hombre araña, mariachi, calles y mucho humo...

The second day in Madrid was more eventful than the first.

pre-post-side-note: As it turns out, some spaniards are not content with being lost on their own city and actually give realyl great directions if asked. They must spend hours pouring over maps and staring at google street view.

post:

A beautiful day in Madrid, very warm and sunny. Seattle seems like a black hole full of sadness compared to this. Sorry America. I might just stay here. The rule of the day was be bold. I struck up conversations with random people and tried to look like I knew what was going on.

Me and the group spent most of the day walking around madrid and stopping in random shops. A very wonderful Italian named Leo ('ley-oh' as he corrected me. not lee-oh haha) who we met at the hostel has been a wonderful companion for the last two days. He's travelling around Europe having fun which made us very compatible. He speaks English, Spanish and Italian so he was also a very useful translator. Our group and Leo headed to the stadium for the Barcelona vs Madrid game but unfortunately half our group didn't bring ID so we split up at the stadium and they went to a smaller pub to watch the game while Leo, Erin, Sarah and I went to a really cool venue with more tv screens than people. It was quite exciting.

At halftime we decided to head back to the hostel area because some of our party members were nodding off while talking to us. Unfortunately separated, we were not able to spend the last night in madrid altogether but Leo and I headed off to find entertainment because the night was still very young. Young in spain has a different meeting. At 12:30 in Seattle, anyone on the streets would be considered homeless but the city was more alive than it was that afternoon.

It turns out that smoking is quite popular in spain (who would have thought...) and I still haven't seen a "no fumar" sign. The bars and clubs were absolutely packed and there were suited men all over the streets who would bring you in and give you a free drink if you would tay at their club. It was a great deal! The rule was once you were in, you could only leave for 5 minutes before you had to pay to get in again. I thought that might be for smokers but more people were smoking inside than out. The bars were a great place to practice my spanish. I'm still amazed at what came out of my mouth last night. It was almost surreal. I started thinking in spanish a little and actually had a 2 minute conversation with a more than a few people (it was pretty much the same conversation though...). Leo was incredibly helpful because he knew what the hell was going on and he could also throw vocab in where it was needed. Spanish dancing is much different than frat grinding. I admit I was at a loss at first but figured out what was safe pretty quick. All in all a really good night.

After leaving the bars I walked into the hostel with Leo. We had a bit of a struggle with the desk attendants because I was given a keycard by Erin (who was at another hostel) so I could wake them up this morning because they didn't have an alarm. As it turns out, having a key to another hostel (especially one owned by the same people as mine) is illegal. I was kind of afraid they were going to call the cops and another Amanda Knox incident was imminent but that was not the case. Leo was able to not-so-calmly explain that we were friends and I didn't have in my possession a key to a room full of 4 girls at another hostel randomly. Muchas gracias a ti Leo.

A good day and a good night's sleep although everything I wore last night smells distinctly of cigarettes!

My only regret from the day was I didn't dance with the old lady who was dancing solo in front of the mariachi group en la plaza del sol.