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Alright so I have to say Praise the Lord. After arriving in Madrid and checking into my hostel and wandering around for awhile I headed to my room to grab my journal and check on my bus ticket I have in there. Well....after checking my locker, then my bag, then my locker again, then my bag again....and again and again.. I realized that I didn't have it. Immediately I started going back over the day and when I remembered having it last... the bus, the Eurolines office...the other bus office? The tram? It could be anywhere....Well I figured the most likely place was the Eurolines office...which I had been at about 5 hours before. So I immediately (after saying a short prayer) headed to the Metro station. Buying tickets, rushing through, just catching metros and running up and downs stairs I felt a bit like I was in the Amazing Race... and with luck I found it. The first place I checked was the Eurolines office because it was the last place I knew I for SURE had it. Thank God that it was there. As I grabbed it and headed back to my hostel the guy sitting at the counter yelled at me "You're lucky!" and I said "I know." Man.. that would have been, no it was, scary. It has all my journaling for the whole trip along with the bus tickets, my plane tickets, and other general information. Thank you God.

So ya. Madrid is pretty nice. They have a beautiful park with Peacocks in it and a little man made lake full of boats, there are streams and bridges, fountains and dirt paths, lush trees and even a glass house/garden thing. It's pretty wonderful. There also happen to be hundreds of people and quite a few couples lounging, kissing, or sleeping. It was beautiful and thus a great place to hang with your significant other I could tell.

Anyway. So the long bus ride was not so fun. Left at 3pm...arrived at 8am. Literally I did not hear a word of English the whole time. In fact other than a few people Madrid is pretty much English free it seems. It's not like it's hard to communicate or get what I need, a room, bathroom, food etc. It's more that you get really lonely when you can't even have a conversation with the person sitting next to you. I find myself wishing I had stayed in Paris already just for the fact that I was becoming used to it and I knew some people there who spoke English. Still, I felt it was time to move on.

So ya. Here I am. In Madrid. The heart of Spain. I already visited that park as stated, along with an art museum full of more portraits of unknown people, half naked (or fully naked) women, statues of fighting men, etc. etc. I had lunch at a restaurant where I got a bacon/ham with fried egg sandwich. It was actually very good, along with the chocolate crepes. Other than that I've been just hanging in the hostel and tomorrow plan to go on a free tour at 11:30. Tomorrow will be strange since I actually leave at 1am on the 20th for Barcelona...thus when I check out of the hostel at 11 I believe I'm out for good.

All this said I still feel I am meant to be doing this alone, but that if I ever do it again it will be with someone else. I think that might be what God is teaching me, or part of it. Basically that we are not meant to be alone. Humans were created to be in relationship and love and share life. This is all good and wonderful but I could never live as a lone traveler for a long period of time. It's to stressful and lonely. I'm glad I know that God is always there though because if I didn't...it would be even worse. So ya. Read below for my earlier Madrid post and make sure to check out the photos again at http://picasaweb.google.com/spencercarson/Madrid#

I´m in Madrid. I spend a night here tonight and then will be here all day tomorrow before I leave at 1am on the 20th for Barcelona. I haven´t gotten out and done anything yet but hope to head out and about in a minute. Just wanted to check in and let ya all know my super long bus ride from Paris to here arrived and I´m safe and sound. I miss you all!