Manana Manana

Once we finally got to Madrid (3 hour train ride) and found our hostel we were quite tired. Travel days are draining. So we decided we would have a chill night and just hang out. We found a quite resturant down by our hostel that had pretty cheap food and a gorgous fountain for a view. That makes for a wonderful dinner.

After, I stumbled upon a sort of liquidation store and found some thread. Me and stef have been talking about doing hairwraps for weeks now....finally we can do it. At the hostel we made some tea and Stef got to work. Hairwraps are popular in Europe...very chic indie...and our hostel was full of the dreds , half buzzed, no shower, piercing city crowd. So it only seemed fitting to do it there. Thank the Lord Stef remebered how to do it. They took awhile...but turned out great!

This was a nice hostel. We met a few people, nothing compared to Barcelona...while they were all friendly...we didnt quite fit in. We had a good sleep that night...comfy beds....o yes...comfy beds.
The next day we attended our traditional free walking tour. I was personally excited to hear of the history of Madrid...the capital of Spain...where Spanish culture as we know it began. We ended up with a great tour guide. Funny, spunky, yet to the point. She even encorparated some audience participation. This tour did not disappoint.

Spain has a long history of various empires conquering the vast land. Beginning with the Romans...of course...most of Europe has roots to Roma. Though, Madrid has an interesting twist. At one point, the Moors (Muslims), Jewish, and the Christians all had stakes in Madrid. However, there was quite awhile they all lived together peacefully. Historains believe this is the only time where this has actually happened. There is a picture where...there is a Star of David, the walls the Moors built and a Catholic Chruch. There is no other picture like it....one that I made sure to get. Hence, Spain is an eceltic culture where reminense of all still exist.

The kings that ruled the country are a story in and of itself. For six generations the Hausbergs ruled all of Spain. It was during this period in time Spain was a huge empire, the super power of the world. While most were strong rulers, they had a downfall. They all married their cousins. Come the sixth Hausberg to rule Spain, he was mentally and physically retarded. The people could not understand why?! So to cure Carlos the third of his issues, they would take animal carcesses and animal blood and soak him in it. Everything from pigeons to pigs. It never worked, he was unable to concieve a child, hence there fell the Hausberg empire.

We also got to see the oldest resturant still in business in the world. Its been open for 400 some years or something and has never been closed a day in its life. Ernest Hemingway used to go there quite often. There is even a guiness book of world records to prove it.
The Spainish Civil war was also bought up. It was a bloodly, brutal war. One were to this day 30, 000 bodies remain unnamed. Tis a touchy subject in Spain. One not brought up lightly. The Tapa story on the other hand is quite interesting. Tapas are famous through out Spain, however the exact story of how it came to be is unknown. Some theories are that the farmers where poor and would come into town on their break to relax. However, they only had enough money for wine or food. They always chose wine. Hence they were weak and drunk and producitivity declined. The King passed a rule that whenever wine is sold, food must come with it. Another version is that the people would put salty ham on top of their glass of beer to keep the flies away. And would eat it in the process. Another is the King at the time had stomach problems, and was always told to eat when he drank. There are countless other versions.

There are many more stories and interesting facts. More then you would probably find interesting. So I will end the tour there. That night we went out to the infamous pub crawl. By this point we are pub crawl experts. And we love them. However, there is a term we learnt in Spain called Manana Manana. Thats means... Tommorow Tommorow. Basically, whenever Spanish feel like getting around to it...they will. The Pub crawl was about the same situation. Says it starts at 10.....nope, 1030. When are we going to the next pub, we have been here awhile? Ummmm I'll let you know. Just whatever they want. It drives me nuts. I dont like that.

We went to a couple of OK bars, but nothing that great. Thankfully, we met a great guy from Texas, and he was a hoot. The guy danced his butt off and cheered us on with a couple " You go girls". Really nice guy. Also met a guy would was from the states, just finished his army tour and came all the way to Madrid to find his birth mother. Gave up everything for this, he was so exciting and nervous. Very inspirational. When we got to the last club the pub crawl organizer ditched. There was no one at the club and we didnt know how to get home. We took a cab, but usually they make sure you know how to get back. Overall, we still managed to have a wonderful time and pay for it the next day. But, by far the worst organized pub crawl we had been to yet.