No Habla

Okay sorry for the delay everyone, my laptop is officially broken so schoolwork takes much longer now that I have to carve my notes into stone without access to modern technology. It's also midterm week here so I've been studying. I'm about finished so here is Madrid for you.

At 11 in the morning on day 2 of the port Sydney and I had a flight to Madrid. We had booked it over the summer to visit our friends from back home who were studying there. We stayed at our friend Devin's apartment who was one of our roommates last year, Emma, another one of our roommates came from Seville to stay for the weekend too. By chance, Devin lives a couple streets over from Casey which was awesome. There were also a few of our other friends from home that we got to hang out with while we were there. 

When we landed at the airport we were greeted by Devin and took the metro back to her apartment. We then went out to the shopping area around her apartment, it was nice to be in a place where I wasn't worried about visiting 40 different landmarks and trying to figure out public transportation and needing to figure out where I was living. While I have a great grasp of Spanish through my 6 years studying Latin it was still difficult to understand many of the locals.  For the day we just walked around catching up on life and stuff, it was nice to get to see them again.
That night we met up with three more of our friends from school, Bayley, Chrissy, and Kelley at this little restaurant near them. We got pitchers of margaritas and chips and guac. It wasn't dinner though because they eat outrageously late in Spain. For actual dinner we went to Bayley and Kelley's apartment and had.. Wait for it... A HOME COOKED MEAL. It was amazing, i hadn't realized how much I'd missed home cooked food before that, it was incredible. So many props to Bayley for cooking it. It was so nice to get to just relax and catch up with everything late into the night. We headed home around 1.

The next day we woke up fairly early to go to the train station to go to Toledo. Before that we went to a Dunks, that's number two of the trip and never fails to be amazing, I can't wait to always have it available when we're back. The trip to Toledo is about a half hour by train. I didn't know what to expect there because I'd never heard of it. It was a beautiful old fashioned medieval like town build on huge hills. We spent the whole day walking around looking at the shops and sights. We also got some traditional Spanish food which was real good and real filling. We got back around 7 and showered and stuff then met with Casey to go to dinner. We went to another place near their apartment where you could get a pitcher of sangria and 4 tapas for really cheap. After we left we went back to devin's to get ready to go out. We went to this place called Kapital which is one of the best clubs in Madrid. It was more expensive to get into than most places I've gone but so worth it. It was by far the coolest place I've been abroad and maybe the coolest place I've ever been to. Imagine 6 floors of Groove Boston times 10, if you don't know what that means you might not want to. Basically a really large party. Spanish people stay out super late we probably got home at around 4:30 or 5 and the club was still full. 

The next morning we went to a place to get breakfast then to Devin's favorite park, it was a huge beautiful park and it smelled like fall but was also really hot out so I was in Heaven. We went out on this little pond in the middle of the park and rowed around on a boat for a bit, since I haven't seen nearly enough water on the trip thus far. After spending a while there we went back to Devin's.

After that we went to a tattoo ship because surprise if you didn't already know I got a tattoo. Sydney did too. The first place we went the guy was really expensive and a douchebag so we left since we figured, well maybe I want to feel comfortable with the man who is going to permanently put something on my body, but that might also just be me idk. We then went to another place where the guy spoke great English and was so sweet and patient with us. I'd known for a whole what I wanted but didn't have a precise design and the thing he designed for me was amazing, I couldn't have ever explained it as perfectly as he drew it. So luckily for me, I don't have some ugly, weird, or misspelled thing on me forever. I even think he used a clean needle! 

That night we went to a bar near where they live for a more low key night, much needed after our crazy night the night before. It was an Irish pub and they were playing college football, yes actual football not futbol. We didn't stay there for very long. 

The next morning we had to be up super early to catch our bus to Cadiz to get back on the ship. Nothing like a 8 and a half hour bus ride! When we got back we dropped off our stuff on the ship and went to a cafe nearby to get a little wifi to try to get some homework done. Yes, real schoolwork because some professors decide to give projects that require internet access even though we don't have internet access on the ship. I'm not bitter........

It was nice to get back on the ship but Madrid and Portugal were so fun so it was definitely bittersweet.

Next stop Morocco (it actually already happened) I might get around to writing it tonight or tomorrow idk we'll be in Italy on Wednesday. I'm currently focused on taking a nice little nap on the 7th deck because it's about 75 and sunny here.