Mild Madrid

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Upon arriving in Madrid at 6am we were having Barcelona withdrawals. Our love for Barcelona was overpowering us as we had such a good time there that we were really sad to be leaving our beloved city. Although Madrid is meant to be the capital of Spain we were feeling just a tad let down by the capital city (but again we blame this on our eternal love for Barcelona).

she was not impressed and went downstairs and dobbed on us

Madrid was positively balmy.... at 35 degrees it was also hard to fall in love with a city when you were sweating like a deevo and there were no beaches to cool off in. So consequently we resorted to cooling off with a beer or a relaxing nap in the palace gardens of Madrid. But the favourite treat at the Madrid cafes were the pure chocolate and churros for 3 euros....YUMMY!!

But in our tourist expeditions we managed to get a free tour of the oldest restaurant in the world called El Botin. It was far too expensive to eat in there but we still wanted to scope out the joint. So we walked into the restaurant and told the owner that we had had dinner here a few days ago but we forgot our camera, and could we please just quickly take some photos now. Well the owner went out of his way to meet his customers request!! Not only were we allowed to take some photos but he also took us into the kitchen and gave us a tour of the wine cellar and the smoking piglets room. So why pay 100 euros to eat in the worlds oldest restaurant when you can just walk right on in and get a free tour!!

In another effort to avoid spending too much money..... or scam the system, we refused to go and watch a flamenco show. The flamenco shows were too touristy for our liking and cost in excess of 60 euros. We were sure that we could see an authentic flamenco show for cheaper or even free!! And sure enough thats what we got. We were sitting in the main plaza drinking some spanish beer when who else rocks up.... but a flamenco dancer!! She set up her busking area right in front of us and her guitarist started strumming and she started dancing. It was fait :)

Yet many of our meals did indulge us in Madrid delicacies. We regularly made picnics with food that we had bought from the Musee el Jamons. These shops are basically farms. Except all the animals are smoked and hanging from the walls and roof. The shops are huge and literally have hundreds of carcases hanging from every wall and the roof. Some people might see this as disturbing or off putting but the Spanish seem to love to know exactly what they are eating...

In true Spanish style we headed to a small local tapas bar to watch the much anticipated Portugal v. Spain game. I really couldnt care less about who won i could only care about the beer, tapas and laughing at all the soccer fans who get emotional over a game. But Natalie on the other hand is one of those people that i laugh at because they get emotional over a game of soccer. So we started off with some beers and even better was the free tapas that came along with the beer. The Spanish have got it down pat, because we wanted more tapas we ordered more beer and so on. In fact we wanted more tapas that much that Natalie was helping herself to the tapas plates for quite a while until the bartender jerried on and gave Natalie the evil eye!! Well anyway in the end Spain won so all the Spaniards were happy and the small tapas bar went up in a roar.

That night when we arrived back to our hostel in the early hours of the morning, we realised that the hostel had put us into seperate dorms. We were having none of this. Natalie and I are setting a world record for most time spent with a person. So far we havent left eachothers sides. So we werent about to sleep in seperate dorms. So we tucked up in the same dorm.... that was until some unwitting backpacker went to tuck up into bed and found that there was some Australian girl sleeping in it. She was not impressed and went downstairs and dobbed on us for stealing her bed to the manager!! But some lame backpacker couldnt destroy our dreams at a world record, so me and Natalie tucked up into bed together in a single bed on the top bunk. It was reasonable comfortable (with the beer to than) but very sweaty due to the 35 degree heat that Madrid was experiencing!!

The next morning after our lovely sleep we felt like some retail therapy. So we headed off to buy some traditional spanish shoes. We entered a local, traditional spanish shoe shop where all th locals were buying there shoes from. The shop was tiny but it managed to jam 50 or so spaniards in to buy there typical linen boat shoes. That is all this shoe shop sold, Spanish boat shoes. But they had 50 different styles in every colour you can imagine. So we picked our style and colour and asked to try them on... All the little Spaniards were staring at us in shock as we tried to squeeze our huge feet into these shoes. We ended up having to get the biggest size and after alot of stares and embarrassment we ended up buying the shoes and getting the hell out of there!!

On our final night in Madrid we indulged in a lot of sangria and then went to an open air concert and had some more sangria. The concert was cool and some guys that we met came with us. After the concert we went with the guys to a bar that they knew. It was a cut quiet bar and all mojitoes were on the house because the guys knew the owner... CHEERS!! After our big night we headed back to the hostel to help ourselves to a midnight snack. But this midnight snack got a little bit out of control when we went in to the communal fridge and ate everyone elses food. We have to say that it was nice to be eating such delicious pastas and breads all thanks to other fellow hostelers... They should have known that it was a communal fridge!! After that it was definately time to leave that hostel and Madrid.... Adios!!!