Dave Rep In Madrid

The last weekend.... unbelievable. Despite this being the last weekend before leaving, this was only my third full weekend in Madrid. Let's just say we took advantage of it. This weekend had an extra twist, though, because Tori and I had a friend come visit from Valencia. The best part is that we didn't even meet him until the weekend before, in our Florence hostel. That's what traveling is all about.

Anyway, Dave Replogle (I write your full name, so that maybe one day you get bored, google yourself, and stumble upon this blog, hahaha) got into Madrid Friday evening around 5 p.m. Since Tori's and my talk about Madrid convinced Dave to come, we had some expectations to fulfill. Before going out to dinner, Dave, Tori, Andrew (my roommate) and myself headed out to Retiro Park for some botellón. From here, we walked to Sol (city center) admiring the incredible amounts of Christmas lights around the city. I have to say, Madrid tops all other cities in Christmas decorations. After a little dinner, we had a big night ahead of us.

We started our night out around 11 by all meeting at a local bar, El Tigre. This place is ALWAYS packed because of their huge mojito + tapas combo for €6. Tough to beat. After we all managed to finish our drinks, we were at the "I'm-drunk-enough-to-dance" phase. (Some of us were well beyond that stage, right, Andrew?) So, we headed to Kapital, the previously mentioned, incredibly massive, outrageously fun night club. Despite splitting up throughout the night (some of us wondered off, others took a nap), Dave, Tori, Andrew and I managed to meet back up around 5:30 A.M. We ended up catching the metro at 6 for some much needed rest.

Once Dave and I mustered up the courage to get out of bed (around 3 p.m.), we walked the other half of Madrid, checking out the only real site the city has to offer, the Royal Palace. We grabbed some lunch, strolled the city until dinner. After dinner, Tori, Dave and I went out to a local bar called Chapandoaz, or The Cave Bar. As you might have guessed, this bar looks like a cave with drinks being poured from the stalagmites. The three of us downed a couple of their specialties, "Leche de Pantera" and talked over drinks for a couple hours. Highlight of the night: Tori dares Dave to take one of the beers just sitting on the bar. Dave accepts dare and "stealthily" snags a beer. Dave proceeds to take a drink, but spits the beer out on the ground. I think Dave is being ridiculous, and proceed to take the beer from Dave and take a drink. It's disgusting. Tastes like detergent. Come to find out, the bar sets out beer bottles with perfume in it for fools like us. Hahahahaha. Anyway, by 2 a.m., we had grown tired of the American 90's playlist and decided to head back home.

Sunday, we hit up El Rastro (our massive flea market) for some last minute Christmas shopping. We all managed to find some stuff and by 2 p.m., we had gotten sick of shopping. After getting home, Dave headed to the bus station to catch a ride back to Valencia. Hopefully, he had a good enough time with Tori and I for the trip to be worth it. All I know, is that his coming was WAY better than studying for finals!