Free Birds: El Spaino Part Uno

After our quick stint in London and then wandering around the gigantic Madrid airport we made it to our hostel for our first night abroad! We were kind of spoiled with how nice our hostel was (although from the picture you may wonder what I'm taking about!) but Robby warned me that not all of our hostels would be like this. We had our own room and our very own shower and sink in the room! The bathroom was just around the corner too and since the hostel was totally empty except for us and maybe one other person we pretty much had that to ourselves too. I would learn quickly that as far as hostels go this is as good as it gets! I mean check this out we even had an extra twin bed in our room for guests!

Although we only spent a couple days in Madrid I will tell you that I noticed a couple things right away:

1) it never sleeps! We got in at midnight that night and walked around for a bit and stores were open, people were hustling and bustling as if the sun had just gone down. Old people, young people, teenagers that looked like (and sadly may have been) prostitutes were all just chillin in the plazas and streets. And restaurants were open way late too. One night we were walking around at 2am (in my mind it couldve easily been 8pm) with a ton of sit down restaurants still open and people sitting and eating who were probably going to be there for hours longer. This was a week night too... I don't get how they ever go to work.

2) we feel tall in Spain! I've never felt tall before, but there I did. And Robby was totally the tallest guy on the street, or at least in the top three...depending on the street.

3) Spaniards are way nice and helpful! at first we thought people were going to be mean and hate tourists but most of them were so nice! Our very first encounter at the airport led us to believe people would hate on us but it only went up from there. We were trying to catch a bus out of the airport to take us into town (and we were waiting at the bus stop forever!) Finally the bus pulls up and we walk towards it. The bus driver opens the door and once I started speaking English he waved his hand as if to tell us to go somewhere else and drove off! First encounter was no bueno, maybe we were just that disgusting after 24 hours of travel and maybe our showers and a full nights sleep helped us be more tolerable the next day?

4) some Spainairds are weird. They have these huge outdoor squares they call Plazas. Some have restaurants and vendors and some occasional entertainers. Well here are a couple we passed. The goat thing moved and made this crazy screeching noise too! Totally freaked us out!! I still don't get it.

Robby was so freaked out he wouldn't go near it!! Hahahaha sooo creepy!

Two other weirdos in the plaza

The first full day we were there just happened to be my travel buddys birthday!! It was awesome celebrating in Spain. He opened a couple gifts in the morning and the rest of the day we did normal birthday stuff like explore the Palacia Real where I think the old King of Spain lived. Either him or the Emperor of China- hard to keep straight. We also walked and walked and walked around Madrid checking out the different parks and plazas. Oh and one of Robbys favorite parts was probably the chocolate croissants and amazing pastries at bakeries that are everywhere out there!! A birthday pastry is just as good as a birthday cake.

We got busted for even holding a camera in the palace so we had to be discreet. So much gold and awesome chandeliers in this place! Reminds me of our house back home....

Palacio Real!

Pastry paradise - pure love

Gotta say- he is the best travel partner and life partner that I could ever ask for! He makes everywhere feel like home and everything so much fun! So glad this guy was born - thanks Liz and Greg for an amazing creation who brightens my life.

After a full day of walking all we wanted to do was lay down and eat. At the same time. Perfectly enough we knew about this restaurant called "the Laydown" where you were literally served your dinner on comfortable beds. We knew a couple that went to Madrid and ate there and it looked awesome so we thought it would be the perfect birthday dinner spot! Well after about two hours of walking trying to find this mystical address and asking people on the street (not one person had heard of it which was kind of a red flag) we finally found the spot. It was supposed to look like this:

But it looked like this:

We were so sad it had been shut down!! The website was still up and running and everything. How could a concept like that not have survived??! Come on!! I bet it would have in America, we are lazy like that ;)

At this point we were STARVING and it was close to midnight. The first place we saw was none other than KFC. And yes we did have 1 Euro chicken sandwiches for his birthday dinner that night and we were both ok with it in that desperate moment.

Oh one last thought- the parks in Madrid were so pretty!! One perk to being "homeless" and carrying all your essentials on your back is that in a matter of seconds anywhere can be your temporary home. We've found napping or reading a book in parks and other pretty places to be one of our favorite pastimes! It's so liberating not to be on a time schedule or really have anywhere to be at all!

Home sweet home!!!