Hungover like a dog

Well the festivities of last night more or less wrote off this day completely, seeing first light courtesy of the Mad hostel's cleaning lady at around 2pm, and feeling substantially shady after passing 5 litres of 'Estralla Damm' through my system. Hot Damn!

Building and me in Madrid

Met up with our English buddy Nick and strolled down to the plaza for a Spanish breakfast of wine, bread, chicken salsa and paella, which hit the spot nicely. Rev, Nick and meself then roamed the city streets of inner Madrid, coming across a number of talented buskers and street performers, notably an old gringo and his buxom missus belting out some traditional hits on squeezebox and duel vocals. As romatic Spanish harmonies filtered through the city plazas, we took in the sights and breathed in the vibrant city culture. Booked tickets for the big Real Madrid versus Malaga soccer match on this coming Sunday, and attempted to pick them up this afternoon, though we were informed they'd need to be sent out to the hostel instead.

Chuckin the dev at the statue of satan

So with an afternoon to kill, what else to do but head down to the enormous downtown park the 'Retiro' to snap a photo with the controversial first monument dedicated to the dark Lord Satan. See photo of me flipping the rock moves afoot this statue above. In the cool breeze of the park and slowly building rain Rev and i covered the length of the park discussing the magnificence and enormity of life the world and why the hell we're here, the type of conversation that inevitably crops up when you're on the opposite side of the globe amid an eye opening life changing adventure. Returned back to the Mad hostel and cooked up a stir fry with Nick and Rev, chatting with the random hostel folk from multiple countries, a melting pot of excellent people from different cultures and alternate perspectives, some English ladies, Joy the Sth African, Liam the Brisbanite and Fausto the exuberant Brazilian. Chowed down the most nutritious meal i'd consumed in 10 days, hesitantly enjoyed another few cervezas then convoyed with the crew out for some kickass ice cream. Met up again with Nick's mate Zoelle, whom after last night's wasting woke up in a dishevilled state at 9am going around in circles on the central Madrid city loop train (see previous photos(.

Cockers

Cruised over to the sister 'Cat hostel' around the corner from the Mad and took a punt on a free concert organised by the hostels, a brilliant Spanish flamenco and jazz ensemble whose name escapes me, though there really were fantastic.

Despite the neuronal destrution we suffered upon waking on this fine morning, the festivities once again got the better of us as we tucked into a few more litres of chilled Spanish ale , psychologically treating each litre mug as 'one beer'. Got acquainted with two cool Canadians, Pam and her younger brother Phil, who were doing a pretty much identical trip around Europe as us, and they helpfully gave us the heads up on a cheap, plush hostel in the Greek island of Corfu called the 'Pink Palace', no doubt a lot safer than the 'Rising Cock' of Portugal. We hit it off big time with these Canucks, and together with our pommy brothers, the Commonwealth of drinking was borne.

Fear the mullet

As the flamenco crescendoed to a conclusion we fell out into the night and went to Nick's mates bar (also name Nick, the mate, not the bar( and threw down some additional Cervezas whilst spotting a number of sensational mullets, one so offensive that i had the audacity to snap a shot with it, as you'll see above also.

Back to the Mad hostel in a not dissimilar state to the previous evening, another fine evening in Madrid

Mud woman

Pints versus man beers

Rockin on

Shady spanish stoner

The Commonwealth

Two men....two man beers