madrid in 7 nights.

I am getting a wee bit behind, but it´s only because I´m busy having fun, and I think that´s a great (if not the best) excuse. Also, to give myself credit, the hostel we stayed at all week had the slowest internet on the planet. It was just like when the internet was first invented. Remember how infuriatingly slow that was? Yeah, just like that. You really need to be doing something else at the same time (such as reading a book, cooking a meal, etc., etc.) so as to not lose your mind too much.

Anyway, we left Madrid yesterday and are now in Burgos... So I thought I would write a few words about Madrid before it´s old news. We are in Burgos because we are working with a company called Vaughan Town, staying there for a week for free in exchange for helping some Spanish business people improve their English. We just have to talk to them all day... and in turn we get to stay at a beautiful 4 star hotel... which, when you have been staying in shitty youth hostels for the past month, is reallllly nice.

We saw a horrible accident which delayed our 10 hour bus ride from Lisbon to Madrid even further. There was a helicopter to airlift people to the closest hospital, two totalled cars (one with a person still inside), a child seat strewn on the ground, and worst of all, a body wrapped in white cloth. It was really disturbing to see. My mom had warned me about seeing these kind of fatal accidents while driving in Spain (as she had seen them) because they drive so insanely fast... but it´s really horrible to actually see.

Anyway the whole week in Madrid was awesome... St. Patrick´s day turned out great as well. At first we were worried. We were the only ones parading the streets in green with drinks in hand. No one seemed to know what it was or care, and this was of huge concern for me... for obvious reasons. I was anxious to get to the bar early, and when we finally went at 4:00pm I was worried about the lines. The lines! How ridiculous of me. We actually stopped by all of the Irish bars which were on one block (to my surprise and delight, so conveniently close together). And to our immediate horror they were all still EMPTY by 4pm. And drinks were rather pricey too. It wasn´t looking good, so we decided to head to the grocery store, buy some cans of Guinness, and recruite more people from our hostel. Luckily when we returned to the bar scene at 8pm the bars were packed. We had foolishly forgotten that the nightlife in Spain doesn´t get started until really late... (People usually don´t go to the bars or clubs until around midnight... and keep in mind they stay open all night pretty much, so you can stay out until around 7am.) We went to O´Neils, the biggest Irish pub I have ever layed mine eyes upon, and it was glorious. Two floors, enormous, and packed full. Bursting at the seams you might say. Illegally full, even. A very awesome St. Pat´s, though I truly missed celebrating at home with Meags and my fam.

The next day we took a free tour of Madrid, hosted by a company called new europe... they do free tours of major cities in Europe (like London, Paris, etc.). The tour was great. Our guide was highly entertaining and pretty funny... he told tons of stories about the Spanish and their silly ways. There seemed to be a common thread among the stories, which is that it took the Spanish several hundreds of years to complete any kind of architectual project... and why? because they are lazy. For example, the chapel outside the palace ended up taking something like 400 years to complete (keep in mind they probably intended to finish it in 5). Their is a common expression here ´Manana´(Tomorrow). The joke is that they always put everything off until tomorrow. So they started building a chapel, and.... manana, manana, manana... 400 years later they finished it. Also, there was this king who was SO lazy he didn´t do a single thing for himself. (like put on his own underwear.) And he had one servant to do each job. One person´s job was putting a heater by his bed and then taking it away. Well one day, the servant left the heater there and never came back because he fell asleep somewhere having a siesta. The heater got hotter and hotter... and the king COULD have just moved it himself. But he was so lazy that he just waited for the servant who never came. So he burned to death!!! Lazy, lazy Spanish!

There was another element of the tour that was also entertaining but highly obnoxious. Apparently the official tour guides are pissed about these free tours because they are taking away from their business. So they have started protesting... and reallly protesting. During every tour, they show up with signs and yell things during the first half of the 3 hour tour. It´s really frustrating and hard to hear the tour guide speak through the yelling and chanting and laughing and singing, and general harassment. I felt really bad for the guy because it was so hard for him to focus... plus they were saying really rude things to him. Anyway I wanted to punch one of them by the end... but luckily, before I did they decided to all go home... those lazy lazoos needed their siesta. (Even the protestors are lazy.)

Generally we had a really good time though... met some really fun people, went out and experienced some cool bars, etc. We are getting pumped for Barecelona though... I can´t wait to go back to my favourite city!!

More to come soon... including pictures, etc.