Madrid, how wonderful it was to get back to being in Hostel-world. The first night we were there they had made a mistake, so Ana and I were able to have our own room instead of the dorm room. Very nice. We were so happy to be out of (what we are now calling) the hell-house that we treated ourselves to a really good lunch - 3 courses for 10 Euro, including my wine. I wish we had been with it because I would have taken a picture - had no idea what I was ordering for the first course, it ended up being zucchini hollowed out and filled with marinara sauce and topped with cheese - MUY DELISIOSO! Then I had the chicken which was so tender it fell off the bone and then I had helado - chocolate ice cream. It was soo nice.
We really didn't do a whole lot in Madrid, we took the free tour which was interesting, and the guide was really nice. We had food at a doner kabab place because that pretty much spells 'good food for cheap' in any language (thank you, Bjorn for introducing us to the wonderfulness). We tried to do a tapas tour, but the guide never showed, so instead we went back to a bar that we had found one day - the bartender really liked Ana - and ordered Sangria. Now, in Mexico and the states, sangria is a cheap drink, usually sweet and tasty but not expensive because it's made with shit wine. Not so in Spain - we're talking 4 euros for a glass. We thought that the bartender guy was ripping us off at first, but then we checked the receipt in another place and sure enough, it was right. The tapas that he gave us were bread with a slice of ham (Madrid is big on ham, and I'll tell you why in a bit) and green olives. Now, Ana and I don't like olives. Really, not fans at all... but these olives were friggin DELISH! We devoured those things like they were going out of style. I'm not kidding, the seeds were still in them but it didn't matter, eat around the seed and then spit it out. We are both more than a little creeped out that we seem to like olives over here, and now I'm curious about is it the olives themselves Do they do something to them in the states? Why do I seem to like olives now?! Seriously creeps me out, but on the other hand, yay for yummies. And the ham - Spain is famous for it's ham because of the Spanish Inquisition - if you used to be a Jew or a Muslim and you wanted too convince the church that you are now a good Catholic, what is one cheap thing that you can do at home to prove it? Eat pork. And they did, and they do and it's really good. We also found a Mexican place... I know, I know, you're in Spain and you eat Mexican food, WTF? Well it's like this, we were hungry and I wanted something familiar... no tripe, no pork knuckles, something safe. And it was good, really good, very tasty. So judge all you want, but until you've been somewhere, ordered something you didn't know what it was and ended up with something nasty, you won't understand where I'm coming from. :p
We also tried to find new jeans for me because mine were pretty well hashed - they were old and patched and they were tearing around the patches. Well, European sizes suck and Spain doesn't have much in the way off Lane Bryant or Torrid so I found one pair of jeans, tried to get them on and failed, got pissed so we went for a drink. The next day, Ana tried the same jeans and they fit her so she bought them and gave me a pair of hers - they were a size smaller than the ones I got rid of, so yay! They still aren't perfect though because the ones that Ana bought fit except in the waist, which is too big. Sigh. Apparently we're both shaped weird, yet totally different. Story of my life. I bought 2 Spanish shawls - they are sooo pretty - and a scarf... and now I'm cutting myself off from any more scarves or shawls (unless I find one that screams "buy me for Mo or buy me for Oompa"). So far, I've bought a hat and chocolate in Bruge, scarves in Rasov and Budapest, shawls and a scarf in Madrid, playing cards in Bergen... and I think that's it. The cards saved our butts in the hell-house as it gave us something to do. My bag is getting heavier and by the time we get to Ireland it might just be filled with souvenirs! He he. We almost bought jewelry, but then we both decided that we didn't really need it.
I have decided not to take for granted having multiple options of clothes from now on. For real, when I get back I may have a dress-up party and wear all of my stuff that makes me look GOOD! The dirty backpacker look is ok, but I kinda miss being sophisticated city woman, cute country chick and hardcore metal badass. Thank God for umbrellas because otherwise I'd be rocking not only dirty backpacker but also my drowned rat look. It's funny how much stuff I take for granted back home... like hot showers. Most of the ones in the hostels have been lukewarm at best, probably they have a built-in max hot thing to keep from getting sued. Damn it. If I want to scald myself in the shower, I should be able to scald myself in the shower! Sigh.
We also decided to watch a little TV in Madrid - they don't dub everything, some things are subtitled, so we watched the Discovery channel and one day we found Castle - that was a good day. They don't go all commercial crazy over in Spain - they run the show for like 15 mins and then have a 6 min break for commercials (and they tell you how long it will be) so that was nice. We just chilled during the Spanish siesta time, and our hostel was close enough to downtown that we could walk back and forth. We loved the cathedral and found out that Spain felt a little bad about what they did in the Americas during their colonization so if you are from a central / south American country you can tour the royal palace for free during certain times and on certain days. Totally makes up for the conquistadors, don't you think? We laughed about that.
So all in all, it is nice to get back to living in hostels and seeing the cities and knowing when we flip a light switch the light will turn on, there are no cats or dogs to make Ana's allergies act up, we don't have to mess with a generator and the heat is not coming from a stove downstairs. For seriously, it is soo nice to sleep all warm and cozy and not have to tuck the blanket all around (woe to the stray foot / arm / face when out of the blanket... COLD!). I think the story of Madrid is being so happy to be out of hell-house that we were trying to acclimate ourselves to civilization again! And laundry, although we were a little worried about that because one of the guys in the hostel had sent his laundry out and it was stolen - along with his passport which he had in the pocket of his jacket (for some reason, that makes NO sense to me).
As for the pictures, yes, we are really behind, no we don't know when more will be up and frankly, be thankful for Ana because if it were me, I'd be making y'all wait until I got home and then just send you a power-point presentation of 'em! Much love to all - I miss ya - Mandi
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