Spain/Madrid!

10.3.12

I'm getting good at this, now that I have more than one day in between
sea and ports! :) haha. Still have to wait on pictures of all the blogs
though, sorry everyone!

Anyway, the point of this post was to let everyone know about my times
in Spain! The first day I honestly just walked around Cadiz, and
Danielle, Amy, Colleen, and I all stumbled upon a parade that apparently
only happens once a year! It seemed like it was a religious parade, but
we didn't get the name.

The second day was the day all of us went to Madrid! Dr. M has a friend
who lives there, his name is Michel. Well, Dr. M met him on HER voyage
back in the day when they sailed to Cuba. Michel then moved to Madrid
and has been there ever since!

So Michel and I had been e-mailing back and forth about making a visit,
who all I was traveling with, etc. But when we actually got to Madrid
around 6:00pm...I realized that I had absolutely no idea what he looked
like, and he didn't know what we looked like. I was wearing my SAS
hoodie, but other than that, I had hoped we would look enough like lost
Americans that he would realize who we were.

So we wait...and wait. I thought to myself how much it was a leap of
faith to not only be traveling to visit someone I had never met, but
also the girls for trusting me and Dr. M enough to go with me. I prayed
that we wouldn't be let down!

Well we waited about a half hour and we were going to just get a taxi to
his house (he said it was about 5 minutes away) but something told me to
wait a few more minutes. Which actually happened to pay off! The four
of us were standing by the taxis, and I happened to look down into the
train station through the window. That was when I saw someone walking
around with head phones, and as they turned around they pointed at me!
Bewildered, I pointed to myself, and the guy held his hand up. I didn't
understand, so I shook my head no, and put up 4 fingers, because there
were only 4 of us waiting haha. Well then he moved his arms and I was
the only one of us who made the connection that he was imitating the
rocking of a boat, so I burst out laughing and put my thumbs up!

The story gets even better, because we were supposed to be staying with
him, but he quickly tells us we are going to a hotel tonight instead.
You have to understand all of us were thinking that this was strange,
but sure. After we get to the hotel and put our stuff down, we went
back to the lobby where Michel was waiting for us. He then explained
his shower was broken and it was getting fixed in the morning. When we
had some free time later that night, we were saying that this was
ridiculous because we've been a night without a shower before, but it
was still a really nice gesture.

That night we went out to dinner with Michel, and a friend Raul (works
with Michel). I can't remember what Raul's friend's name was, but it
was a fun night. I didn't know if I would like Spanish food, so I was
pleasantly surprised when I liked everything I tasted. (Except for the
wine, I'm not a big fan of red wine). We had Spanish ham, cheese,
tortillas, and some sort of steak. It was an excellent meal!

Michel gave us his house key so that we could get into his apartment the
next morning, since he had to work. Well, we get there, and Michel
practically has a feast waiting for us! It was delicious! We had
chocolate cereal, Nutella, this really great cornish bread that I ended
up actually buying to take back to the ship, and all sorts of fruits!
Much better than any breakfast I've had on the ship!

Then that day we all decided to roam around Madrid. The only thing we
really did was we went up in this tower (I can't remember the name) and
the view was great! It was similar to the view in Portugal, except for
everything was closer. Aside from going up in the tower, we basically
just walked around, did a little shopping, visited a couple squares. It
was a nice day out, and it was nice to have a relaxing day in port.

For dinner, after Michel got off work, we went to a wine tasting place.
I liked the white wines better than the red, but I tried a little bit
of wine from a bottle that costs 300 Euros! We all then went to a Cuban
restaurant, so that we get both the taste of Spain and the taste of
Cuba. Again, I liked almost everything I tried, but there was vinegar
on my carrots or something and I couldn't eat them haha.

Michel had to go back to work that night, so me, Amy, Danielle, and
Colleen all went out to a Salsa Club with Raul and his friend Roberto.
Colleen was the only one out of us who knew how to salsa haha. She
attempted to teach me, Danielle, and Amy but I doubt I retained it lol.
Raul and Roberto weren't bad dancers either. The best part of the
night I think was when a song came on that the only way I can describe
it is by saying it's the Spanish Cha-Cha slide. It was fantastic, except
for we had no idea what we were doing!

Our last day in Madrid was short, and I felt so bad because Michel, who
had just worked all night, stayed up to show us a few of his favorite
spots in this really pretty park. We were relaxing on one of the park
benches, and he started to fall asleep! I felt really bad because he
totally should have just gone to sleep and kicked us out, but didn't.
We said our goodbyes early so that he could finally get some rest.

Madrid was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to meet one
of Dr. M's friends from her SAS voyage! Thanks again Michel, if you're
reading this, for letting us crash at your place and for everything you
showed us! I can speak for all of us when I say we had a great time!
Keep in touch!

SH