What Meg and Mojo did next

Yesterday was a great day. We started with a rather good breakfast of croissant (anaemic donut for Meg, regrettably), hot chocolate and orange juice. All free courtesy of MAD hostel. Then we began our days activities by rambling around in the general direction of where we thought El Rastro street market was, but didn´t manage to find it. None of our maps were informative enough to resolve this, so we changed plans and walked towards Plaza Mayor. It is a beautiful square but not much more than that, so after taking lots of pictures we set off for Palacio Real.

Before going in we sat at a cafe for Meg to drink a cappuchino, and we observed some little details of people walking by and the tiny, fast birds that are all over Madrid. After chilling out for a while we went and took pictures of the Palace and the Cathedral opposite before going in. Most attractions have been a reasonable €3 or so with the student ISIC cards we´ve got, which is good for our budgets. Inside the palace was some amazing interior design, including a room where the walls were entirely decorated with painted porcelain pieces (try saying that 10 times with a mouth full of grapes).

After perusing the Palace we wandered toward the Puerta Del Sol. On the way through a park we bought some cold treats - for Meg, a decadent ice cream sandwich for €1, for me, a simple lime icepop for a miserly €0.30. We planned to get the metro to Sol, but the line was closed so we walked there. It´s not difficult to walk almost anywhere worth going in central Madrid, as long as you have a decent map. When we made it to Sol we were starving so we sat down at a cafe and bought spanish omelette (tortilla) sandwiches. Meg and I have trouble adhering to the Madridian routine of lunch at 3-4pm, dinner at 9pm or later. We have tended to indulge in lunch at noon, then again a bit later, a late siesta at around 6pm, then out to dinner.

Well that is just what we did after leaving the Puerta Del Sol. We had a little snooze to recuperate from our hard days walking. Meg had a shower and did her hair while I sat on the somewhat sunless sun terrace (it´s blinding there during the day) and read my book (Kafka, in anticipation of our visit to Prague). Then we planned out our night: Metro off for dinner at another of Madrid´s vegetarian restaurants, followed by a short Metro ride to Tribunal and drinks at some of the trendy bar venues there, leaving for bed at 1am latest. 1am is a very early night to native Madridians, but we didn´t want to eat into our time the next day.

Well we got confused and started the Metro ride to Tribunal rather than toward the restaurant. We realised and got off the Metro and back on to Sol where we could switch to the red line to Sevilla.... could, if that section of the line was in operation, which it wasn´t. Luckily Sol was only a short walk from Sevilla, so we ambled down the road and found the restaurant, Al Natural. Left alone with the menus entirely in Spanish for about 20 minutes was a little awkward, especially when the waitress finally came over and we asked if she spoke English: her face fell, and she gave us some menus in English which were out of date but would give us a better idea of what the dishes were. She translated some words for us and I decided on a spinach and mushroom pie, while Meg dared to try `seitan´, a meat alternative made from wheat, which was coated in breadcrumbs and fried. It was quite a nice meal but not as delicious as El Estragon the previous night.

After our meal we successfully Metroed to Tribunal where the bars are, however there was some trauma: a skanky witch with ugly white high heels on tumbled as the train stopped, stumbling back and essentially stamping down on my foot, on the top where it was uncovered. It hurt so much and today it is bruised from the impact. Oh well, I soldiered on, determined not to complain. Now came a slight low note: we had trouble finding the bar we wanted to go to, La Via Lactea. Meg navigated us down a street, glancing into each offshoot, but it was no use. Finally we strolled off course and I spotted someone singing on a stage a block or two away. We approached, and realised it was part of the gay pride celebrations that are prominently advertised throughout the city. We decided to stay and watch, and for a while we brimmed with enthusiasm as we watched the glamorous drag queens miming on the stage, confidently strutting around and performing with buckets of sauciness. We were watching it from behind the stage as it was so busy, but we still had a good view. The performers were all utter divas, dressed to the nines in corsets and hairpieces, and we were glad to have happened upon the show.

However, the fact remained that we had set out to find La Via Lactea, and we wanted to find it. We still had time, so we set off down another street and asked directions from a club hostess standing outside her place of employment. She and those with her seemed eager to help direct us, but their broken English and vague gesturing weren´t enough to get us back on track, and after more wandering we headed back to the street we had started on. We asked a trendy looking young girl and she obviously knew where it was. Her friend was quite good at speaking English and together they managed to point out where to go much more clearly. Sadly it was the opposite direction of where we had been searching. We found the street but still we couldn´t see the bar. We did pass a bar which I had expressed interest in visiting. It was called Tupperware, and described as being decorated with dolls and pictures of television actors, and playing 80s pop. This didn´t appeal to Meg at all, but exasperated with our long bouts of searching for her choice of bar, she suggested that we check out Tupperware so that the night wouldn´t have been in vain. We went in and it turned out to be a lot cooler than it sounded. It was a really funky hole in the wall, playing indie music rather than 80s, and the `dolls´ were actually vintage toys and gadgets, displayed behind the bar in cute plastic toy TVs. We each got a Corona and ventured upstairs where we were able to sit down. This bar was clearly no tourist trap, and unlike anywhere in our hometown of Oxford. It was very hip and independent, and everyone there was young and fashionable.

It was nice to be in a `real´bar rather than a tourist trap, but it meant that we couldn´t strike up conversation with anyone, as we don´t speak Spanish. So after that drink and chatting to each other we decided to have one last look for La Via Lactea. We tried the street parallel to where we were looking when we saw Tupperware. Halfway down the road, there it was, and we were excited to have found it. The guidebook had promised old soul and rock n roll music, which the bar delivered, though the patrons weren´t dressed up in a retro style as had been suggested. Meg ordered a Jack Daniels and coke, and I tried to order just a coke, but the woman started pouring some unknown spirit into my glass and I didn´t want to make a fuss, so I went with it (even though`it´made for a €6 price tag, humph!). We got good and tipsy from that, and again ha a nice time chatting and observing the locals.

One thing we have seen a lot of in Madrid is horny couples unashamed about public displays of affection, and there was one pair in the bar which really needed to get a room. We´ve also noticed that a lot of people smoke and there is no ban on indoor smoking like we have in the UK, so after we emerged we smelt of smoke, an unpleasant downside to going out. Another thing we have seen a lot of is what we call time-sensor lightswitches. They turn off the light off automatically after a few minutes, and that is just what happened to me while I was using the bathroom at La Via Lactea. Unfortunately, the switch was outside the door, so I was forced to make myself respectable in pitch black darkness, my forlorn wailings of "Meg!" having ellicited no response.

After this we went back to the hostel and went to sleep, and that was the end of that chapter. In summary our night out was really fun, we found an awesome outdoor concert by chance, and we each got to see our bar of choice and enjoyed both. Tomorrow we embark for Barcelona, so the stories of today will have to wait.

Mojo