Dad and I got up this morning and went right to the Prado. Oh, I only had 3 yogurts this morning. Does anyone know if eating excessive amounts of yogurt and restricting your diet mainly to one flavor does anything bad to you?
But before we got to the Prado, in fact as soon as we left the hotel we heard a girl screaming argumentatively. She was saying a lot of words that I won't repeat. She was walking with another American about her age (I'm assuming 18 years because she yelled something about that) and they were having quite the lovers spat: "Is that all I am to you, an embarassment?" It was pretty exciting--so exciting, in fact, that if it weren't for the agony on the girl's face I would have claimed it was staged.
Anyway, we got to the Prado and spent the next, I don't know, 6 hours there. It's an amazing museum. The painting Las Meninas was really cool. There was so much stuff, that I can't write about all of it. But the Goya was powerful, especially his later stuff. I didn't like the Saturno painting. Really gory. This painting was really powerful. The hotel that we're staying at is just around the corner from where that massacre took place. There was also a lot of El Greco. This nice thing about El Greco's painting is that it's very thinning. Now, Rubens, on the other hand, is, uhhh, voluptuous. So much so, that a word has been coined: Rubenesque.
The straight-shot road back to our hotel was blocked, so we got to take a detour thru the center of the town. It's a big city like any other big, old European city: statues, fountains, beautiful architecture and tons of people. It was pretty spiffy.
So sometimes Europe is weird. Something that we've seen in every city is a group of musicians dressed as though they were Sioux or Lakota but playing Incan music. Well, they play traditional Incan instruments, sometimes an electric piano, and play things like Simon and Garfunkel. Can anyone explain this to me? Oh, now the musician outside is playing My Heart Will Go On. Bring back the Simon and Garfunkel, I say.
Also, I can't think of mussels as snails. I accidentally saw the inside of one of the mussels. It was all hairy.
Gas right now in Spain hovers around 1.22 euros a liter. It was a little bit more in Portugal. All in all, I'm glad I'm not the one paying. I'm sure that Clark would be happy to read that.
I stood in front of the cheese aisle today and stared at it, so sad that in a few days it would be much more expensive, smaller and in the States. I did the same thing in front of the yogurt aisle. Sarah and I have a plan to intimidate Wisconsin into getting us better yogurt. If anyone wants to join, you're more than welcome.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is our last real day in Europe since we drive on Thursday. I don't know when we'll get in on Thursday night and we fly in the morning on Friday. I'm hoping that we'll at least be able to meander a little on Thursday night. Lisbon is such a great city.
Have a great day, all. I'm out.
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Oh, the Incan music. While I was in Barcelona and neighboring areas, a few Peruvian immigrants would join up as bands and play in plazas around the city. That was one way to make money and advertise their albums. Some of them played really well, while others pandered to the public. Oh, and "My Heart Will Go On" was played constantly! We made some good friends that way. I remember a band playing in Plaça Catalunya all the time. It sounds like it's never died. If anything, I would request "Whenever, Wherever" by Shakira and have someone belly dance.
The Peruvian musicians set out a table on the plaza across the street from our apartment in one of my areas. For about a month straight we got to hear pan flute mixes the entire time we were in our apartment. I almost started to like it for a while.
Oh, and I ate about three yogurts a day while on my mission and it didn't seem to do much harm. I did lose about 15 pounds during the summer. I usually only ate the "azucarado" flavor, since that's the best :)
The Prado is awesome...
Well, they play traditional Incan instruments, sometimes an electric piano, and play things like Simon and Garfunkel. Can anyone explain this to me?
Yes. If you mean the song that goes "i'd rather be a sparrow than a snail, yes i would, if i could, i surely would..." (which i assume you do) that is in fact a traditional andean tune called "El cóndor pasa". I heard it approximately 857 times during my five weeks in the Andes. It makes me wonder if it was a particularly popular melody before its simon-and-garfunkelization, or if they play it more now because they know the tourists will recognize it; I lean toward the latter. I didn't know they were doing it in Europe, too, that is kind of weird. As for the electric piano, well, that just makes it "hipper" for the posh European crowd.
Vanessa...I regret to inform you that eating too much yogurt CAN in fact harm you. I think I made myself temporarily lactose intolerent on the mish from eating so much of it. But I completely understand the temptation. And would have to say that since you're stay there is much shorter than 18 months, you'll probably be okay, so eat up! Just beware if you ever decide to move to Europe permanently....
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