They say that time flies when you’re having fun. I don’t know about flying but I definitely feel like I’ve sped through the past week at high velocity.
The country of Spain is noticeably more yellow-orange than the blue-black-white combo of Portugal.

The Lion

León is a perfect example of this, the buildings making use of the stone in the nearby hills. Many walkers pass through the town on the Camino de Santiago and the markers for this pathway are also outlined in gold.

Spain seems to be a massive fan of having animals as national symbols. The symbol for the city of León is a lion (shocker). Here are some quirky ways that this animal was worked into the everyday:

The Bear

If you look at the Madrid flag then you may or may not notice that the number of stars is that which make up the bear constellation. Madrid’s emblem is a bear eating fruit, drunkenly, off a tree. It’s said that if you touch the foot then you’ll have good luck, if you touch the tail then you’ll find true love. After an organised bar crawl, I helped a very enthusiastic friend reach the tail of the bear which stood about a foot out of normal reach. I just managed to stay on my feet.

The Horse

Speaking of feet… I learnt a very interesting fact which may or may not apply outside of Spain. If you look at a statue of somebody on a horse then you will be able to tell how they died depending on the horse’s front legs:

1. If both feet are raised then the person died in battle.
2. If one foot is off the ground then they didn’t die in battle but from a wound obtained in it.
3. If both feet are on the ground then the person died of natural causes.

Of course, as with anything there was an exception, this one horse outside the palace lied. That’s because the king presented liked a painting so much that he wanted a statue making of it as well.

If you walk around Madrid you might also see some other fake displays:

One, which had every fibre of my being telling me to run, was an exhibition on Pompei held at Matadero.

The Eruption

We sat in a room as they submerged us in a simulation of the volcano, Vesuvius, erupting. There was no escape from the smoke, fire and lava that tried to consume us. We watched as things burned, died, and then ceased to exist. We heard screams. It was terrifying. But it was awe inspiring at the same time.

There were some other rooms with VR headsets. I would like to say they were a bit more light hearted but only one of them was; we became floating statue heads as we explored a typical Pompei house. Then we were with gladiators in a fighting ring as water levels rose and we drowned.

The Happy Cow

After such an intense experience we (my friends and I) wanted to try and prove we were still alive by watching the sun set however we couldn’t get to a viewing point. Instead, we all tried hot pot for the first time. I don’t think we did it right (you cook all the vegetables etc. yourself) but oh well, practice makes perfect! We’ll just have to meet up and try again soon.

As you might have noticed in the pictures above, all of the food that we put in the hot pot was vegan. One of the friends that I made is vegan and she has changed my life by introducing me to the ‘Happy Cow’ app. It allows you to view all vegetarian and vegan restaurants/cafés nearby as well as other establishments that have options.
My stomach has made it clear that its delightfully happy that I’ve met this person, being a vegetarian myself. Here are some pictures of some of the foods I’ve eaten recently. It’s all vegan.

To some of you, despite how good this looks, you may not think it’s a big deal. I’m telling you now that it is. It can be difficult to get variety out and about and I’ve got to admit that I’d been struggling even more while in Spain. Ham is a really big thing there. This dates back to when Christianity was trying to dominate and you were easily identifiable as being Jewish or Muslim if you didn’t eat pig. At the time you had to either convert to Christianity or be run out of your home. A lot of people ate pig, or hung legs in their homes, to ‘prove’ their religious status, or conversion, to others.

The Sinking Sun

While we didn’t get to see the sunset on hot pot night, we did get to see it some other times.
A failed attempt was had at the 360^O Sky Bar, although the view was so spectacular that it didn’t feel like a failure at all.

There was also a very scary glass bridge up there (see my previous post about my not liking standing on things that I can see through). I walked across it, and sat on it, rather reluctantly.
Close by is the Egyptian temple and the surrounding gardens. It was a really beautiful spot to watch the sun go down. A round of applause said goodbye to the last light rays.

As a heads up, I’m going to be on a boat for the next week and I think it’s likely that I won’t be able to post anything. Don’t worry if you don’t hear anything from me!