Madrid Madness, Part 1

After quite an easy flight from Newark to Madrid I met Jenn at the Nuevos Ministerios Metro. We quickly proceeded to check in at my hostel near Tribunal, where I had to stay for two nights before I moved camp to her friend´s place outside of Madrid. We chatted for a little while and grabbed a beer but then she had to leave to go to class. I, naturally, decided to go to Plaza Cibeles. The weather was nice and I walked around the Passeo del Prado and then up the Fuernacal, which is a shopping street. My first impressions of Madrid were pretty good. I liked walking around by myself, at my own pace, and stopping where I wanted to stop. I met Jenn later on near the ¨Bear¨in Sol, which is the meeting place in Madrid. From there we proceeded to get some tapas, beer, and met up with Jess. The three of us went to a bar called Dubliners near Sol, where Jess was meeting up with some other friends. We stumbled home at 2am after losing Jess. Jenn slept in the hostel on a free bed and snuck out in the morning. Haha.

The next day, although I was tired, I decided to check out the Prado Museum while Jenn was in class. Bad idea. After walking around for 2 hours I was soo tired and decided to go back for a siesta. Jenn and I were supposed to meet in front of the museum at 15.00 and I showed up an hour late. Then I realized I couldn´t text her because my UK mobile had conveniently run out of money. So I went into the Ritz Hotel and pretended to be a guest and tried to use their business center. The stupid pay phone there was only for SMSs and I didn´t know what was flying with that so I walked around the streets to find a pay phone. I found one and the damn phone ate my cash to I just went back to the Prado and sat down to read my book and wait patiently. Jenn texted me to tell me that she was on the metro... well, turns out she was late too. We found each other and then walked around, found a place and ordered the Menu del Dia for a few euros. Menu el Dia is the way to go. 9 euros for 2 courses, drink and desert. The flan sucked but the rest was good. And we were given an entire bottle of wine. Sweet.

Later on, we met up with some kids from my hostel and went drinking at yet another Irish bar. Jenn went home to shower and I went back to siesta and we met back up to go out later. The three of us and another girl from my hostel went to a bar around the corner, then we went to yet another bar.. then to a tapas bar.. then another bar. (I highly recommed Tigre, a tapas bar near Gran Via). Then we decided it was time to meet up with some other kids who were already at the club. After trying to sneak an entire handle of vodka in, they told us to go to the corner. We tried to finish it but couldn´t and they turned us out again after a second attempt. Nat and I went in andd Jess and Jenn stayed out to finish it off. We somehow got free entrance and stayed there for a bit and then decided to head over to another club near Sol.

Needless to say, somehow Jenn and Jess started talking to some rich older men that were vacationing from Mexico and we got three bottles of Dom Perignon out of them. The night ended on quite a high note and we made out way out of the club just as the metro was opening up. Jenn decided to secretly sleep over again and we slept in the same small bed. Unfortunately, this was not such a secret as the hostel guy saw us.. but we weaseled our way out of it without having to pay. I checked out of the hostel and we did some sight seeing.

Later on that day, we met up with Martin, a friend of Jenn´s who was my host for the next few days. We had to take the metro to Las Rozas, where he lives. It´s about a 20 minute ride outside of Madrid but the location and apartment are beautiful. We took a 2 hour nap and freshened up and went out for another night of debauchery. The debaucher was a little more checked this time, and we made it home by 4am, watched two episodes of Perdidos and went to sleep for 3 hours before having to meet my brother, who was just flying in from Newark.

So the first few days in Madrid were quite well spent. No sleep. Good food. Good people... lots of adventures.

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