My day got exponentially better yesterday after my brief encounter with the thief. Once I calmed down a little, I left my things at the hostel where I stayed and explored the city a little. I'm staying near Opera, which as the name suggests, houses the National Opera house. It's also quite close to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) and Sol, an area of Madrid known for its nightlife. I had gazpacho for lunch. I briefly considered taking a picture of my lunch for my friends at Endless Simmer, but after the day I'd already had, I decided I didn't need to do anything else that screamed tourist, at least not until Carrie and Annie get here. Sorry, ES.

My roommates at the hostel were delightful. I met two girls from Scotland who have been travelling around South America for the last 6 months, have just returned from Havana and are stopping in Spain briefly before heading home Sunday. Staying with us was a girl from London who also got a wild hair like me and quit her job to hang out in Spain for awhile. About half an hour later, a middle aged dad from Florida and his daughter who has been studying in France joined us. They were really pleasant people and reminded me why I like staying in hostels so much.

The best part of my day was getting to watch Spain play Russia in the Euro Cup on a "big screen" at a bar down the street. The screen was about 27". It was sort of funny. The game was amazing, though, and it was even better to get to watch it with Spaniards who clearly had a vested interest in the outcome.