08-29-07 Madrid Pub Crawl

My first night in Spain was a little painful. After wandering around the center of Madrid for about an hour, I finally broke down and paid 50 euro for a room to sleep for 8 hours and recharge for the next day. It was nothing special and I was quite frustrated. The next day I went straight to an internet café and collected the addresses for some much more affordable hostels. The one I chose (and I’m glad I did since the owners are fantastically sweet) cost just 17 euro and is a dorm style room. Now the best part - which I found out the day after – is there is free wireless Internet! Woooo!

After getting all set up I went off to get some food and run some errands. I went to the drug store for a normally prescription antibiotic…got it with no hassle. I was impressed. As for food, I ate a couple of mini sandwiches and drank fresh orange juice, mmm. My next step was to do a little sight seeing. I took a stroll around the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) and saw all sorts of great architecture. By now it was about 4, which meant (at least for me) siesta! And, with a couple of hours of recharging I was ready for some more activity.

In light of anything better to do, I took a stroll around the city, consequently finding a free wireless hotspot. Interesting how fast Spain is growing into their new selves. Their induction into the European union has brought about rapid progression on multiple fronts. Madrid is an incredibly clean city, mostly due to the multitude of public workers. I guess it is expected from a socialist democracy. I’ve yet to see the downside to their system of governance, though I can only image it would not garner the “economic efficiency” of a complete market economy. With prices for services skyrocketing in the United States, it is nice to see a place where a baseline of services is provided to all. It is particularly useful since it eliminates the inefficiency of Medicare and other governmental welfare programs which must weed out the needy from the opportunists. Spain has an interesting system for these services, allowing doctors to work privately with a portion of their time if they wish, as long as they spend the specified amount working publicly. This alleviates much of the gripping I hear from the Canadians (who have a similar medical system), since if you really need a procedure done and are willing to pay you may do so.

Anyways, to the fun part of the story!

After a little playing on the Internet I returned to my hostel to find that the 3 others I was sharing the room with had returned. All three were Italian, two women who were traveling together, and a man traveling alone. After some chatting in a mix of English and Spanish I got to know my roommates and ended up going with the Italian on a pub crawl he had caught wind of. Francesco was a lively fellow and very typically Italian, aside from being very down to earth (I attribute that to the traveling he had done). On the crawl I ended up meeting 4 nice girls, two German and two Brazilian. I was glad Francesco and I had paired up since everyone else was traveling with at least one other. Throughout the night we hit up 3 clubs and 2 discotecas. All had music louder than is healthy and people in all corners. Before long the German girls started to make fun of everyone’s dancing, but I’m proud (not sure if I should be) to say my only comment is that I danced like an American. Sorry to say I can’t help that as of yet. On the contrary one of the Brazilians, Tatiana, said that I danced like a Brazilian man and from then on I was no longer the American, but El Brazileno. After much dancing Francesco went off with a questionable girl, obviously to have some questionable fun, and I walked home the Brazilians who had to wake up in just a few hours. I’m now back at my dormitory style hostel where the Italian women are asleep and I’m starting my string of memoirs at 5 AM.