First Taste of Ridiculous

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So Madrid was our first serious taste of heat.  The second day we were there, it hit 41 degrees celcius and walking around in a city that is full of cars, garbage and flat out heat isnt the greatest.  We  thought thaat Madrid was a pretty interesting place but it did not have loads of things to do, and that combined with the heat let´s just say made us indulge in the Spanish culture of nothingness.  We did go see one of the Palaces on the first day and it actually had a pretty solid display of medeival equipment.  So we enjoyed that, but as for sight seeing that may be as far as it went in regards to going in places.  The rest of it was done by just walking around outside.  The hostel was excellent.  The rooms were air conditioned and the massive common room which had a cheap bar and a massive flat screen tv was also ACed.  The staff was also really helpful and seemed to get to know the backpackers pretty well.  Another great part was the rooftop terrace.  Although it was hot, you were good for about 15 or 20 mintues of reading with the blue sky right above you.  It also had a bar up there but that never opened.

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We ended up meeting a fair amount of people at the Hostel.  We went out to a club the second night, and as it was with Pamplona, the clubs were extremely small and following suite, very hot.  We were going to go to the 7 story club but we figured the 15 euro cover was a bit much when the drinks inside were just as much.  We also managed to go to a bullfight one night, our last night.

I was quite excited for the bullfight as was everyone else.  Well what a disappointment.  Infact I probabaly wouldnt reccomend it to anyone else.  That being said it was very interesting to watch.  The actual bullfighters, Matradors I think they are called, were around 20-24 so all seats were just 6.50.  Well I bought them onlinen and it turns out when you hit ¨´Best available Tickets´you get the worst, literally.  And thanks to the Spainyards being soooo freaking stuborn, we had to stick to our area.  Not even in the completely empty area next to ours would they let us in.  Wierd.  But we got in and sat down and were all ready.  They horses and such got their parade in and the fight began with the first bull being released into the ring.  Well to start the Matrador stays behind the wall until aroudn 15 minutes into the fight.  The first 15 is Sub-Matrador like people with the cape thing and they tire the bull out a bit by getting them to chase them and then they jump the fence.  Then after a bit a heavily armored horse comes out with a rider who has a spear.  The rider then provokes the bull to hit the horse at wich time the rider stabs the bull quite hard, meanwhile the bull is just wresling the horse, who I think is fine in the end.  Then more people come on and stab more decorated spears in the bull and THEN the Matrador comes on to ´fight´ the bull.  Well the bull sometimes was almot dead so it proved quite easy for the guy to fight and then kill the bull.  So one may see how it wasnt much of a fight but more so an extremly odd way of using some of that beauty manliness. ARRRRR.

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Anyways the day we were leaving Madrid our train was sold out until 5 so we checked our bags and then ran into a guy from the Hostel we were just at and he was going the same way so we all headed off for a beer to pass time.  Well the best thing about Spain is that with a round of beers you get free tapas!!! Appetizers.  So we ended up getting a few rounds of great cheap beer and the best part is that you work up to better tapas.  So by the time we left we had been given so great beef stew dish which was amazing, especially when you force down the anchovy, tomato and bageutte tapa that you get first everywhere.  So that was a great end to Madrid since we never had to order lunch we just got free food!!   We then caught the train and headed to Barcalona!