To start the day: We woke up around 4:15am, with plans to leave at 4:45am to walk to the train station (no Ubers, and it seemed risky to try and rely on us getting a taxi). As we left, Benton realized that there were only 2 of 3 keys left in the bin. We decided it wasn’t worth missing a train to look for a key (we could just pay the fine), and we left to walk the 35 minutes to the train station (arriving as the train was pulling in).
The train to Madrid was about 5 hours, and everyone, except for Allan, slept. There was a dog barking occasionally, which was a little annoying, but otherwise the ride was uneventful.
When we arrived in Madrid, we dropped of our stuff at the Airbnb (we stayed in Chueca), and then grabbed a ton of pastries from Tila Bakes.
Allan (as he didn’t sleep on the train), went to bed after pastries, while the rest headed out to explore. David tried to buy one pack of cigarettes from a convenience store, but one pack wasn’t expensive enough to hit the limit for using a credit card, so he panicked and bought 2 packs of cigarettes instead 🤡. Elizabeth and Yilinn shopped (Yilinn got a jacket and Elizabeth got snake pants; overall a good time), while David and Benton walked around Royal Palace of Madrid and all over Madrid. We then met up for Thai food at lunch (Allan woke up and joined).
Benton and Allan had to work, while everyone else had the day off, but for the most part not much happened in the afternoon (Yilinn + Elizabeth watched a Spanish game show on TV, and David napped).
For dinner, everyone but Benton went to a Tapas bar:
Tapas: Zero tapas were ordered (somehow got lost in translation); 3 mains were ordered instead
Bar: Elizabeth asked to order a cocktail and got told “no” (in more words than one in Spanish 🤷)
Allan and David split a bottle of wine.
After, we (Benton included) went bar hopping (a cocktail bar, a tacos/tiki 🏳️🌈 bar, and then a beer hall 🍺). At the beer hall, Benton and Elizabeth got IPAs with “cannabis aromas”; this turned out to be an accurate description (0/10 would not order again).
Finally, we came back and played Tractor (+candy whip) till 4am (nearly 24 hours after we got up to catch a train).
