A New Chapter

The final day in Madrid was spent in utter chaos. Waking up early in the morning once again in hopes of avoiding the extreme heat that usually follows the rising of the sun in Madrid, my travel buddy and I made a long hike in order to fulfill my hopes of seeing the stadium in which one of my favorite futbol teams plays. Real Madrid. On the map that had been given to me at the Bodies Exhibition earlier that week I had charted out the rather straight shot of a course that we would take thinking that it looked fairly easy... no I was mistaken. The course itself was not difficult to walk and it really was straight even with all the winding circular turn arounds that were located along the way (each one of course marked by a very pretty fountain). It was just the distance. It took a good 45 minutes to walk one way and at the pace I walk that is a little over three miles for just one way. So after arriving at the stadium seeing that it was actually a rather costly venture to take a tour around the empty stadium we decided to make our long trip back. The decision was mine alone to make since my travel buddy really had little interest in touring the stadium and I was of course the avid futbol fan. But thinking about it I will be staying in this country for 4 exciting months and I decided that I WOULD get tickets to a game... even if it meant beating down an old Spanish lady to get them I would get those tickets. (Just joking of course, I do have a conscious and could not live knowing I got great seats because I kicked an old woman's ass... does make for a rather comical mental picture though no?) So we left the stadium and made our way down the street stopping at a cafe where I had a diebetics worst nightmere. The name of the tasty treat escapes me but if you can picture the dough used in making empanadas in a pretzel like shape but dipped in HEAVY amounts of choclate that's about what it was. As I said not a diabetics first choice in food.

After that we stopped off at the museo del ciencas naturales (museum of natural science) only because outside was a bautiful garden and in the window was a gigantic elephant. Getting a discount it only costed 2 euro for me to get in to the museum being a student. So even if it hadn't been worth it, it wasn't a waste of money. But all in all there was some interesting Spanish science to be acquired and with everything in Spanish it was a great test of my translation skills. The coolest part had to be the preserved giant squid which was over 7 feet long... and real!! It didn't take much time to get through all of the exhibits and we decided to finish the trip back to the hostel. Another 3 miles back and we'd made it just in time for the hostel special called the tapas tour. It was 8euro and it was a tour of four of the best local bars at which we each got one free drink of wine, water, beer or my favorite: sangria, and one tapa. A tapa is a traditional Spanish snack usually eaten after siesta when everyone is preparing to go out. Every place has it's own take on it and it can be anything on a slice of homemade crunchy breads, to croquttes, to even little spanish sausages, and a good old spanish take on an American classic, wings! We only made it to three out of the four bars but were rewarded with two tapas and drinks at the last bar. I enjoyed three different sangrias and one beer at the four, the last bar being my favorite sangria, and lots of tapas. I even got a bonus fourth sangria when one of the group members decided he didn't want or need anymore because the quick rushing of the beverages and the heat had gotten to him... needless to say it was only 4 in the afternoon and I'd officially been tipsy! It made for a fun trip back to the hostel, because the three of us (a recently added American acquatince who'd joined us for the tour) had come down with the munchies and decided to stop at a little asian supermarket near by where we discovered a Spanish popsicle. That was good too, cheap as well only .5 euro for this large foot of frozen flavored ice!! Yummy!

So making our way back we officially became Spaniards once more, joining in on Siesta where we woke up around 8 to go get dinner at a vegtarian place in the Plaza Mayor, a tourist haven. But not your typical tourist haven either. Yes there were tourists bluggering about but it also had lots of locals about as well with its many exotic shops and artists gathered in the center. Eating at restaurants in the middle of the cobble stone enclosed plaza called for an extra euro added to each persons dinner and so we chose to keep trucking to get what is called a filapa. It's a vegetarians delight as it contains fried chick pea like things, in a pita like container, covered in your choice of gaucamole, feta cheese, coleslaw, seasones and boiled carrots, a tomatoe and cucumber salsa, corn, kuz kuz, salad, and an assortment of other dressings. I filled mine to the brim with cheese, salad, coleslaw, tomatoe and cucumber salsa, and balsamic and olive oil... delicious and extremely filling as well as delightfully healthy! Afterwards a large group of people who'd been at the tapas tour hung around the roof drinking, playing games like "Never Have I Ever..." and just chatting, whittling away the time until it was late enough to go out dancing and or clubbing, which ever you prefered. At about midnight it was deemed a relatively good time (in Spain the Spanish Siesta ends around 5 sometimes 6 and that's when they sit around eating and drinking and enjoying the company until around mindnight even 1 am when the clubs begin to open and flamenco and salsa are a common sight to see). Knowing I had a long day and a long journey ahead I decided once more not to go dancing that there'd be plenty of time for that in the party city of San Sebastian, and hit the hay waking up fairly early once more to catch the metro to the bus station, to ride a bus for six hours and finally arrive here in San Sebastian where a whole new chapter in my adventures is about to begin...