Madrid

Hola! Just got back to the hotel after a long weekend in Madrid. It was a great trip. Really awesome to see my good friends Sophie Mair, Cameron Harding, and Chandler Duff, and Pierce Ganassin. Good feeling to see some random Loyola faces. We started out Thursday leaving campus around 5:30PM via taxi. For some reason, the driver took a random route through the city to the airport instead of taking the highway, and we arrived at the airport at 7:10, and the gate was supposed to close at 7:15. We lucked out, and got rushed through passport check and security, and they didn't even start boarding the plane until around 8, but it was a pretty stressful start to the trip, and by far the closest I've ever been to missing a plane. But the flight was good, and we got into Madrid around 10:30, and we were immediately greeted by a smiling (and almost crying) Sophie Mair. She and her boytoy Walker took us by bus to the plaza where our hotel was supposed to be located, and we spent the next hour and a half or so asking for directions and trying to find the hostel without much luck. Eventually we stumbled upon it and put our things away, then went for a quick beer at the Irish pub down the street called O'Connel's, and then called it a night. The next morning we met at 10:30 in Plaza del Sol and went on our way. We started the day by going to see the palace of the king and queen of Spain, which was pretty cool. We hung out outside there for a while. We got on the Metro to walk to a giant park (don't remember the name??) by Walker's apartment, and unfortunately, Paige got her wallet stolen, so that was a damper on the morning. But then we picked up some bread and cheese and a few bottles of wine and had a picnic in the park, then rented a rowboat to take out on the lake in the middle. The weather was gorgeous, and it was an incredible afternoon. We met up with Cameron Harding there, who I was quite excited to see, and we walked to a random building downtown that you could pay 2 euros to go to the top and see a view of the whole city. That was pretty incredible, and then being true Americans, we went to Taco Bell, which was really delicious (pathetic right?) having been deprived of fast food for a month and a half. After that we went back to the hostel to take a siesta and freshen up for the night. We hung out with everyone there for a while, then went out to a sangria bar where (according to Walker) Hemingway had written a novel or something. It was packed, so we had a pitcher of sangria then split. The girls were tired, so we took them back to the hostel, and I continued to an Irish pub with Pierce, Sophie, and Walker which was called Dubliner's. I had a drink there and met some of the Madrid crew's friends, then walked back to the hostel and crashed. We slept until 11 the next day, and woke up basically without an agenda. We wandered the main shopping street called Grand Via, and I was dragged by the girls into H&M and a few other places. Then we met up with Pierce and he took us to an area with some smaller more retro stores and such, and we walked through there for a while, and we met up with Chandler Duff! It was a pleasure to see her, a fellow Marquette Hall fourth floor veteran. We walked with them for a while then grabbed a Nutella crepe at a corner store and then parted ways. After that we went back to the hostel to get ready for dinner, and we went to a place called El Tigre, which was packed. You paid for a beer, and then they brought you all the tapas you could possibly desire, which were delicious. So that was a nice authentic Spanish dinner. Then we went to a couple of random bars for drinks, and Cameron posed the challenge to me to try to get pictures with 15 Spanish girls throughout the night. He taught me the correct phrase (Puedo sacar una foto contigo?), which I will probably remember forever, and we had some fun attempting that for a while (see Facebook for products). I didn't get anywhere close to 15, but it was pretty funny. We just wandered the city for most of the rest of the night and then made our way back to Plaza del Sol. There, Cameron and I had the best crepe of my life. Kinder bars, chocolate chips, and Nutella, all in one delicious bundle. I think my life was changed forever. Outside of the crepe shop, three Italians walked up to Cameron and handed him a bottle of gin, vodka, and rum. Cameron was a little bit confused, and he asked them "Con Rufies?", which may win quote of the trip award. But I got to work out my Italian, and the man explained that he was very drunk, and simply did not want the drinks anymore. Cameron didn't trust him, and forced him to take a drink of each before he would accept them. The man obliged, and we spent the next half hour or so talking to them outside of the crepe shop. They were kind of creepy towards the girls (as typical Italian men are), but overall they seemed like nice guys, and I kind of impressed myself with my Italian (even though there were lots of ums, uhs, and pauses). They wanted to go out, and we were headed home, so we parted ways and went back to the hostel. The people above us were having a party, so I didn't really sleep for the whole night. We checked out of the hostel at 11AM after about an hour of sleep total, went to Sophie's apartment and set our stuff down, then went to the big Sunday outdoor market. On the way, we met a guy from New Jersey who said he'd just gotten out of the army in Israel. His name was Yair (spelling? pronounced Yah-ear), and he tagged along with us for the rest of the day. Nice kid. Said he was just traveling Europe by himself and finding places to stay at night as he met people or finding hostels. Sounded like he was having some serious adventures. We went for Tortillas Espanola (Spanish omelets) right by the market, then walked through the market very quickly, stopped for empanatas, parted ways with Cameron and Yair, and headed back to Sophie's apartment. We picked up our stuff, said goodbye to Sophie, and picked up a bus to the airport. Everything was smooth this time around, until it came time to land the plane. I'm not a great flyer as it is, but there was tons of turbulence, rain, and lightning as we started to descend, and me and the Italian woman next to me were having a pretty good freak out. The plane landed in the rain, and I think my heart stopped a few times, but I'm here to tell the tale. Got back to campus, ate a quick dinner around 9, skyped my parents, Conor Duncan, and Rachel Haller, and then came back to the hotel here. Now, I am headed to bed. Good weekend. Up this week is a big outline for a research paper as well as a philosophy midterm, so busy week, then Tunisia begins this weekend!  So excited. Also, we started the soccer league last Wednesday (5-3 defeat, rough loss). Looking forward to another game this Wednesday. Have a fine week. Arrivederci.
-Ryan