Mediodia Madrid

... I am an American who can barely talk in their presence enough to fight back, but when I get there, I realize they have a much kinder motive. The hospital at 9pm is, understandably, deserted. This means I get my own personal team of assistants.. a secretary, 2 nurses, a radiotechnician and a doctor. One of the nurses has clearly been assigned to be my communication liason, apparently for her skill with hand motions. They obviously either think I speak no Spanish or am ...

... bottle with water from her water cooler. She didn´t seem too impressed with the Australian boy walking into her store and stealing her cold water. That night i organised my stuff for San Sebastian where I met Lucie and Lizzy (from Brisbane) who were also going to San Sebastian and were going to be on the same train as me. So we booked a hostel together. The train was at 8 the next morning so i packed my stuff and set my alarm and that was Madrid.

... price for what it costs them but who's quibbling. No photos today because I shot into the centre of Madrid on the Metro (I'm getting pretty good at them now) looking for an ipod selling shop. Not a single place could I find. Thousands of bars and restaurants, hundreds of fashion and souvenir shops, dozens of parks and plazas, some churches but not one electronics place which will sell me an ipod. When I got back I googled "ipods in Madrid" and eventually got a couple of ...

... system that was...€8 per mojito!!!!!!!!!!!! Cue deep breathing from the girls as we paid our €16. They were very nice and much needed mojitos but whew, at such a high price. And the shock didn't finish there...€5 per pint at the Irish pub...and in a traditional Spanish way we decided to order some snackettes to eat whilst drinking...chips and ketchup! Or should that be patatas fritas y ketchupas??? By the time the football finished; 1-0 to Aston Villa if you're ...

... y, por si no estábamos cansados aún, además invistieron Doctor Honoris Causa a un Profesor Emérito de Cambridge, un ingeniero arquitecto que soltó una charla sobre la construcción de catedrales, templos y demás edificios antiguos. Duró más de dos horas, y, al final, fue un poco tostón. Pero bueno, sobrevivimos, y, lo más importante, nos disfrazamos por un día y estuvo bien. Luego se sirvió un "vino español" bajo una carpa en los jardines del Rectorado.

... entering the main gates, we wandered through a Baroquish kind of garden, where the trees were coiffed into the most geometric of shapes, and couples walked hand in hand along the white gravel paths, women clad in high heels and dressed to the nines. I was self-conscious about my birkenstocks for all of 10 seconds, at which point I was thankful my feet were not being mutilated in some crazy two-inch heel. We were quite pleased with ourselves when we ...

... 600 y 1.000 Bahts; otro ejemplo: una habitacion en la que pago 200 Bahts en temporada baja, se paga 800 en temporada alta. El alquiler de una bicicleta por 24 h. es de + - 80 Bahts y el de una buena moto, tambien por 24 h. es de unos 200 Bahts. El precio de la comida es tambien muy variable segun vayas... si comes en los "chiringos" de la calle (en los mismos que comen ellos, los Tais) no gastas mas de 100 Bahts/persona, bebida (agua o ...

We arrived at Barajas Madrid airport at 6:30 am. We were tired and half asleep, but jubilant. We waited in the shortest Customs queue for EU residents and were out of the terminal with our luggage in no time.


Things I noticed right off is that were that there were small squares drawn on a corner of the floor for smokers...you have to smoke within that square. Made me realize how smokers are treated in Europe : confined to a far away ...

... of his bare bottom later. The chateau reps reckon it was the craziest night they have ever had there, it went off. There were three contiki groups there, and a whole lot of snogging and bonking went on, although I can´t see the attraction of hooking up with a guy in tights a skirt and makeup... Anyway. We wore wife beaters, baggy cut off jeans, our boxers pulled up and out the top and pluggers with backwards caps. I reckon i make a pretty hot ...