First days in Spain

HELLO España!

So I woke up from a rocky sleep in my too-many-person dorm. When there's so many people in a room, literally there is ALWAYS someone awake making some kind of ridiculous noise.

Opening bags, lockers, doors. Dropping something. Snoring. Coughing. Sniffling. Always.

Everyone I met either last night or this morning left today. Which was kinda sad, but fine.

It really wasn't a priority of mine, because I already had a friend here in Madrid.

Meet Manuel:

I know Manuel through my friend Jesus. No, not the one from the story books, one I went to high school with.

Manuel and his friend Cheo walked me around the city for the better part of the afternoon. The weather was perfect. And the sweetest part, Manuel carried my bag for me the entire time. Such a gentleman.

After they left, I wandered around until I got lost. I found myself almost leaving the city. What I didn't realize was how close I was to the river.

I found a place that overlooked the Sierra mountains. I found a stairway to heaven.

I got back to the hostel before sundown. Went out for a smoke after dinner, where I met my friend Mamba. Mamba is an egyptian construction engineer, and very fun to talk with. I asked him to watch the soccer game with me so I wasn't alone in the hostel bar.

Before the game I went to my room and saw a girl in bed. I asked her if she was ok, which got us talking of course, and I offered her to watch the game with us. She came down, introduced herself: Vicky, and the rest was history. We became 3 Amigos. We talked, joked, drank, cheered, and played beer pong before going out on the pub crawl… which again, was not worth it.

Fast-forward to 4AM, Mamba and I are still awake eating Doritos and olives talking about life tings.

I woke up after breakfast, unfortunately, but then met up with my lil hostel crew to grab breakfast and eat in the one of the beautiful plazas. We got fruit at the market, including raspberries, which Vicky had never eaten before. And we sat in the cobble stone courtyard and chatted.

I had plans with Manuel for the day, so I left them at the station to meet Manuel for our day at the river. Which looked a lot more like a creek, really.

The weather was too perfect. The music was amazing. The company more so. I told Manuel I wanted to go on a swing, so he took me to a park. The most incredible park playground I've ever been to.

Again, he and Cheo dropped me off after our day adventure. I wandered. And made it back before sundown. Dinner was free tonight. Vicki read my numerology. It was almost scarily accurate.

Tomorrow I see Manuel again. Vicky leaves. Mamba stays. And I catch the feels for Madrid.

AML