Run Away with Me: four years of spanish did me nothing

After taking 4 years of Spanish in high school, I expected Spain to be the country that I would have the least difficulties communicating with the natives... but no.. Luckily, my best friend Ana, who I was going to visit in Madrid, is a fluent Spanish speaker so we had no difficulties...

Meagan and I left on Friday afternoon and took the tube to Heathrow. This was the first trip we were traveling just the two of us and, as much as I missed our large group of travel buddies, it was nice to have a little bit more independence and freedom. It was refreshing to be at an airport like Heathrow after traveling in and out of dumpy Gatwick so many times. Unfortunately, our flight was a little delayed... but that juste meant that when we arrived in Madrid we were going to head straight to our hostel and then straight out onto the town.

Ana came and met us at our hostel around 12:45 while Meg and I were getting ready. She came bearing gifts to help us save money at the clubs and so we got ready and quickly ran out the door before the senora who was in charge at the hostel could yell at us in Spanish that I don't understand. We jumped in a cab and Ana took us to this club called New Garamond. It was crazy!!

me, meagan, & ana

After a couple of hours at that club, Ana took us to another club in Plaza del Sol called Moondance. We didn't stay there very long because we realized when we walked in that we had missed the memo to dress up for carnaval. We felt a little out of place and headed down the street for a delicious Spanish delicacy, churros and chocolate.

The next day we woke up and decided to do some sight seeing. Ana took us to Plaza de Santa Ana for lunch on an outdoor patio. The plaza was beautiful and great scenery for a delicious lunch.

Ana ended up picking out and ordering our food for us so we could eat some authentic Spanish food. She ordered us empanadas (not pictured),

tortilla espanola

and we each got our own plate of paella con pollo.

The food was so good and we devoured it. After lunch, we went and walked around the city...

plaza mayor

After lots and lots of walking and touring, we all went home and took a nap and got ready for dinner. Ana and her friends took us to this place called Turf which greeted us warmly with a festive Gin and Tonic to celebrate Carnaval. Our meal was delicious and once we were finished, we headed out to a club that one of Ana's friends host brothers was DJing at.

After taking the metro out to the location, we suddenly realized that this was not a club he was DJing at, it was more of a rave. We decided to check it out anyway since we didn't have to pay admission...

Ana, Meagan and I headed out early from the "rave" because we were one, over dressed, and two, exhausted. We decided that an early retirement for the night would mean us waking up earlier to go and do more touring than we had.

The next day, we woke up at a reasonable hour and went and enjoyed the city.