madrid

We have been in Madrid for the last 2 days. Spent Sat. with Miranda and watching the UEFA cup at an Irish pub packed with Spaniards, Brits, Irish and 2 Aussies. Such a great atmosphere. I dont know what would have happened if Manchester won. Everyone was so elated, drunk and in full voice. We got there early, well 40min before the game started, so we were able to sit for the game others had to sandwich together near the bar.When Barca scored the place erupted singing hugging jumping the place was a buzz. When Manchester scored it was funny the place erupted, sang and hugged as well. We then walked through the plaza past the protesters , big thing over here at the moment, really hit badly by the global economic crisis. Lots of unemployment,poverty, no social security. So the protesters are having a peaceful protest in all the major cities around spain.They started about 2 -3 weeks ago and its really spreading . This plaza is full of tents, banners, music, petitions. Hope they get through to their gov. Most think it is corrupt. We went to Sofia gallery yesterday and saw Picasso´s Guernica. Great gallery had plenty of sureealism paintings. Lots of Dali, Dominguez, picasso,Magritte. Had the best time spent 4 hours there. In the evedening we took the metro, love the metro, to the Torrors stadium and bought tickets from a scalper cause the tickets at the gate were soooo expensive. We got in for 20 euros each instead of 50. Unfortunately we could only watch 1 bull fight , it was too upsetting. Such a beautiful animal and quite a horrible death really. We bought some t shirts instead. Today hoping to get the big red bus around the city and get over to the Prado arte museo and eat more Tapas. Adios.