Madrid SPAIN!

Hola! 

This past weekend I went to Madrid to visit Christina Goggin, Mike Ro, and Jill Molina. AND I HAD THE BEST TIME! I went with Sam and Veronica who are studying in Edinburgh who I visited three weeks before. We met up at the airport and took the metro to our hostel. The metro was actually easy to navigate the only strange thing that happened is we were waiting for our final train to come and this man comes onto the platform and yells something and everyone moves up against the wall so we all do too and he storms past everyone and everyone looked scared. But we had NO idea what he said but he did not hurt anyone so that was good. :) We got to our hostel which was located in Tirso de Molina which is near Sol the center of Madrid. We stayed at the WAY hostel which was GREAT! It was super clean and we shared a room with three other girls. They had a living room and a kitchen but we did not use either. The beds were super comfy and hard to get out of after naps and in the morning. After getting ourselves situated Jill met us at our hostel to take us to lunch because we were so hungry. Oddly enough we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant (yes I know you are judging me for eating Mexican food in Spain but it was delicious!!!)  The place was called La Mordida de Larra  in Bilbao, Madrid. I had vegetarian enchiladas and a piña colada which were both amazing. After lunch Sam and Veronica went back to the hostel to take a nap and Jill and I went down Calle Fuencarral, which is a big shopping street in Madrid with both boutiques and chain stores. I bought a shirt at Mango which is a chain store in Europe. After shopping for awhile and walking around I went back to my hostel as well and took a short nap. Later that night we met Jill and Jill's friend Jessica for dinner.  We ate at a Cien Montaditos, which is a big chain in Spain specializing in cheap tapas. To drink I had tinto de veranos, which is red wine mixed with fanta. It was delicious. The restaurant was  on Calle de La Montera (aka Whore Street). We ate outside and there were prostitutes walking down the sidewalk trying to get guys to go down the ally with them. There were about 8 of them and it was sad but interesting to watch because I had never seen something like that before out in the open and in a public area. Prostituting is illegal in Spain but the police don't do anything about it they actually do not enforce anything. After dinner we met up with MIKE RO and went to the cave bar which was called El Chapandaz in Moncloa, Madrid. They are famous for their "Leche de Pantera" which was that giant drink mixed with milk / rum and some other things and it was DELICIOUS!!! It tasted like candy so it was a perfect drink for me :). After the bar Sam, Veronica, and I went back to our hostel and went to bed. The next morning we met up with CHRISTINA GOGGIN and her friend Melissa. They took us on a walking tour of Madrid. We first went to Sol then to Plaza Mayor where the mayor lives, walked to la Latina, then we metroed to el retiro and ate at VIPS which is a restaurant that serves more American food. I got cheese quesdillas. After lunch we went to Retrio park which was beautiful!!! Melissa, Goggin, Sam, Veronica, Mike, and I sat outside by the lake for over an hour and just chatted and soaked in the sun :) After the park we all went back to our homes to take a siesta which was much needed. Then we met everyone in Sol to pregame for the club we were going to. We drank box wine which was only a euro and was super delish for cheap wine. Then we took the metro to the club called la riviera karsouel but we got lost and we needed to be there before 1:00 AM so that we could get in for free. But since we got lost we got there after 1 :/ But luckily this bouncer guy they knew gave us free entry plus VIP access to another area. The club was HUGE and super fun and they played DYNAMITE!!! Goggin and I did the family dance :) The club was like any other American club until I saw that they had naked/half naked people dancing on the stage. They were employees paid to dance by themselves it was super weird but funny. We stayed there until 3:30 and then Sam, Veronica, and I went back to our hostel to get some sleep because we had to be out of the room by 11:30. Sam left earlier because she had a flight at 1:00 and Veronica and I did not have a flight till 5:00. So the next morning we met Christina in Sol and we ate breakfast . Then we metroed to la latina for el rastro market which is kind of like Camden market but not as good. I bought some bracelets and then we just walked around the market for an hour. Around 1:30 Veronica and I got a cab and sadly said goodbye to Goggin :( I am sad I do not get to see Goggin again till I go back to AU but Mike is coming to London in December!! Overall GREAT WEEEKEND!!!