Madrid last day

I arranged to meet Laurie and Richard later today so we could all get some jobs done in the morning. When you are socialising and sightseeing every day there seems to be no time for organising. I also suffer with intermittent wifi and that means that it usually fails at a critical point in the transaction, it took me five hours to book a flight to Malaga/Granada and I wasn't sure it had worked. I am also a bit perturbed about needing a visa for Italy as I will have used most of the 90 days visa free period. I rang the Australian embassy to clarify and leaving the Continent and returning doesn't reset it apparently within the same six months. I didn't intend to stay longer originally. Being a free spirit isn't that easy these days!

Laurie has heard about this new art gallery in an old Tobacco factory so we decide that we will go there as the Sophia de rey is closed and only free  after 7:00 pm. We find  the factory in a very multicultural area of Madrid. I am continually surprised how many Chinese live in Spain but you don't see many on the main streets except for tourists.

The tobacco factory has an extremely interesting but challenging display of different media by the same artist. The exhibition is meant to be experienced as a whole so there is music and sounds and also we are in semi darkness with light only on the exhibits which is sufficient to light our way around. I have been reading too many crime novels because it seems like a great place for a murder. Especially when we seem to be the only people there and then other people mysteriously appear at different exhibits.The catalogue is a whole magazine and we try to decipher the artist's intention from snippets we read. At least we have some good conversations. The introduction seems almost unintelligible to us. We are artistic plebs!

Hanging out with the Alberca group has been a good chance to get to know people better but I have also found it challenging for me. I am quie happy on my own these days and trying to find time to do the blog, emails, bookings has been rather difficult. 

We finish up with our last drink at a fabulous place Laurie recommends. Richard and  I stay for an early dinner which we share as the portions are so large, yet very reasonable. Actually rather cheap. The place was very Andalucian with tiles and murals and generally a wonderful atmosphere. 

I get to know Richard better. He is going to do another LaAlberca on Friday. He is retired and doesn't seem to know quite what to do with himself so he is having some interesting adventures like house sitting in Jaen for six weeks and early next year, in Italy as well. He also will be out of his 90 day visa but is going to risk staying, as the Spanish wouldn't extend his visa. 

I finish the day with a visit to El Cortes Engles to get my tax  free documents organised for claiming when I leave Spain. It is worth €50 which is a very good meal!

I had to print my boarding pass yet and I hit a snag which the young receptionist very graciously helped me resolve. After much hair pulling on his part he eventually got it printed. Many cheap flights only have online check-ins and you need to have access to a printer or maybe download to your IPhone, but not all airports  have readers! I continue to learn new things all the time. I am anxious to not oversleep as I am catching a 7:40 am flight from the airport but I don't get to sleep till after 12:00.