Angela Tung Oversharing on the internet since 2005.

Yesterday, as planned, we hit the Reina Sofia Museum. As expected I enjoyed myself a lot.

As is tradition, we first hit the cafe. It was about 11:30 but the place was almost empty, except for what we suspected were museum employees. I had what was essentially a prosciutto sandwich along with a chocolate cappuccino.

The audio tour wasn’t as complete as the ones in Paris — unless I just missed a bunch of stuff — but I learned a lot about Picasso’s Guernica; Spain’s participation in the 1927 Paris International Exhibition; and other stuff which isn’t coming to mind right now.

After the museum we walked through Retiro Park. It was lovely but so fucking hot — in fact, the hottest part of the day. Until then we hadn’t thought it was too bad, but carrying my backpack and walking through the sun (at least I had shades and a hat) was pretty insufferable.

We headed back to the apartment, and I made the mistake of dozing for too long at seven. Mistake because later I would have trouble sleeping. But I seriously couldn’t help it. Around eight we headed out to the gay part of town.

That was really cute. Tons of restaurants, bars, and stores that were still open. And the swapee’s friend was right again: we saw a lot of families having dinner at ten o’clock. Not just young people but older people and little kids. It was very interesting.

The restaurant we ate at was lovely. They started us with some olives and bread and butter. All was delicious. I didn’t even avoid the bread, which I usually do.

There was a veggie burger for YP and I had the “risoni” with mushrooms, cheese, and bacon. I thought risoni might be a mistranslation of risotto, but I looked it up and it’s basically orzo. And the bacon seemed to be missing. But otherwise it was really good. I ate the whole thing and the piece of bread that was left. Oink.

Then we shared an orange sorbet, which was more like an orange icee. It even came with just straws and no spoons. We needed to ask for spoons.

After our meal, we walked all over. There were people out but not a crazy number.

I had trouble sleeping that night, not because I was anxious but because of jetlag. The night before I think I was so tired it didn’t matter. But the second night was tougher.

I slept off and on until about 5:30. I was pretty awake at that time (we had gone to bed around one) and thought about getting up, but I managed to fall asleep again until YP’s alarm at 8. Then I had a very hard time getting up. PBJ bread and two cups of instant coffee to the rescue.

We spent the morning in the Puerta del Sol area, and had lunch in the Corte de Ingles, the big shopping mall. On the top floor is what they call a cafeteria, which is actually a pretty nice sit-down restaurant, on the other side of which is an even nicer sit-down restaurant.

I got a cappuccino, and fried eggs and duck over potatoes. It was sooo good.

A photo posted by actung9 (@actung9) on Aug 8, 2014 at 5:46am PDT

Our last stop in the mall was the grocery store in the basement. For some reason we both love browsing convenience and grocery stores in foreign countries. I had gotten a small jar of Nescafe earlier, but I also picked up a box of instant Viennese coffee, a small tub of walnuts, and a bottle of water. Then we just did a bunch of walking around. We saw the Plaza Mayor, the Estanque Parque del Retiro, and some other typical Madrid sights. All the while, it was so hot in the sun. In the late afternoon we headed back, stopping for tapas along the way. I had a bunch of walnuts during our time in the park so I wasn’t super hungry. I had half of one dish: toasted bread with tomato jelly, brie, and anchovies. It was so fucking good.

A photo posted by actung9 (@actung9) on Aug 8, 2014 at 9:51am PDT

On our way back we stopped at, guess what, another grocery store. This time I got eggs and yogurt.

For the past few hours we’ve just been hanging out. I had an apple, read, and, I admit, dozed off, but only for a few minutes. We’ll probably head back out soon to get some dinner.

I’m finally here!

The rest of my travels were smooth for the most part. The flight to DFW was crowded but I had an aisle seat. I read, enjoyed the fruit salad I had bought in my home airport, and even fell asleep.

We landed on time, and it turned out the gate for my connecting flight was practically next door. I was so happy I wandered around DFW clapping my hands like an idiot.

I had plenty of time to get a personal margherita pizza at this sit-down Italian place. It was good, so good I hate the whole fucking thing, crust included, low-carb diet be damned.

The flight ended up being delayed by about 40 minutes, but it didn’t feel too bad. Plus the plane wasn’t full. Originally I was in a row with a Spanish woman and her daughter (the woman was very friendly and nice), but then they had the husband move into their row and I was able to take an empty row.

Happy happy!

The flight, strangely, didn’t feel as long as I was expecting. It was 8+ hours but I watched a movie (Million Dollar Arm), read the rest of The Secret History, and slept a bit or just curled up with my eyes closed, listening to music.

The only downside was that I didn’t bring enough snacks. They gave us dinner and breakfast, but I was still starving for much of the flight.

Connecting with YP was less smooth. His phone wasn’t working, and I kept thinking he was in the baggage claim area when he was actually outside in the receiving area. It probably took us an hour to finally meet up.

We were both starved, tired, and discombobulated so we just got food at the airport. I had a ham and brie baguette, which was really good. The ham was more like prosciutto.

Then we went to the apartment. The subway was sooo slow, or at least it felt that way to us. The walk wasn’t too long either, but with our luggage, after being up for 24 hours, and under the hot sun, it wasn’t fun.

The apartment swapee’s friend met us at the apartment to give us keys and a nice intro to the city. What I came away with was everything closes down in the afternoons, people eat dinner late, meals are extremely leisurely, and pickpockets run rampant.

After he left we just chilled. It was mid-afternoon, which is a quiet part of the day anyway in Madrid, so we both took naps. We must have slept for almost two hours. I didn’t sleep fully but kept drifting off and waking up, not knowing where I was. But it still felt good.

We left the apartment around six and wandered around. The friend was quite right about most restaurants being closed from 5 until as late as 9. We managed with some pizza (again: yum) and walked around some more. Along the way we passed a “meat shop” (there are a lot of them around here) and I got a little paper cone of delicious fried pork fat.

There was a festival we wanted to go to later, but we were both kind of tired so we headed back to the apartment to wash up, rest for a couple of hours, and charge phones.

At first I wasn’t too thrilled about the festival. It just seemed like a bunch of people standing outside drinking and dancing badly. Then we got to a part where people dancing well, and then a row of food stands. That part of was fun.

A photo posted by actung9 (@actung9) on Aug 8, 2014 at 11:12pm PDT

I thought about getting a sausage or something but ended up getting a lame hot dog. I don’t know what I was thinking.

For some reason neither of us were too bothered by the crowds when usually we’d find them very annoying. We think it was because we weren’t in a rush to get anywhere, and for me, I figured that I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway, despite being exhausted, so I might as well stay out as late as possible.

The only part that wasn’t so fun was the street with Indian restaurants and very aggressive hawkers. I mean, they were all nice but I don’t like people getting in my face and saying ni hao.

On the way back, we picked up a bunch of groceries — I got yogurt and apples but forgot eggs and instant coffee (that is, instant coffee additional to the little packets I brought) — and got back to the apartment around midnight. I needed another shower and then had a yogurt. We went to bed around one, YP taking the bed in the loft and me taking the couch, since we figured I’d probably be up before him and making noise in the kitchen.

I tried to read but did that thing where I closed my eyes for a second with the lights on, and I promptly fell asleep.

I thought the slight noise from our neighbors might keep me up, but it didn’t. I only woke up once during the night, and that was when I noticed the flashing green light of the phone, which I covered with a pillow.

I expected to be awake at 4 or 5 in the morning, but I slept all the way until almost 8. I was still a little tired and could have slept more but I also wanted coffee.

I had two cups and a piece of PBJ bread by the time YP woke up.

Today’s plan is to visit the Reina Sofia museum, which isn’t too far from where we’re staying. And then the Retiro Park.

I’m finally on my way to Madrid.

Like last year’s trip to Paris and London, YP was planning a trip to Spain anyway and was kind enough to invite me along. And as in Paris, he was successful in finding someone willing to swap apartments with him, which means free housing for us for most of the trip.

Taking the bus to the BART was such a good idea. I can’t believe I didn’t remember it until the last minute. I thought, Wow, that would be dumb if the taxi showed up at the same time as the bus, and then thought: oh yeah the bus!

I always imagine everything will be a nightmare, but it hasn’t been (so far). While the BART was crowded at first, it cleared out pretty fast and I was able to have a seat for most of the ride. Check-in and security were also easy. Maybe because it was so early.

Now I have an hour before boarding. So far I’ve peed once, called Mom, had 3/4’s of a breakfast burrito and coffee, and played on my phone. I need some water but I’m not ready to get up yet. After this blog post.

I should also get a little cash so I don’t have to worry about it after I get home. And I want some tea, and I should pee again.

I managed to get all my stuff in one small suitcase (free checked bag!) and my backpack. I brought less stuff than I did to Paris. Now that I know our “host” will probably provide towels, I didn’t bring one. And summer clothes and shoes take up less space than warmer ones. Surprisingly I’m wearing jeans now. I usually don’t like wearing them on the plane, but these are pretty comfortable, especially since I lost a little weight.

Although right now my stomach is a bit bloated from the breakfast burrito.

In this really nice terminal I don’t mind hanging out for a while. I realized I’m also better traveling early in the day than at night. At night I’m just so exhausted. In the morning I’m energized and caffeinated, and everything seems great.

YP isn’t flying out until 7:30 PM. He texted me a little while ago that he still hasn’t packed yet. But he’s had a lot to do in terms of getting his apartment ready.

This trip I was planning on working on revising my book. I really should. I wonder if I’ll be able to charge my laptop on the plane. Some flights offer that now.

I hope getting to my connecting flight won’t be a nightmare.