día numero dos (oops)

so yesterday was a little crazy for me, so updating was a bit out of the question. i was quite stressed out and exhausted and overwhelmed and i may have shed way too many tears yesterday, but i'm feeling much better today.

my flight was gloriously uneventful and on the way to madrid, i watched glee and a film called a simple man which was pretty good and slept(ish) and the sun rose while i was on the plane which was beautiful and the perfect way to see spain for the first time. i landed and rey met me at the airport and we went to get breakfast and talked about footballers for way too long (but never long enough, never!) and i got my first tour of the metro (ahhhh) and then i got to my hostel. i kind of immediately fell asleep even though i promised myself that i wouldn't and slept for a couple of hours. then it all kind of sank in that i wasn't home, that i'm not going to be for several weeks, that this isn't a dream, that no matter what happens, i'm still here. and i got really freaked out and homesick in a way i couldn't even imagine and had a bit of a panic attack. but thankfully nikki was online and talked me down hahaha. and i talked to rey and sarah and felt better. rey and i arranged to meet for dinner at eight and after showering and getting dressed i felt more human.



she took me to la latina which actually isn't that far from here (!!!!) and we went to a couple of tapas bars, one that was basque and called txakoli and was AMAZING and they had this wine called chacolí which was just. lovely. the first one i got was some kind of chorizo wrapped in a thin bread on a slice of bread with a fried egg on it and the other was mushrooms with pork (again on a slice of bread). the other bar was almendro 13 (also the address) which is apparently one of the most famous tapas bars in all of madrid and again the tapas were yummyummy and i had a cerveza shandy and oh. my. god. delicious. i'm not a beer drinker by any stretch of the imagination but i could have had a pitcher of that stuff. the first tapa we got was slices of jamón on this amazing kind of flatbread and the other was fried potato with cheese and more pork and oh so good. then we left and went by la solea which is a flamenco bar that rey wanted to take me to but they weren't open yet. so we went and grabbed another glass of wine somewhere else while we waited and by the time we got back over there, they were open. we were one of the first little groups of people in and we got yet another glass of vino tinto and watched them set up and get comfortable. we were sitting right next to them on the bench along the wall. it took about an hour for everyone to get settled in and to really get going. more and more people kept showing up and a couple of them (that were friends of the flamenco singers as far as i could tell) came in and started up with the palmas (clapping), including a man who had sergio's nose and longlong dark hair and an old man dressed in a sailor captain's uniform (they kept calling him capitán) and another man who had an amazing voice. it was just impromptu and simple and wonderful. we stayed for quite awhile and i had to leave eventually because i was exhausted.

i slept until 11a and finally dragged myself out of bed and got a shower and walked around the neighborhood to try and get familiar with it. there's a festival going on in madrid this weekend (san isidoro) and so a lot of places are closed. i keep trying to find a place to get a pass to get a metro card for the month, but all of the tabaco shops i've gone to are either closed or i get a blank stare and a shake of the head when i ask for such a pass. so maybe i can get rey to help me find a place. :)

i'm trying to decide if i want to brave the metro to go to the bernabéu or if i wanna venture down to la latina and see if there is anything going on involving the festival. i haven't taken any pictures yet, but when i go back out, i will. it's 1.35p right now and it's lovely outside and it's starting to slowly sink in that i'm here. (slowly.) i love you all. more soon.

<3