España

¡hola!
spain es muy bueno... and my español is dramatically improving.. I was more confindent in my abilities than I should´ve been obviously.. but i am also doing better with my spanish than i couldve hoped to.. still speaking plenty of english.. especially hanging out with the aussies and british kids at the hostel.. yesterday i got here around 10 am.. and i sat at teh free internet for quite a bit because its free! yes. after an hour.. i felt guilty sitting around, and headed out for a walk.. i wandered around el sol. the center where our hostel is .. and eventually made it to a few more squares, a cathedral, and teh grand palace.. and through another square.. madrid is quite like i had hoped.. there is a lively feel in the air even though everyone is so relaxed for a big bustling capital city.. theres tons of shopping and places to sit and eat..i will splurge tomorrow before i leave eating at a cafe! apparently its not too bad... but after checking the funds, and the costs of traveling to portugal and back to spain... welll.. i think spaghetti and i are going to become even better friends! haha. i went back to the hostel.. ready for my siesta after my earllly flight.. and i met some cool kids in the hostel.. chloe and ashleigh from adelaide and jackie from melbourne.. they told me about their crazy night out and were just getting up when i got back from my stroll.. our hostel is so cute..its like living in an ikea showroom as someone pointed out..and almost feels like our own apartment right in the center of madrid.. pretty awesome.. and everyone is so friendly and gets along so well.. that after we all dined and got ready together.. and waited for many hours until the appropriate time to go out.. basically the entire hostel went out together.. in a mob more or less.. o yes. we had to wait til 1am to go out.. and even then.. the ¨locals¨ who run teh hostel and went out with us.. well they are from argentina... but theyve been around a fewww more weeks than us.. they took us to a local bar before we were allowed to go to the dance clubs at 3 am. o gosh. i was so tired. i had some local delicious spanish beer and an a spanish girl barf all over my leg before it was time to leave the bar. next up was the club.. but apparently the club was a jazz club.. and the 14 other of us werent really feeling the jazziness.. so walked more of the city to find a club.. the legendary nightlife of madrid was bound to jump on us... so we thought.. wandering the streets at 2 or 3 am.. whatever time it was.. was much like strolling around at 10:30.. with people selling beer on cardboard .. that they drank out of.. i believe. why would you buy an open can of beer from them? we eventually ended up in an irish pub.. bah.. i just came from ireland! and it was packed to the walls with tourists adn everyone in madrid who wasnt spanish.. it was alrigth for a bit and then i headed home with the first crew around 5 am because i was soo pooped :( o well. no flamenco for tonight.

i did my best to sleep in and not get up at 8 am.. i made it til 11.. enjoyed a slow morning in our ikea flat with my new friends.. and we eventually all made it out for a beautiful day in madrid. the weather was perfect.. 29 (84) degrees.. sunny, with a slight breeze. yay! soo happy for nice weather! finally i can get my tan back that ireland, iceland and the uk were holding back.. we we took the metro to the bus station so some of our british friends could get their tickets to barcelona..and then we strolled through the streets and to the parque de buen retiro for a little sit down. we people watched at the million displays of affection and talked about life and the usual.. we saw this little lake with paddle boats..adn tehn continued through the park and back to the streets of madrid.. stopping at some pet store with all these little kitties! and a bakery where i wanted to get some traditonal spanish pasteries.. but i ended up with a porto... no idea really what it was because my spanish wasnt good enough and her english didnt exist.. it was somehting like a glazed piece of pie filled with onions, brown sauce.. what i thought was chicken but then found some squid in there too.. it was strange but eh. ive eaten weirder things at this point. it was getting pretty late.. about 6 pm.. so people were starting to fill the streets again after siesta time.. we found the road where the prostitutes hang out by their little trees.. took us a while to figure out why these less than attractive ladies were all posing in these horrible outfits every 20 feet.. then it came to me! haha.. we think it mightt be legal here... maybe. it was guess.. tomorrow evening jackie and i are going to sit at the cafe across the way, have some tapas and beer and people watch as the men walk by and select their classy ladies... also booked my lovely 10 hour bus journey to lisbon... not where i thought i was headed first.. but what are you gonna do?! from there down to lagos to lay on the beach for a few days and then i haveta head back to madrid on the overnight bus so i can get up to northern spain! if i had only researched my transportations options two weeks ago.. i couldve flown 20 mins for €20 instead of busing for 9 hrs and €70..but thats the way its always goes.. ugh. such is life and traveling on the go. luckily ive just spent the past 2 hrs talking to meredith so we can use our eurail passes to get around! yay! im so tired. nite ntie.