Keen readers will have noticed that I have been off for 5 days in Spain seeing my lady Sandra and having a great time with Bea and Anna, gadding around Madrid, buying tat and drinking too much in general.
I am back on the blog wagon now, firmly ensconced, and I have many things to discuss (lucky, lucky you). Firstly; you can still SMOKE in Spain. I am an ignorant soul and assumed it was pretty much a no-no everywhere in Europe now. Not so, as I was soon to discover. Literally everyone smokes and they smoke anywhere and everywhere too. Bloody foreigners... bloody lucky foreigners. No, but really, it was pretty stinky. Didn't stop all of us joining in though, gross as it is. After holding hands with Bea all the way to Madrid on the plane, we managed to separate for a few hours before climbing into our double blow up bed on the floor in Sandra's room. And what a bed it was! Arguably, much more comfy than the one I sleep on at home, and certainly more comfy than the floor that Rick and I have been sharing for 6 months, complete with deceased mouse underneath, a bit like the princess and the pea.
Bea rolls and fidgets a lot in her sleep - but I got my own back by stealing all the covers and possibly trying to grope her (I will call it a 'hug' though, and no one can prove otherwise)... Anna and Sandra shared Sandra's bed, resulting in lots of hilarity where they had to tread on our bed in order to get out of the door to the loo in the night, resulting in bouncy castle like hilarity. How we laughed. Hmmm.
Madrid was, in all honesty, absolutely fantastic. It was surprisingly clean and fragrant (despite the smoking) and even though the exchange rate of pound:euro is shit, you can still eat and drink out a lot more cheaply than in London. On our first proper night Sandra took us to no less than 6 bars, each very different, among them; a traditional tapas bar/diner, with big 70's neon signs displaying various unidentifiable foods; a jazzy, smoky wine bar, a Gothic discotheque and Spanish 'pub' which doesn't get lively until about 3am, and doesn't close until late into the next morning. At this point it was at least 5am, and Anna Bea and I decided to stage a mini protest outside waiting for Sandra to come out. Anna had the hiccups pretty badly by this point and Bea and I had somehow got to discussing the merits of a delicious redhead. I, in my usual way, had decided that I was fluent in Spanish and decided to get chatting with locals. The shame. Am sure I said 'Guapo' a lot a 'Donde esta beeeeer??' a fair amount too.
Our days rolled on in this manner, namely staying out until dawn and waking at 1pm as a result. Most decadent and enjoyable, though now I must have some sort of detox as I have had nothing but wine, beer and cheese for several days now. Finding something to eat in Spain if you don't eat meat can be rather tricky. Anna managed to consume almost exclusively only Jamon and a disgusting, REPULSIVE drink made from 'tiger nuts' in Spanish - Chufa. This drink is very popular in Valencia in particular and is marketed as 'Chufi'. A tiger nut is not a nut, but a foul, fibrous tuber - described on their home website the most popular 'horchata' or vegetable milk drink. Anna was extremely pleased when she found this, and now I fear she will be buying it by the crate from abroad to satisfy her perverse lust of nutty milk juice.
Things that I have learned about Madrid:
The Prado is closed on a Monday. Bugger.
You can't eat dinner until 10pm, and even then you can't eat dinner unless Jamon is a feature (see Museo de Jamon)
People are very friendly, even if you are ranting at them in a made up hybrid of Italian, French and Spanish
Things that I have learned about myself:
I cannot actually speak Spanish
I cannot get onto a plane again
I have extremely high standards when it comes to using public convieniences
Tips for the future:
Don't talk about Franco/Fascist dictatorships at birthday parties
Go on more holidays with Anna and Bea as they don't mind that talking about my pathological fear of public toilets
AVOID CHUFI.
Lovely to be back,
Thanks for reading xxx
I am back on the blog wagon now, firmly ensconced, and I have many things to discuss (lucky, lucky you). Firstly; you can still SMOKE in Spain. I am an ignorant soul and assumed it was pretty much a no-no everywhere in Europe now. Not so, as I was soon to discover. Literally everyone smokes and they smoke anywhere and everywhere too. Bloody foreigners... bloody lucky foreigners. No, but really, it was pretty stinky. Didn't stop all of us joining in though, gross as it is. After holding hands with Bea all the way to Madrid on the plane, we managed to separate for a few hours before climbing into our double blow up bed on the floor in Sandra's room. And what a bed it was! Arguably, much more comfy than the one I sleep on at home, and certainly more comfy than the floor that Rick and I have been sharing for 6 months, complete with deceased mouse underneath, a bit like the princess and the pea.
Bea rolls and fidgets a lot in her sleep - but I got my own back by stealing all the covers and possibly trying to grope her (I will call it a 'hug' though, and no one can prove otherwise)... Anna and Sandra shared Sandra's bed, resulting in lots of hilarity where they had to tread on our bed in order to get out of the door to the loo in the night, resulting in bouncy castle like hilarity. How we laughed. Hmmm.
Madrid was, in all honesty, absolutely fantastic. It was surprisingly clean and fragrant (despite the smoking) and even though the exchange rate of pound:euro is shit, you can still eat and drink out a lot more cheaply than in London. On our first proper night Sandra took us to no less than 6 bars, each very different, among them; a traditional tapas bar/diner, with big 70's neon signs displaying various unidentifiable foods; a jazzy, smoky wine bar, a Gothic discotheque and Spanish 'pub' which doesn't get lively until about 3am, and doesn't close until late into the next morning. At this point it was at least 5am, and Anna Bea and I decided to stage a mini protest outside waiting for Sandra to come out. Anna had the hiccups pretty badly by this point and Bea and I had somehow got to discussing the merits of a delicious redhead. I, in my usual way, had decided that I was fluent in Spanish and decided to get chatting with locals. The shame. Am sure I said 'Guapo' a lot a 'Donde esta beeeeer??' a fair amount too.
Our days rolled on in this manner, namely staying out until dawn and waking at 1pm as a result. Most decadent and enjoyable, though now I must have some sort of detox as I have had nothing but wine, beer and cheese for several days now. Finding something to eat in Spain if you don't eat meat can be rather tricky. Anna managed to consume almost exclusively only Jamon and a disgusting, REPULSIVE drink made from 'tiger nuts' in Spanish - Chufa. This drink is very popular in Valencia in particular and is marketed as 'Chufi'. A tiger nut is not a nut, but a foul, fibrous tuber - described on their home website the most popular 'horchata' or vegetable milk drink. Anna was extremely pleased when she found this, and now I fear she will be buying it by the crate from abroad to satisfy her perverse lust of nutty milk juice.
Things that I have learned about Madrid:
The Prado is closed on a Monday. Bugger.
You can't eat dinner until 10pm, and even then you can't eat dinner unless Jamon is a feature (see Museo de Jamon)
People are very friendly, even if you are ranting at them in a made up hybrid of Italian, French and Spanish
Things that I have learned about myself:
I cannot actually speak Spanish
I cannot get onto a plane again
I have extremely high standards when it comes to using public convieniences
Tips for the future:
Don't talk about Franco/Fascist dictatorships at birthday parties
Go on more holidays with Anna and Bea as they don't mind that talking about my pathological fear of public toilets
AVOID CHUFI.
Lovely to be back,
Thanks for reading xxx
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DO talk about it!!UNION! POR EL SOCIALISMO!!!
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