After a grueling day throwing tomatoes we were spent forces, so the following day in Valencia was pretty relaxed. Still having no luck on the washing machine front, we had decided to wash our clothes in the bathtub and hang them around our room to dry. This was two days earlier and they were still nowhere near dry, so we decided to try our luck for a dryer at a laundromat we had seen while riding around the city previously. Unfortunately this laundromat turned out to be a dry cleaners! We were in a bit of a pickle. Leaving for Madrid the following day with a backpack full of wet clothes was not a favourable option, so we headed for a nearby park, sucked up our dignity and proceeded to lay out our clothes on a sunny park bench. Then we sat and waited...and waited...and waited some more. The thing I love about Spain is you can pretty much do anything and no-one bats an eyelid. The only person who seemed to pass judgment and give us a few strange looks, was a man who looked like the only time he'd seen a washing machine was on the outside of the box he was sleeping in!

That night after a picnic dinner of ham and cheese rolls, yet again, we rode our bikes through the parklands that was once a river bed, down to the new Art and Science sector to check out the impressive modern architecture.

The following morning it was off to the big smoke of Madrid for us. Now I wasn't sure of what to expect with Madrid. So far the towns we had visited had been relatively small in comparison and by that I mean only about 700,000 or so people. Madrid has approximately 3.13 million so it's fair to say it was a pretty bustling city. Our hostel was located in the heart of Madrid near Sol Plaza right amongst the action. This was very evident at 7 o'clock in the morning when the Madridians were still partying hard outside our window. Madrid is not a city for the early to bed, early to rise type of people. Most shops don't open till 10am only to close again for siesta around 1:30 or 2 o'clock before reopening at 4 until 7 or 8. Most people don't eat lunch till 2 or 3 in the arvo and dinner isn't until at least 9pm. Most restaurants don't even begin serving food till 8 which is where the tapas becomes very important! Then the partying starts to kick off around 10pm and keeps going until 10am!

Our first day in Madrid was pretty low key. We hit the streets by foot to get our bearings and check out some of the parklands and monuments. Of course our first stop was a bar that has bucked the trend of other bars in Madrid and was still offering free tapas. No sooner had we walked into El Tigre, we were pounced on by a waiter taking our order and shouting it across to the bar staff. Then just as quickly handing us two giant beers and a heaped plate of free food goodness.

With lunch sorted we ventured into Retiro park to walk off some of the calories we had just consumed. There were a few unusual sights here. We had our first encounter with a Madrid busking trend, where grown men dressed as cartoon characters like Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse charge people to have their photos taken with them. The funniest of these was an overweight Spiderman who had made a mini replica of himself, beer belly and all!

We filled the following day, firstly with a cable car ride over Casa de Campo which is a huge stretch of parklands 6 times larger than central park, then strolling back to town we passed several impressive monuments including an Egyptian temple, one of many that was relocated due to the low lying area it was in and the risk of being washed away by floods, the Palacio Real and the Plaza Mayor. Still recovering from La Tomatina and also limited by time, we decided to use the tour bus to see the remaining sights of Madrid for the rest of the day.

That night after a long day of sightseeing we were well overdue for a drink. We ventured into La Latina, a well known strip of restaurants and bars, and stumbled across a small bar, that unfortunately I can't remember the name of, with a great deal. A bucket of beers (5) for 3€. What more could you ask for? A bite to eat maybe? Well for 12€ we got a serve of mussels and a serve of some of the best tasting battered cod I've ever eaten! A drink special like this meant the bar was packed to the rafters but this turned into a positive when we had to share our table with four local Madrid boys. Ishmal, Fran, who resembled a Spanish Vanilla Ice, and the two Dannys, turned a good night into a great night.

Some of the museums in Madrid offer free entry on Sundays so we used this opportunity to save some money and headed to the Museo Reina Sofia where Picasso's famous Guernica is housed. Some of the artworks here were very impressive while some, especially the temporary exhibition, in my opinion were utter crap! If they had hung the work of local primary school kids instead you couldn't have told the difference. Perhaps that's why it was temporary! From here we ventured onto the Caixa Forum, a building that appears to float in mid air and features an impressive vertical garden on the wall out the front.

We couldn't come all the way to Spain and not experience one of their most iconic sports, bullfighting. As gruesome as it was in parts the art of bullfighting is an interesting show of long standing traditions and Spanish culture. The show consisted of three main Nouvelle (amateur) fighters, who looked about 17 years old, each having to fight two bulls, only one at a time of course. We only ended up staying for the first three, as by that stage we had witnessed enough animals dying and the fights themselves started to get repetitive. It all starts with the bull being released into the ring looking a little stunned and confused about what's going on. Five matadors, including the competing fighter, start to tire the bull out by enticing it from one side of the ring to the other with their capes. The trumpets sound and two men, armed with spears, come riding in on blindfolded horses suited up with some serious padding. As the bull charges the horses they are speared through the back. The poor horse has no idea what is going on as he gets pummeled with the force of a freight train, too much for one horse who actually went down with the force. With all the weight from the padding he was unable to get back up by himself and it took five men to lift him back to his feet. The trumpets sound once more and two of the assisting matadors are handed two short colourful spears which they proceed to stab into the back of the bull as he charges at them. By this stage the bull is bleeding quite heavily from the wounds and looking pretty shabby with four spears hanging from his back. From here the competing bullfighter, armed with a red cape and sword, dances with the bull scoring points for the amount of consecutive charges and how close he comes to the bull, before lining up his sword to plunge through its heart. This brings the bull down in a matter of seconds and it's then finished off with a quick dagger to it's brain to put it out of it's misery. I found this very difficult to watch indeed. The true danger of this sport was demonstrated when the bull got his own back and threw one of the fighters into the air, luckily just missing his horns and being spared a hoof stomping by the quick distraction of the other matadors. On our way home from the bullring we stopped in at a little old sherry bar, La Venecia, for a nightcap for our last night in Madrid. The ambience in this bar was brilliant. The sherry was poured straight from the wine barrels behind the bar and each drink was accompanied by a suitable snack like olives, ham or chips, depending on which sherry you were drinking. The cash register on the bar was truly ancient and when we paid, the barman tallied up our bill on the bar top with chalk. Madrid was unforgettable but it was now time to head further west across the border to Portugal.

Our train wasn't leaving till late that night so we took a day trip out to Segovia to see the Roman Aqueduct. In my mind I had imagined it would be situated out of town and that we would have to take a bus out to see it. Quite the opposite actually. It took us by surprise when we got off the bus in town and running straight through the middle, acting as a gateway between the old town and the new, was this enormous display of ancient engineering brilliance. It's hard to believe that it could withstand the test of time without a drop of mortar. After basking in the brilliance of this monument we headed into the old town to visit the cathedral, not as impressive as the ones we'd seen previously, and then onto the castle that sat on the edge of a cliff offering impressive views over the city and surrounding landscape.

We returned to Madrid and boarded the Tren (Train) Hotel, unfortunately we didn't get a sleeper cabin, for our 10 hour journey to Lisbon. Country number 3!