27/08 - 29/08 or: strawberries trees, rooms with no windows and a seven story club

Buenas tardes. 

It is 5:12pm, I'm sitting in my bed in a ridiculously hot, 12 bed hostel room without window and I'm enjoying life to the fullest. Wait, what? No, I'm not a sadist. I simply love Madrid. But let's begin chronologically.

Munich, August 27th, 9am. Just got finished cleaning out the rest of my room and moving all my stuff out of the apartment, now it was time to leave. Carrying 35kg of luggage with me (feels like it mostly consists of lacrosse equipment and not much else), I head out to the airport. The flight itself was absolutely not exciting, as literally nothing worth mentioning happened. Once arrived in Madrid, I devoured a batch of rice and meat that I had brought with me (you know, the germans -- always prepared). Madrid Barajas Airport is huge: Terminal 4 has an own Metro Station. But with the metro, you're relatively quick in the inner city, you just need to be able to climb lots and lots of stairs, since escalators don't work as often as you'd like. With 35kg of luggage, that wasn't that fun.

just lacrosse baggage

Once I exited the metro, I was blown away. On the map, everything had looked quite big. Well, it's nothing like that. Small streets, old houses, generally a very appealing neighborhood. I checked into the Hostel, got rid of my stuff, got to know Adam (with whom I later will spend lots of time with) and set out for some beer. With the beer, they handed us olives and chips. We thought, "for us?! whoa. that's awesome!". Lesson learned: if you order a "cana", you get tapas with it. It's as simple as that and even better, you can just substitute dinner by ordering more beers. 

We continued with having Paella at the roof of a hostel nearby, then headed back to ours which has its own bar. The people staying here are awesome -- travelers from around the world looking to meet new people, and of course ERASMUS students (mostly from Germany). 

Side note: ERASMUS is a student exchange program of the European Union -- it basically gives you the possibility to study at a university in another country while giving you a small grant to go with it. 

I almost forgot: I also looked at apartments. While the location was pretty good, that was it. Would you like to live in a room with no window? I sure as hell don't. The other one wasn't that appealing either and ridiculously expensive, but there are more to come. 

Next morning: breakfast, then head out to the city tour -- after all, I need to know what I have to have seen. The sun was blazing, and as logical consequence, I didn't think sunscreen was necessary. Being outside in the middle of the day in the mountains at 35°C and sunshine? Yeah, not necessary. Now I'm wearing a tanktop even when I don't. The city tour itself was interesting, and we got to see the world's oldest restaurant, a strawberry tree (you're laughing, but this thing is part of Madrid's coat of arms) and the infamous Puerta del Sol, from where all distances to all of Iberia are measured (including Portugal). 

just another cathedral

royal palace

bear with strawberry tree -- Madrid's coat of arms

By the way, at Puerta del Sol you can observe something absolutely perverted. The metro station is called "vodafone Sol", and the metro line 2 has a Vodafone logo in it aswell. How could you possibly do that? Selling the probably most important metro station of your city to a company? Jesus. That's just .. incredible. 

you didn't believe me?!

In the afternoon, I looked at more apartments -- certainly an upgrade compared to what I had been looking at before, but still not quite what I was looking for. Maybe manana (= tomorrow, very important term around here). 

At night, we had some chicken, sang some Karaoke (Backstreet Boys, in case you wanted to know that) and headed out to the infamous "pub crawl". Basically consisted of going to a bar, then to a club -- but not just a club, but a 7 story club. Holy shit. Too bad they forgot the elevator. Nevertheless, that was a really cool experience. 

This morning, we woke up with lots of hungover american girls in our room (no worries -- they also sleep here). It was hilarious. Not gonna go into detail much more though. Adam and I headed out for breakfast/lunch/whatever at a all-you-can-eat place. While the food was mediocre, it was a lot, so I was just satisfied. We also had an interesting discussion about the flaws of the US and of Europe, stereotypes and whatnot. I also looked at another apartment, and I'm in love. This one will probably be it. I'll decide tomorrow.

Back to the present. I kinda get the idea of a siesta now. Every movement of your body causes more sweat, and that does include typing on a keyboard. Seems like a good idea to just sleep instead. 

I however won't. I have another visit scheduled at six, and I'm positive that we won't stay in tonight. I will report. Until then, take care.