Ole`!

Friday, March 31 - Turns out I had a slightly wrong idea of flamenco. I expected the ladies of Sevilla, with castanets and slicked hair and stuff... Flamenco is more of a gypsies folklore. What we got on Wednesday night for €26 a person was a couple of chairs around a tiny table, in the back room of the restaurant "Casa Patas" (about 6 blocks from Angela's), 3 singers, 2 guitar people, and 2 dancers, a guy and a girl.

At first the guy looked like he was on crack. There was some grace to the movements, but mostly it was a flailing of legs and arms, with lots of stomping. The singing was ok, but didn't manage to get to me. The first portion of the show was short, too, and I was almost disappointed. Many people left during the break, and we almost thought that was it. The performers didn't say anything like "we'll be right back, enjoy the break, drink and eat..." but I refused to believe it was that lousy. Some other tourists, as puzzled as we were, asked a waiter if there was more to come, and they were reassured that yes, there was.

The second part re-vindicated itself. The girl's performance and looks were weak compared to the guy, but the guy had a solo performance that finally showed all the training, passion, and control of that art. I walked out feeling inspired and invigorated. If I had to go again I'd probably look for another place, but at least I was left with an overall good impression of Flamenco :D

With so much energy, even though it was after midnight, we started walking the streets of downtown Madrid looking for some place to chill. After an hour of milling about, we ended up at a place we had tried to get into before, but was too full the first time to actually sit down and enjoy. It was still pretty busy that night, but we decided to stick around. 20 minutes later we appropriated a spot on the floor with cushions (the place is a "chill out" place, has sofas and cushions and a relax decor. They actually call it that in spanish. Chill out. lol) I had brought my camera in case they allowed pics at the flamenco show (they didn't) so we (Cris) got some funky shots.

The way home was fun, we were looking for the "Buho" (="owl"), the one bus that travels between Plaza Cibeles and Fuencarral after 12am. We reached the bus stop around 3:30am, but the next bus wasn't 'til 4am... and we needed a bathroom. Turns out Madrid is very well lit, especially around the few trees and bushes around. Remember the picture from the second blog entry, the random bathroom at the edge of a plaza? Well, I remembered it, too. Strangely Cibeles didn't have one. But we managed to make it to the next plaza and back on time. Now I have finally seen how they work ;) For 30 cents you get a door to swoosh open and swoosh close, revealing a well-lit but private pissing spot ;)

Let's see, wed and thu, what else happened? Earlier on Wed I woke up pretty late, trying to catch up on sleep. I was supposed to meet angela for lunch but didn't manage to make it. The daylight savings time change this Sun messed up the clocks around the house, and I didn't know what time it was anymore. :P Once I managed to get out of the house I did some more walking about. I had looked up that the Palacio Real was free on Wed for EU citizens, so I walked that way. I managed to do a whole photo essay of the place, so if you're interested, here's the whole palace, with descriptions. From there they had directions to the "Convento de la Encarnacion". Also free, I decided to duck inside. I happened there just at the beginning of the tour (no milling around on your own allowed) but I got bored after 2 rooms and the continued excuses from the tour guide that they didn't have anything famous of important in this convent, unlike the one of the "Descalzas Reales", which was more famous and more important... I made my escape after 20 mins. The one thing I got out of this place was one of the goriest sculptures of Jesus I've seen.

From there I walked back home the long way to meet up with everyone for dinner. Angela and Ariel ducked out of the fun again, so I took Cris to my latest and yummiest discovery: cerveceria100montaditos.es This place has 100 mini sandwiches, one euro each, with fresh, real european bread (if you haven't picked up on that by now, I love bread!) delight of delights! :D Angela showed me the place on Tue night, when we went up north to her old place, it's a chain, and luckily there was one right next to Plaza Mayor, which is within walking distance of here. I don't think Cris was as impressed as I was. But I was happy :) I could live on that daily :D After food it was the flamenco, and the rest of the fun for the night i already told u about.

Thu I tried to catch up on sleep some more (while my brave friends went to work), but since I had bailed on angela for lunch the day before, i sacrificed sleep just so i could meet her at 2pm. from there i figured i'd walk to some other spots of downtown madrid. i had heard of Plaza España and of an egyptian temple near it. so after a quick lunch with my bestest Madrid girlfriend, i trekked for half an hour through the back streets (noticing a couple of comic book stores along the way, closed then, but i made a note of where they are!) and did some more sight-seeing. I walked through Plaza España, to the temple of Debod, saw the Park of the West from there (a huge park right outside Madrid), then went all the way south to another church and then all the way east, passing by some more cool neighborhoods, La Latina and Lavapies, mostly immigrants there.

Since we'd all been sacrificing sleep, that evening was a quiet movies night at cris'. Zathura was the flick of choice.

Today I decided to give up on sight-seeing. I started getting a sore throat a couple of days ago, so i made use of the wonderful local pharmacies to get advice and ibuprofen, to fix things up a bit. here's to hoping it goes away!