Ibis Madrid Alcobendas - Open 23 Jun 2008

Rudi and Christiane arrived two days ago from Freiberg, Germany. Rudi worked with my dad and Christiane and he live in Germany, but they have a vacation house here in Mallorca. Rudi is really funny and nice - he loves to play tricks and he really makes me laugh. Christiane is very nice - they took me to the store to buy Pokemon cards on Saturday, which was great. Today, they took us out on their boat. We went super fast over the waves out of the harbor of ...

... usually eat lunch at about 1:30 the earliest). So we walked for about 20 minutes to no avail, so we turned around and made it back to Buffalo Grill to get some grub. So, my first meal in Spain - Barbecue Ribs - but it wasn't my fault! I truly wanted some Spanish food but we couldn't find any! In addition to the few phrases I learned while eating (that were necessary for survival), I quickly learned ...

Ok so what a day I had in Madrid yesterday. I started out first thing in the morning and was at the Royal Palace 5 minutes before it opened, not my intention it just happened to be like 2 blocks from my hostel, I thought it was alot farther. Ok so I headed into the Palace, I only had to pass one tour group and had the whole Palace to myself for almost an hour! The Palace ...

I decided to begin in Madrid, walk the city, spend some time in museums. The Plaza Mayor in Madrid is so great. The night life is wonderful, with all the activity, musicians, people walking around, looking for more places to go. The food, especially the pig, the jamon, the wine, the ...

... ride into the ring carrying spears and take up their positions. The torodors bait the bukk towards the horse. The bull sees the horse and decides it is a better target than the man with capes and charges it. The bull runs into the spear aimed between his shoulder blades and usually hits the horse. The horses wear armour now because too many used to be killed. They are also blindfolded. The horses exit on the third sounding of the horns and the ...

... poor turnout. Passed up some offers of coke, hash, pills from some entrepeneurs doing the rounds and kept drinking hoping it would make things better. Around 4am, being nicely sloshed, things were better, but we were out of cash, so we decided to head home. Problem 1 - the metro was closed for the night, so we couldn't get back to our station. Problem 2 - we couldn't remember the name or location of the hotel. Problem 3 ...

... out the few Euros, and headed towards the door. The Fab was outside, and suddenly said, "Oh! I feurgot to peh!" Hummm... "forgot" or...? The meeting was pretty good -- it did involve having two generous colleagues back home, Lorr and Daniel, join us via phone and Webex. Why "generous"? It was, after all, 5am back home. The Fab wasn't going to express any gratitude, but the head of the Business group recognized that this was "going beyond the call of duty" and ...

... another hostel, about 14 Euro cheaper than the one we were waiting for; however, I told Chad I was a bit hesitant. We decided to take it anyway because the woman was very nice, and it was in the heart of the area we wanted to be in. Unfortunately, my hesitation was correct. The nice woman would not leave us alone and I could only understand about 50% of what she was saying to me. Also, there was no A/C in this place which required us to leave the door open. Leaving the door open ...

I woke up early enough on Friday and after a leisurely breakfast while working, I checked out. I hobbled down the cobblestone walkways between the old buildings. Altho I was in the shade, I could look up, way up and see the baby blue sky and the warm air told me of the sunny day. The 15 minute bus ride went quick but I was floored when I stepped into the bus station. There was a line that stretched all the way back to Malaga, it seemed. I sighed and took my place in the back of ...

... the vast numbers of tourist sites and the subsequent masses of tourists! This has included many walks around my neighborhood (between Eixample and El Born, near Plaça Catalunya) and trying to experience Barcelona the way that people who live here do it! Needless to say, my pictures are mostly of tourist sights rather than the really cool local places I have been. Not that it is really important considering that the only people reading this are my friends and family!