It’s been a while since I wrote anything for the blog, and with good reason, I’ve haven’t been feeling well. So last I wrote I was leaving Tangier for Madrid and that happened without any big obstacles.  The bus ride was a night trip so I got to sleep through most of it. It also went past the Rock of Gibraltar so that was a nice thing to see, if only from the seat of my bus. The bus pulled into Madrid about 6am and I was too sleepy to really care. I found a spot in the depot and stretched out hoping to get so more rest before heading to my hostel. It only took about an hour of trying to rest until I realized that I could probably be more comfortable in my hostel, so I headed there.

I’ve been at the hostel now for four days with one more night to go before I leave for Lisbon. I had only planned to be here for three nights, but as I’ve alluded to I really haven’t felt that well. It started with the food poisoning back in Morocco, about 10 days ago… maybe even longer. Since I first got sick I’ve been on a rollercoaster of feeling better only to feel worse. Usually the mornings I feel pretty good, and nights I’m at my low point. I don’t know what I’ve got, but the symptoms are food poisoning (do I need to elaborate) and having a cold or flu. My muscles and joints ache, I get the chills at night, but then wake up covered in sweat, along with runny nose, and sometimes a pretty bad cough. Pretty much almost every part of me is got a problem. I am getting better and without a doubt yesterday was better than the day before, and today I’m feeling okay, but it’s still early. Because I’ve been feeling so poorly I stayed an extra two days here and I have one day left. I didn’t want to do it, but it seemed the smartest thing to do in light of my health. Give myself nothing but free time (and a bathroom all to myself) to heal.

Madrid is really nice. I haven’t spent nearly enough time walking around or going to tourist spots, but what I have seen has been nice. It has what many older cities seem to have, narrow roads, lots of small shops, people moving all the time, and possibly more important, it has a sense of character. For me, Paris is the pinnacle of cities that seem to have worked out how to live and work in such a confined space, and Madrid has some of these qualities. I don’t put it at Paris’ equal, but it really has a good livability feel to it. One of the things that I do like, is that they speak Spanish, the only language after English that I can kind of speak. Although I can’t form sentences, I do know many Spanish words and sometimes that’s all it takes to get a thought across.

Tomorrow night at 2300 I leave Madrid and arrive in Lisbon the next morning at 0600. I don’t know if I’ll get an opportunity to add to the blog, but if I do I’ll post some pictures.