you moved around them.

Apparently, there were a number of important treaty signings in this room.

The throne room, with subdued lighting and flash prohibited. Replete with red velvet everywhere and actual thrones!

A different angle of the throne room.

A ceiling fresco with gilt moldings. In reality, the blue in the dress was brilliant.

Another chandelier.

Ceiling details in the "chinese" dressing room of the king. There were several asian style rooms in the palace, because it was all the rage at one point in history. This was mouldings, not painting.

The ceiling corner, with asian figures.

More impressive ceilings.

Sparkling chandeliers... all in crystal. The luxury was astounding.

The banquet room, where the royal wedding receptions were held.

The royal silverware collection... or at least, 1/100th of it...

This is a Stratavarius... just hanging out in the music collection of the palace.

One of the hallways in the palace.

Queen Isabel, the Catholic. The detail in the dress was astounding. I have never seen a marble sculpture so ornate.

A small, private chapel for the royal family inside of the palace (apart from the basilica outside).

More of the chapel.

The altar of the chapel.

King Fernando, the Catholic. Once again, ornate beyond belief.

One of the "chinese" rooms in the palace.

The armoury. Horses need armour too!

A fully suited-up horseman. By the way, did you know that in Spanish, the world for gentleman, Caballero, means horse-rider? Apparently, you weren't anybody unless you rode a horse...

The complete footman armour 6-piece collector's set.

Check out this rifle. It is not a cannon, oh no; this is a trigger-pulling, Marlboro Man rifle. I can hear Crocodile Dundee saying "That's not a gun, THIS is a gun!"

The classic spanish helmet.

The royal pharmacy. This place was STOCKED. They had everything I have never heard of to cure everything and more, all in small alabaster jars, glass beakers, and stone bowls.

More of the pharmacy.

The side of this building in a plaza was painted with all sorts of greek gods and nymphs and such. It was cool.

A mariachi band? I am not sure. This is near the shopping area, the Puerta del Sol.

Here is the side of a building. Sigh.... such wonderful architecture.

A typical Madrid street. Did I already sigh about the wonderful architecture? Why aren't there entire streets like this in Canada? We need more of this...

Myself and Yeun-Hee, friend from Korea and artiste extraordinaire! One of the nights I was in Madrid, she was having an exhibition of her installation art. It was cool. You can see some of it in the background - floating boats. Yeun-Hee was such a wonderful host while I was in Spain, and she turns up later again in Barcelona. However, for now, I must sign off and leave the rest of Spain for another day. Next up, Barcelona - The City of Wonderfulnessness!

87 hours on a bus, and the rest of South America!

I am in Istanbul (not Constantinople).

Well, it's been just about forever since I last updated my blog. To anyone who was following it, I sincerely apologize for the serious delay. To explain, let me relate what I have been up to. My last post was from La Paz, Bolivia. Well, I finally got my visa for Brazil and decided to get going, so I packed up my things and headed to the bus station. Once there, I found out that the direct bus from La Paz to Rio de Janeiro only leaves on Tuesday. If I had been a day earlier with my visa I would have been able to make it in time and enjoy the leisure of travelling sans connections. Instead, I decided to forget my photograph on Friday and then on Monday I needed to head across La Paz to a Brazilian bank to pay for the visa, and return to the consulate too late to submit the receipt. Therefore, Tuesday I finally got all my papers in and due to the good graces of the people there, I had my visa on a Wednesday.

So, back to the bus station... I arrived and found out that the bus ride would take no less than 66 hours. Yes, 66 hours. I would have taken a plane if I had know what would eventually transpire, but I thought that 66 hours would be a good storytelling experience and a way to save 300 dollars. After all, what's 66 hours on a bus anyway? No problem, right? Well, it turned out to not be 66 hours, but actually 87.5 hours. The roads were all blocked from heavy rainfall and landslides that covered the roads. Hence, I missed many of my connections as well. Keep in mind that 87 hours is actual travel time. I also spent the night in a run down hotel in on the border between Paraguay and Bolivia, and countless hours in bus stations waiting for the next connecting bus. Anyway, I finally got to Rio de Janeiro after 3 and a half days sitting on a bus.

So, I decide - finally! Time to check my e-mail! Only then to I discover that my parents have sent out the national guard looking for me and Canadian consulates around the world are on the lookout for a dead, stinky, scruffy-looking Ben Norris.

Rio was fantastic. I arrived 1 day late for the beginning of Carnaval, but it was amazing nonetheless. While in Rio, I stayed at a fantastic hostel called Samba Villa. It was full of interesting people as well as a crazy interesting guy from the States who had lived in Rio for about a year and told me in great detail about the poor areas of town.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the more dangerous cities in the world. In fact, more youth are killed in the poor areas of town (called favellas) every year than on the West Bank. Depending on who you hear it from, about 5000-7000 murders happen every year in Rio. Robberies are very common. You gotta really have your wits about you there. Anyway, I thoroughly worked on numbing my wits while there with non-stop partying. There was also only 1 computer at the hostel that everyone wanted on all the time, so I couldn't update my blog there either.

I met some really wonderful people in Rio.

After Rio, (and the false start leaving for the airport and finding out I had left my ticket at the hostel, thereby spending another day in Rio) I headed to Spain. I had a connecting flight through Lisbon to Madrid. Madrid was nice. I will tell you about Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Istanbul, but in a later post. In this post, I will update the last of South America, and I will try to get Europe up on my blog tomorrow.

Here we have a sign in La Paz, Bolivia. I thought it was rather funny. Friends don't let friends name their businesses "Crack".

The tiled roofs in La Paz, Bolivia. My art shot of the day.

Travelling from La Paz to Rio de Janeiro. This is probably nearer to La Paz than Paraguay.

I really didn't like Paraguay. It was dusty and dirty and flat and there was really nothing to see on the bus trip. The woman at the La Paz bus station said that I didn't need a VISA to get into Paraguay, so none was sought by myself. However, once I got into the country (the border check it 2 hours inside the country), the officials told me otherwise. So, out came the monetary persuation and a mystery "48 hour transit visa stamp" magically was passed into law. The same thing happened when I tried to leave Paraguay. Overall, I only ended up paying 10 dollars more than I would have paid if I had obtained a legal visa through a consulate in Bolivia, so it all worked out ok, I guess. Anyway, this is my only picture of Paraguay. It is a barbeque, I think. I was just really amused at how anthropomorphistic it was...

Here is Brazil. I loved Brazil. It is beautiful and lush and a well organized country (compared to Paraguay and Bolivia). This was taken from the bus.

More of the road to Rio de Janeiro.

Ok, here we are in Rio de Janeiro. This picture is taken from the balcony of my hostel, which was just adjacent to the famous Lapa Arches. This was during Carnaval, and the people were everywhere. Each weekend is the same, Carnaval or no Carnaval. I didn't take a lot of pictures in Rio because of the risk of theft. Atfer all, you all want pictures of the rest of my trip, right? It would have been bad to carry it around everywhere. Also, I tended to sleep in everyday in Rio and party all night, so I wasn't out in the sun very much. Carnaval was a frantic, crazy, festival. It was colourful and everyone took the time off of work. Basically, the whole city shuts down for 4 days. Most of the Samba action happens at a place called the Sambodromo. The first night that I was in Rio, I lost the address of my hostel, and a very kind woman I met on the bus from Sao Paolo took me to her home and let me sleep in one of her beds. Also, the same night, I went to the Sambodromo with her roommate and we managed to get cheap tickets to get in. The Sambodromo is basically a long street that 16 different Samba schools march down. Each procession takes about 1 hour, so it takes 4- 4-hour days to go through all the schools. Each school prepared for a whole year, and only a week after Carnaval do they start preparing again for next year.

Here is Carnaval, as well. Also taken from the balcony, but in the other direction.

Here are the Lapa arches in the day, after Carnaval was all done and finished. It is much cleaner.

Here is the famous beach, Copacabana. It was bright, so that is why all the people look like shadows. The beaches in Rio are gorgeous. The sand is fine and white.

The boulevard beside Copacabana.

More of the beach. One of the nights that I was at Carnival, I ended up taking a taxi with some strangers to a beach where there was an all-night rave party. I danced on the beach until the sun rose over the ocean. It was a perfect moment.

The Atlantic ocean. This may have been Ipanema beach. Then again, I think it was probably Copacabana.

Here is one of the mountains that flank Copacabana beach. I would like to call it Sugarloaf mountain, but that is somewhere else, I think. I didn't get out to see Sugarloaf or the statue of Christ. Oops. Too much partying, I guess.

Here is a picture of Mohatma Ghandi, apparently on his salt walk. This was a 5 minute walk from my hostel. I found Rio to be such a beautiful city. I really would like to go back. Anyway, that concludes my trip to South America. I will upload pictures of Spain and Amsterdam tomorrow! Sorry again for the delay in keeping you all up to date. Cheers!