live and let live the good life in madrid, the city of my dreams.

when i went home last night my roomates in the hostel were out. well they were probably in a bar somewhere - yes i am the only one separated from the guys, oh and alex too. lori, hannah, rubs and ben were together in one room.

at about 3 am my roomates came - the girl was bloody drunk and tripping over the floor, while her boyfriend just looking at her (good thing i have earplugs but i can still hear her and see her, because i was peering *rolls eyes*) she was barfing all the time and her boyfriend brought the trashbin from the toilet and she kept barfing the whole night - shes a bloody barf machine! hahahahaha the most annoying this was that she tripped on me while i was lying on the bed! hahha god shes so heavy! hahahahahahaha. she was jealous that her boyfriend was looking at someone thats why she got drunk - yes i got my earplugs on, but i can still hear her - thats how loud she was.

but i was so tired and fell asleep and didnt knew what happened.

it didnt help the next morning that someone tickled me in my toes! arrghh estephanie! whattafuck are you doing?!  it was 9:30 in the morning. my roomates were already up. but i didnt said anything.  got my birthday gift out from the bag, the baked beans from lori, rubs and hahnah and ate it at the dining area of the hostel - it was my first hostel experience, i mean eating in the common room - and IN THE MORNING IF I LACK SLEEP I AM VERY GRUMPY - i am an alligator snapping turtle.  so it didnt helped that i saw ramdom people eating breakfast but rubs, russell and ben were there.   i opened my yummy baked beans got some free bread from the kitchen and some juice on the vending machine. we were talking of what we are gonna do this morning - alex, dave and russel wanted to go to estadio bernabeu, but i am not a fan of football - so me, ben and estephanie decided to go our own and FIND KFC hahahahaha. i still wasnt finished with my food - the cleaning lady ordered me to get up in a nasty and cruel voice! i was shocked! i mean she could have said it in a nicer way but me, russell, hanie and ben were still talking at the table! i mean - i grew up with maids and i treat them good (well fairly :P hahaha) i mean i do have respect - so i didnt argued, went up grumpily and threw my food in the trash bin. then the next thing we knew was that shes mopping the floor and told us everytime to get out of her way! that was fucking too much! hahahahahahahahaha if iam still bratty like i was in my teens - i would spill juice or dirt on the floor and let her clean it up again! hahahahahahaha but she scared me really i mean US haha so we did get out of her way and avoided her! hahahahaha.

madrid was so different from night and day! in the evening - the night crawlers were out and it was loud and noisy and it has a special atmosphere in the evening - the party atmosphere of spain! in the day - sounds of construction, motors, pedestrians are the ones you hear PLUS in full color the wonderful magnificent fantastic amazing structures of the city! the hostel was located in an area full of graffitis which i like! since i am used to and living in düsseldorf in the alternative corner of the city.

it was a beautiful sunny walk to KFC hahahahahaha (i am laughing so hard when i typed this but its true) impressive buildings along the way! madrid is full of rennaisance architectures which we lacked in düsseldorf or most parts of germany. i love it! i really love it! I LOVE MADRID!

at kfc we ordered a bucket with 6 pieces of chicken and ate it. i recognized that most people who work in fastfood shops are south-american or latins - i can see the south american indian heritage in the faces of the people. it doenst take a rocket scientist to be able to see the difference. while we were in the middle of our eating - a latin woman with a child came up to us and asked for money INSIDE KFC. well........ i mean i am not a bad person and here i am wasting money on foods which i only half ate, gave her my cents and she begged for one piece of chicken and i gave her my share.

after that - we went down but hanie wanted to go to the toilet :P hahahahah and it took a looonnnggg time hmm wonder why! hahahaha

so ben and me went down first - and ben wandered to some shops to buy some locks for his bag for eastern europe.   i was taking pics of the area - then hanie came and ben too! we have an appointment back with the guys at around 2 pm because were gonna meet the master - tirso at 3 pm who will be gving us a tour of madrid.

when we went back, we said we should take another direction instead of the other one! and ole! we didnt knew that the area of kfc was puerta del sol already! and we found the fucking bear statue that were gonna meet tirso! assignment completed! its not far from the hostel - a walking distance. then apparently we got a little bit lost, then we discovered a filipino store in the middle of it! great! hanie and me dashed to the store and happily chatting with the filipinos, and asked if they could give us some jobs there. hahahah, we bought lots of stuff, snacks and a real mango juice for me! ben was just observing us from the distance and shaking his head and keeping himself from laughing. hahaha.

when we got back to the hostel - my roomates were gone, and the fucking cleaning lady was in my room cleaning aaarghhhhhhhhh hahahahhahahahahahahaha im fucking scared of her!  i went to the common room and smoked, until she was finished. when she was gone and the coast was clear hahaha i showered in the toilet - and ola! i found my things neatly arranged inside the toilet :D hahahahahahahah, but im sure she was arranging it with a grudging voice while doing it hahahahaha.

at the kitchen, we found rubs, hannah, lori and kat eating lori's famous kraft dinner, i was so, well i was so dissapointed because i really wanted to have a mouthful of lori's famous kraft dinner, but they were already almost finished, i guess i have to try it some other time. they asked us were we went, and they all laughed when i said kfc.

before 3 pm, i rounded the guys, there was a whole bunch of us, oh my god, we practically took over the hostel! jeff wasnt still there, because he will arrive around 7 pm, so he will just have to join the pool party later at 10 pm which was of course, organized by tirso.

so off we go! to meet tirso! were like a bunch of chickens cackling on the small streets of madrid! kat, ben, hannah,hannie, lori, dave, bondo, rubs, lori, robbo, russell our recruit and me! hahahaha robbo and bondo carried hanie and threw her into the trashcan! hahahahahahahahaha,

well she was not happy about it :D

when we were at the bear statue waiting for tirso it was so hot in madrid! i almost forgot this weather since living in germany!

when tirso came we hugged each other - and greeted. it was nice to meet him - a spanish - a madrileño - dashing and well conversed AND well dressed hahahahaha. a very fine man, if i must say, when i looked up the way i presented myself, i felt a bit embarassed, well, my country was a colony of spain before, i prefer to be presentable in that situation, but tirso didnt mind, in face, he find all of us cool.

he gave a tour of madrid. a bar tour. in every bar we drank beer - i mean them coz i dont drink that much. i only had one beer, but i feasted on the crunchy pork skin which reminded me of a snack in the philippines.

then towards the palacio real and cathedral de la almudena. oh it was so beautiful! madrid reminded me so much of old manila. i feel so much at home. the architectures, the music, the people, the city atmosphere - its like going back in time when i was a child where spanish was still dominant in manila.

i love madrid - i love her so much! i want to marry her! it was the most beautiful city i have ever seen in europe.

after the tour of the palacio and cathedral de almudena, it was so hot and time to refresh, we went into the shops along the street where the palacio is, i bought some souvenirs and the guys bought some refreshments.

when we were finished, tirso directed us to plaza mayor, it was another bar hopping tour! we went into a small alley, and stopped in a bar to have some sangrias! yes, the sangria, one of the symbols of spain.

it really got hot and humid, that if i drink one glass of sangria, i would get drunk easily. after a small tour around plaza mayor, where a beautiful facade is painted in the casa de la panaderia, it was an amazing structure i had seen since living in europe,  tirso surprised us again. he directed us to VERY SMALL alleys where tourists had never gone before, seeing madrid as it is. very quiet, no people around, old buildings, some already rotting but it gave a beautiful character to the city. it was amazing, i was happy that a madrileño showed us the city.

tirso, surprised us again! he showed us the la latina quarter of madrid, its where the bustling nightlife of the city is located. well it was still early, so not much people around.  but we went again to another tapas bar and have another round of beer! i got hungry, so i ordered tortilla de patatas together with with rubs, but it turned out that the tortilla de patatas of pablo's mother - señora lucia tastes a million times better.

la latina corner of madrid is amazing by day, it must have more colorful at night.

then looking at the hour, it was time to go back to the hostel as jeff would arrive, and so is the famous barcelonito joan carles (ratu) and cameron from australia would join us in the pool party.

going back, we separated from tirso at puerta del sol. hannie who still wasnt happy at her being dumped into the trashbin went with me, when we were at the hostel, everyone was shouting as jeff was there! it was like, jeff was it your birthday that time? hahaha.

it was a perfect ending but again a new beginning, as everyone was so excited about the pool party. after some freshening, we happily made our way back to puerta del sol and meet tirso - again and jc and cam.

looking back at what happened in the morning and in the afternoon, eventhough i was only for a very very short time in madrid, i really really felt honored, to be in this city, sure the spanish did alot of "bad" things to my country in the past, but with pablo, who apologized to me of what his ancestors had done, his parents señor manolo and señora lucia serving us in their house, and the hospitality and welcoming arms of tirso, it is very easy to forgive and forget and pay homage to the greatest country and capital of the golden age of exploration: spain and madrid, la madre patria.

live and let live the good life in madrid, la ciudad de mis sueños.