Jared's Travel Blog

If you haven’t seen or heard, I got a long overdue haircut in Barcelona. I was a bit nervous and sad beforehand, but I have been loving the short-haired life!

I arrived at the Madrid train station about 30 minutes before the next train to Sevilla was set to depart. At that time, all “tourist” class seats were bought up. I had to choose between waiting an extra hour to save a few bucks or splurging on “classe preferente.”

I went with the latter and arrived in Sevilla with a price-inclusive buzz and fresh memories of egotism and puking.

Today I visited Museo del Prado in Madrid, widely considered to be the greatest collection of paintings in the world.

I was specifically looking forward to seeing the collection of works by Peter Paul Rubens whose works I fondly remember from my first Europe trip. I get to the first room of his works and see Saturno, a particularly disturbing work showing a father (the god Saturn perhaps?) taking a bite out of his son´s midsection.

No sooner than I snap my first picture of the Rubens piece, I am approached by a security guard who bursts my Rick Steves-inflated bubble.

Thanks alot Slick Rick.

I took a night train to Madrid (from Lisboa) last night and got into town extremely tired. I got to the hostel but couldn’t check in yet, so I took a very sweaty nap in Retiro park. Lloyd, Jorge, JP…having any flashbacks to ’03?