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Published: October 25th 2008
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We checked out of our hostel. It was the worst accommodation we had during our travels. There were two old guys that worked there, one was a lovely old guy, the other was a crabby old bastard. We seemed to keep having to deal with the crabby buggar, it didn’t help that every time we tried to enter the hostel Jez had a nightmare with the keys and couldn’t open the door. This would drag the old guy out to let us in and he would give Jez a lecture on how to use keys. I guess it was quite funny, he must have thought Jez was a bit simple. Anyway we were glad to move on.
The day outside was sunny, shame it was a day late, we used the morning to climb up the cathedral tower to get a good view out over the city. We sat up here for a while, just relaxing. Before heading back to catch the bus we bought a few souvenir water pouches. We waited and waited for the bus, after a while we grabbed a ball out and a group of us played a bit of four square and cricket with a
jandal. It was just like old times in the school playground. I almost drilled an old guy with an on drive who walked around the corner at the wrong time. Oops. The bus finally arrived and we were on our way to Madrid. The bus driver informed us that it was a truck-free Sunday so hopefully we could make up some time.
I think the ride must have gone fast as I can’t remember much of the journey. What I do remember is buying cockers chips at a truck stop, which were average and driving through scenic rolling fields. These fields used to have billboards along the highway, but it was decided they were an eyesore so they all got pulled down. The exception to this was the giant black bull billboards which were kept, but painted black to cover the old company. Some facts we learnt about Madrid were - it is the highest city in Europe above sea level, it has one of the oldest main streets in the world - Grand Via and a lot of the old architecture and sculptures are by a guy called Goya - it is quiet gothic. We had wanted to
go and watch a bullfighting match but arrived into the city too late. We found out that bullfighting has three stages, the first involves the bull having spears stabbed into it and then pulled out, the second involves the bull having spears thrown at it which are left in, and the third involves the Matador putting a sword through the back of the bulls neck down into it’s heart, quite savage really. Apparently there is a bullfighting museum which has all the heads of bulls which have killed matadors. These bulls are deemed evil so they kill its mother, father and any children it might have.
When we pulled into our hostel Jess, our guide let us know we were staying opposite the prostitute strip and that we could get a 10% discount with our busabout pass, everyone cracked up. We checked into our hostel and headed straight out. We only had one night in Madrid due to our tight schedule. We strolled around the central park, Jez found a place where he wanted to do a ‘David Brent from the Office’ pose. He was mid pose when a hobo started searching through the bins next to him, it
was pretty funny (see the photos).
We saw some amazing architecture and fountains in our few hours of ambling, shame we didn’t have more time in the city. One of the buildings we saw had hundred’s of different mosses on the side of a building, I’ve never seen anything like it. We managed to get lost, Jez thought he had it under control but we took a few wrong turns, I started to hassle him about being crap with maps even though his job is making them. I think this pissed him off so he definitely made sure he knew where we were, it did the job, we got back soon after that.
For dinner we were in luck as just over the road was a restaurant called Glorias, where the government subsidises the price. Or something like that, I can’t remember. All I know is that it was crazy cheap but amazing and posh. It felt like we were celebrities. I had octopus paella and Jez went for duck confit. We topped that off with a custard and apple crepe and a chocolatssimo dish, simply outstanding. When we got back to our hostel we found we had
been put in a room with two guys on busabout - Terry and Sam. They were in there mid-late thirties and were quite strange, we had overheard them talking some absolute codshit in the back of the bus about guns so were a bit wary. Sam started snoring like an absolute beast so the trusty earplugs were required. Jez and I both slept with one eye open that night.
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