Bienvenidos a Madrid

David Here

We made it. We are currently in our Hostel in Madrid in the bar, where the computer´s are. Unfortunately we don`t have any access to the USB ports, so you`ll have to wait on that.

OK first impressions, starting with the metro. We took the metro to a stop very close to our hostel. It was quick and easy to use, surprisingly clean, and appear at every stop (the ones we saw anyway) about every two minutes. They are, however, extremely crowded and stiflingly hot. Also very smelly. That`s another thing, Spain has not caught the memo that cigarettes are bad for you. Everywhere smells of cigarettes and almost everyone you see outside is smoking.

We found our hostel very easily. It´s called Cat´s Hostel and I am extremely impressed. Our room has 5 bunk beds and ten large lockers. The beds are reasonably comfortable with blankets and sheets and pillows and all that. The hostel has a decent bar, free breakfast from 8-10, computers, wifi in the rooms. clean bathrooms with showers, and washing machines with dryers.

To get into your room you have to have this watch-looking thing. Everyone has their own which is specific to their bed. To get into the dormitory area of the hostel, you must hold your wrist-key up to a scanner, which unlocks the doors. On your room door there is another scanner. Your locker has one too. Everybody`s wrist-key works on the first door, but only people from your room can open that door, and only you can open your locker.

One thing though, when you are looking for hostels, sign up in advance. the first two we tried were already full.

Ok so what`s the area like? We`re about a quarter mile from the metro station. Within a few blocks of our hostel we have seen dominoes pizza, burger king, dunkin coffee (which is dunkin donuts), at least 7 other hostels, many bars, an enormous ¨sex shop¨, several farmers markets, tons of cafes, 3 or 4 arcades, and many magazine stands, which aren´t afraid to put X-rated material right out in the open. Industry is centralized around the metro station, and the farther away you get the more the buildings start to become apartments rather than stores.

The streets are so narrow that you have to be careful not to be decked by wide wing mirrors. Oh and water, we´ve been told not to trust european water. So we´ve bought bottled water. Unfortunately european bottled water has lots of things in it, like chloride, salt. calcium, etc. Its not a lot, but to me it makes the water taste foul and undrinkable. In Spain we bought Bezoya water, which isn´t too bad.

I don´t have much else to say for now. I´ll let Derek take over from here

David out

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Today has been exhausting but rewarding. For those of you who said tl;dr to some of our other posts, this is the first time that we´ve been truly on our own. We were staying with David´s family for the first bit of our trip. But now we´ve finally realized the extent of our independence!

We took a flight out of Gatwick Airport to get here. It was a very cheap flight, and we got what we paid for. The whole plane was cramped cattle class, we were sitting at the gate for an hour, and they charged us for drinks. Oh well.

...I feel like I overpacked since my pack is damn heavy. Heavier than any hiking trip I´ve ever done, certainly. But aside from a few guidebooks that I decided to leave in England, there´s nothing that I´d leave at home given the chance.

Madrid itself has been wonderful so far. My Spanish is a bit rusty XD but workable. The locals seem friendly and we were able to get around fine. I got a few clementines for 40 cents (that´s Euro-cents, not US cents) and ate them for a light lunch. Our hostel is nice, despite its looks - the building itself is old enough to have been designated a historical monument or something like that. I was very impressed with the key system as well.

I´ve wanted to come to Spain for years - and we´re finally here! I can´t wait to explore the city. Photos will be up eventually.

¡Hasta luego!

‹Derek›