Thanksgiving morning Mike and I met at the Schweinfurt Hauptbanhof and barely made it on the train (as usual). While waiting in Wurzburg for the train to Frankfurt, I got some KFC and Mike made us miss the train while getting his food...again! We still made it to the airport on time and were ready to meet up with Joe in Madrid. For some reason it took about an hour to find him and we didn't find him until we got on the Metro. We stayed in a real nice hotel called the Hotel Regina. Our sleeping arrangement wasn't ideal with me sleeping between the two of them on the same bed, but it's cheaper that way. We took a small tour that night and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Every HRC in the world serves an American-style Thanksgiving dinner on that day but at the Madrid location you had to make reservations for the turkey dinner in advance, so we had burgers which were still real good. We went to try and watch some Flamenco dancing but they wanted over 30 euro a piece, so we settled for cheese and sangria. This guy who had more product in his hair than Mike started doing this crazy fast tap dancing thing with his feet right behind Mike which was pretty funny.
These hanging dried pig legs were in many restaurants we visited.
There was a tapas tour going on the weekend we were there that had 78 places you could get a tapas (Spanish snack) and a cervasa for only 2.40 euro. It was a great deal so we planned out tourist route around the tapas bar locations. The first stop was down the street to Puerta del Sol. There were a few neat things there including the spot where all the roads in Spain originate.
There are bears in Madrid!
There were also these metal Christmas trees throughout the city.
There sure were a lot of characters both in Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor de Madrid. I couldn't believe they made the security guards wear these silly hats.
Stupid guy in ACUs.
Our favorite was "Fat Spiderman" who wanted us to fly to Ameeeerica!
Joe said something that upset Fat Spiderman.
More Plaza Mayor de Madrid.
We stumbled upon a the largest iron-built market called the Mercado de San Miguel which had glass walls and some neat things inside. The fellas had some baked goods and hot chocolate that was good but I went for the wine.
Mike spilled the hot chocolate on his white shirt and his metrosexualness went into catastrophic emergency mode. Club soda became a necessary accessory for him throughout the trip.
The roof of the market had bricks that I thought was unique.
They had fresh fish that many Europeans slap onto bread and eat as is. I don't see myself eating this anytime soon.
Cathedral de la Almudena.
Palace where I think the King of Spain lives.
There were plenty of parks and statues in Madrid.
Mike breaking into one of his random Asian martial arts routines and eating his homeland's chicken fried rice.
Street musicians
This is the most honest, and entrepreneurial bum I have ever seen.
Sunset over Madrid.
Madrid at night. The second night we were there they lit up all the Christmas decorations. The bear at night.
Gran Via (Main Street)
Palacio de Comunicaciones in the Plaza de Cibeles
Lights up the streets
Puerta de Alcalá
Metropolis building
This is when things got weird. There was this Hawaiian bar we wanted to check out with a bar/hotel across the street called "Me." On the second floor were these two gay guys that had fun prancing around in their underwear....and then with nothing on. The cops were watching too and did nothing about the indecent exposure. Between this and my experience in Barcelona, I don't know why Spain even has Policia.
Joe and I enjoying the volcano drink inside the Hawaiian bar. The poured dry ice in there somehow to make the smoking effect. Sorry the video is sideways.
More touring Madrid the next day.
We then hopped on the Metro to check out the bullfighting ring. They don't hold bullfights this time of year but the circus was in town.
The interview room where the bullfighters to post-fight interviews. They had pictures of bullfights and models of the arena in the room.
We walked around the back of the arena to see what was there and we saw this...
Parque del Retiro
Mike being Mike at the Monument to Alfonso XII
Yet another Hilo sighting!
Mike spilled more stuff on his shirt and busted out the club soda again. Only this time he sprayed the back of a lady's jacket that was sitting next to us. She didn't notice but I felt bad for the and had to avenge her like a gentleman.
The building across the street from our hotel
Sunset in front of our hotel.
I couldn't believe these "Smart" cars could park like this.
More of Mike's antics.
That night we went to a place called the Gin Club. We didn't have any luck with the ladies, probably because this place was next door.
I thought this restaurant across the street from our hotel was interesting.
Madrid is the third largest city in Europe (behind London and Berlin) and we still left a lot to explore for next time. The tapas tour we went on was easily the best part of the trip. It made things really cheap since we only had two regular meals the whole trip, one at the Hard Rock and one traditional Spanish dinner our last night. Oh Cruzcampo, the little genius beer responsible for the 21 tapas bars we went to.
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