Spain - Madrid

Back on the ship!

 

We did it. We conquered Madrid.

 

From the beginning... We woke up on the second day and met in the main lobby at 6:30am to get the cab to the Jerez airport. There were 9 of us going and by 6:45am only about 4 showed up. I got on the phone and started calling everyones rooms to wake them up. I felt like Bob Bouchard, getting the ball rolling and making sure we get to the airport at the perfect time with 437 hours to spare.

 

I have a slight phobia of unkown airlines and so I was a little nervous to see what this thing was going to look like. It looked like a plane, so I got on. I slept the whole way except when we blasted out of the clouds with the engine screaming in my ear, nose diving and getting tossed everywhere. Europe has a slightly different landing technique and I definitely needed a full briefing on it before I was thrown from the sky. We touched down in Madrid and it was a beautiful day. We had to take the metro from the station to the hostel so I grabbed hold of the reins. I like doing things independently and proving to myself that I can navigate the world on my own...It was me doing the typical 35 mph long stride walk and 8 people scurrying to keep up behind me. My name is now "Mom." They were convinced we would have been in Syria if it was not for my super savvy 20,000 leagues under Madrid metro abilities.

 

The hostel we stayed in was called Cat's Hostel and it was great. I did booking for it and it was all of us in the same room. The hostel was as clean as one can get and I felt safe, which is all that matters. The first day in Madrid we got Tapas at an outside cafe. The theme of Madrid was "When in Rome." This lovely saying legitimized everything and anything we wanted to do. "That shirt is way overpriced..." "When in Rome." Sold.

 

Around lunch time everyday the people of Spain do whats called "siesta." They shut down their shops, leave work for a few hours for a cold beverage, nap and a little downtime.

 

Halfway through the day my Blackberry battery went on the fritz and so Jaclyn went on the fritz as well. It wouldn't hold the charge and kept dieing after 30 seconds which means I didn't hold my charge and died after 30 seconds. After a couple of hours it decided it was going to stop with the silly games and come back to life. My only explanation for this was that Sherry the B-Berry knew we were in Spain and being that it was mid day, participated in siesta.

 

After exploring the city we went back to shower and get changed for dinner and the night. We were hanging in the hostel bar when a guy from Massachusetts who moved to Spain a couple years ago sat down and chatted with us. He ended up taking us to a dinner spot and the food was AMAZING. I ate like a king the whole weekend.

 

The next and final day we explored the old historical part of the city and saw some spectacular buildings. The Palacio Royale and... some other stuff...yea.. it was cool. That night we went to THE place. Club Kapital.

 

Kapital is a seven story discoteque. It was insane. Every floor had a different music style. There was a movie theater. So much fun. In Spain you don't eat dinner until around 11pm and you head out around 1am. We got there around 1 and I would say that the place didn't fill up until 2. These people are loco! I could never do that every weekend. It was a great way to close out Madrid. We went to bed around 6am and woke up at 830 to catch the train to Cadiz. The ride was 5 hours and we all passed out the entire time.

 

I have not slept more than 5 hours in 12 days. I am going to die in my bed tonight.  We just left port and are headed to the Rock of Gebraltar to fuel up. There is supposed to be bad weather tonight and we were informed to secure our things! We get to Morocco February 2nd. I really enjoyed Spain but I am excited for all the African countries. Madrid was modern and reminded me of New York. I want to see something I have never seen before.

 

I am about to fall asleep on the keyboard, I feel my brain shutting down. Apologies for the lack of humor in this post... it would have taken too much out of me :)

 

Goodnight

Jaclyn