¡Madrid! (parte uno)

I heart this city so massively it's not even funny: the people, the tapas, the views, the bars, the five am party culture. I don't even need to 'do' things in the city, just walking around fills me with happiness and love. Madrid gets me. I get Madrid.

Five years ago, I headed there for a post-edinburgh-study-abroad celebration. It was Christmas, I was in a relationship, It was magical. Five years later, things were very different, but that didn't stop the magic.

After our four-hour flight delay, Anita, Natasha and I arrived into central Madrid around 11pm on the 19th of August. Our hotel was right in the centre of the action, a 30-second walk from the Plaza del Sol. We were exhausted and thus sussed out rather trashy american food and then fell asleep. But we hit the ground running the next day:


the bear where all roads in Spain are measured from. so, technically, this is the centre of the spanish universe

in the Plaza Mayor
more Plaza Mayor

this 'deer' had a pullout comparment in its flank where the rather odd man pulled out things to decorate it with
as a vegetarian, i can still appreciate the vast beauty that is meat-filled window displays


Due to various planning snafus and train schedules, we only stayed in Madrid for 1.5 days. But we made the most of it and got our tourist on on one of those hop-on-hop-off red buses. We also enjoyed the greatness that is El Corte Ingles, where we picked up one euro wine in a juice carton and vey cheap bubbly, which we consumed in our very cheap (cheaper than a hostel) hotel room before spending a night out on the tiles.


Details of our night out are scant. All I remember is a tapas bar with wine barrels as tables, beautiful gambas con ajillo in another place and dancing to Ricky Martin's 'The Cup of Life', to which I know all the words in Spanish, with a group of rather camp Spanish men gyrating their hips to the music. That, and stumbling home sans Anita at 4:30am, asking Spanish policemen for directions in Spanish (my language improves with my alcohol intake) and finding Anita sprawled out across three beds when we got back to the hotel.

Fun night.
Rough morning.