from the airport i made my way around the Metro system. i had to change lines three times because the stop closest to my hostal is closed due to renovations. i love Madrid´s subway. it´s very clean and on time. it reminds me of the DC metro but with way more people.
day 1: got to the room. took a nap. then walked around town. later that night, at around 11pm i went to walk around town some more to check out the scenery. i went all the way from Puerta del Sol to La Latina and beyond. then came back for the metro. as i was waiting there were two ¨interesting-looking¨ fellows standing next to me. one of them said, ¨oye, estas wapa.¨with a non-spanish sounding accent. it turns out they were algerian. so they asked were i was from; i said brazilian. then i asked what they did in Madrid, etc. and one of them answered, ¨bueno aca vivo con mi familia. y pues no te miento soy traficante.¨ basically, he said he lived with his family here and that he was a dope dealer. he then proceeded to ask me if I was fine and if i needed anything to make me feel better. well, since i was in no need of tylenol or pepto bismol, i gracefully said no. as we got off the metro the two ¨pharmaceutical consultants¨ asked me follow them since they were going to give me directions. i did follow them for about 30 steps and then got ¨lost¨ in the crowd. luckily for me, the Gran Via area is a super crowded area.
after leaving my two new friends i found myself in a major rock concert kinda crowd for the gay pride festivities in the area. it was overwhelming. too many people. too many cigarettes. too many bottles. too many people stepping on my toes. : )
finally, i decided to stop walking at around 2am and headed back to the hostel. enough Madrid for the night.
day 2: more walking. i went to the royal botanical gardens (Jardin Botanico Real) close to where i´m staying. it was awesome. i mean, y´all know i love the whole taking pictures of flowers thing. there i had my fix. geesh. it´s a marvelous place. then i walked a bit more and ended up in the Anthropological Museum,
which was free! yes! it was nice. towards the end of the afternoon i went back to the hostel.
so two days of adventures so far and counting...
ps. i always forget to bring my usb cable to the internet cafe but i´ll post some pix soon. :)
that night i decided to check the latino scene in madrid and did an internet search to find some places with tropical music places. i ended up in a place called O´Zona. unbeknownst to me things in Madrid do not start until 2am. poor Boston. i feel so sad for your early bed habits. so since i was there at like midnight i had to stay at the door chatting it up with the bouncers. obviously, i was allowed to go in but the place was--literally--empty. so i was not going to be the parigüaya to go in. it turn out for the best. i met Carlos the bouncer; a peruvian fellow married with a woman from spain. he has the coolest peru-spain spanish accent. i also hit it off with the woman tending the front table where people pay to get in. by the way, the cover was a woopig 16 euros. they were making fun of me for being there so early. then i mentioned i was here from the States. Carlos is supposed to be going to a wedding in NYC soon and the lady has always dreamed of going to the US. we talked about Obama, being an immigrant in the US, speaking--or not--english, etc., etc. when people started to come my two new friends let me into the club for free and gave me a voucher for a drink! not to mention that the barwoman was a colombian who was also chatting it up with me before i went it. so by the end of the night i was like VIP. I knew the bouncers and the drink people. what else could a girl ask for? i was there until about 4am and then took a taxi back to my base of operations. the cab driver was a total riot and very nice older man. i slept like a baby.
so two days of adventures so far and counting...
ps. i always forget to bring my usb cable to the internet cafe but i´ll post some pix soon. :)
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