Hola! I am currently in Madrid, the capital of, and largest city in, España. I have had a lovely few days in Spain thus far, and have had no language difficulties barring one moment when I couldn't decipher someone's exceptionally thick Barcelonan accent. Of course, Barcelona TECHNICALLY is not a "Spanish-speaking" region as we tend to think of it...sure, they speak Castillian Spanish (the Spanish dialect we just call plain old Spanish), but...the main language is Catalan, which while similar to Castillian, is different. The state in which Barcelona lies, Cataluña, is very proud of its Catalan heritage and is actually a self-governing republic within the Spanish state. Not that they have signs, flags, posters, etc. to remind of that or anything...

Before Barcelona, however, I went through a GRUELING week of travel in which I covered an absolutely insane amount of territory. The last time I updated, if I remember correctly, I was in Ireland. Well, after my Irish adventures, I flew to Charleroi in Belgium. Here's the basic scoop on my travels on the continent...

-Spent first night in a Belgian train station with a crazy woman and a man from the Congo, and this after a weird episode with a crazy Arab man.
-Went to Paris. Discovered it to be as overhyped as I remembered it being, though not without its beautiful moments.
- Reims - Kevin has a new favorite cathedral
-Dijon - Pretty town, but my hostel was far removed from the center of the city and it took me forever (and a €8 taxi ride) to find it.
-Besançon - Gorgeous countryside to enjoy on a lunch break between trains
-Strasbourg - Germany and France colliding into one of the most gorgeous urban environments I've experienced, complete with a fantastic cathedral.
-Basel - Pretty little town on the Rhine; first time in the German-speaking world.
-Zurich - Expensive and a little overrated, but has a good museum.
-Liechtenstein - Paradise, barring the part where I couldn't find my hostel for 3 hours...and in the world's 5th smallest nation by land area. Its population is less than 40,000. However, the mountains were stunning, as were the girls....*whistles innocently*
-Interlaken - Getting there involved a breathtaking train ride, and I got to see the Jungfrau while eating bratwurst.
-Milano - Would have been nicer if the cathedral hadn't been covered in scaffolding.
-Venezia - On the same level with Firenze for "frackin' incredibly gorgeous Italian city"
-Bologna - Skip this one, for your own sake.
-Pompei - Fascinating history and great scenery.
-Genova - One of the most beautiful places on earth; wish I'd had more time there.
-Cannes - Also pretty, barring the part where I had to sleep on a sidewalk...
-Marseille - Way more spectacular than I expected
-Barcelona - My favorite city. Period. I love Barcelona, and if it were a woman, I'd marry her on the spot.

And now I'm in Madrid. My first few hours here have not been the best on my trip...I seem to have caught a cold, and the line I needed to take to get to my hostel on the Metro is closed for repairs, so I spent twice as long in the Metro as I needed, figuring out a new plan of action. However, now that I'm 4 doors down from my hostel, I'm in better spirits and plan on seeing a bit of Madrid tomorrow before heading south to...Morocco!