Madrid: Winning

Despite the odds, we ultimately made it to Madrid, found Doug´s friend Patrick (free place to stay... what WHAT), saw the city, dominated the metro, HASHED, and partied like a Madridian/Madrite/Madrigal? Although seriously not in that order.
As you´ve learned, Megan and I tend to have a problem with following directions. However--our confidence was semi-large as we vacated the train station and successfully stored our bags. Pay afterwards? Ok great! (KEY NOTE: Always read directions. Which we did not. More to come on that later.)
Bags away, time to enjoy a walk around the city before heading towards La Latina where Patrick Fitzpatrick lives...yes, that´s a real name...he´s Irish. Heading towards the metro, following the signs (aka directions, score) we found ourselves suddenly in a very non-touristy section of Madrid. Good thing, right? Well, no. We still couldn´t locate the metro after literally following the signs. Directions fail. After a good while and attempting deplorable Spanish with some old lady, we located the metro and headed towards Plaza Mayor, getting of at the "Sol" metro stop. Yet again, though we followed the directions we were so disoriented that we literally couldn´t find the Plaza Mayor. Aka largest square in the city. 3 blocks away. Instead we found ourselves wandering up a semicrowded street full of sex shops and prostitutes and KFCs. Not exactly what we were looking for. The best part is that once we finally found the Plaza, we were so grumpy and hungry that we didn´t even enjoy it...Megan has been calling this the ¨horacrux mood,¨ which I love and which is soooo true. We get kind of snappy and frowny but it is amazing what food and water can resolve. Meat and cheese fixes EVERYTHING ;)
So that´s what we did! Manchengo and chorizo and cafe solo (espresso) in a smaller Plaza Santa Ana, as we were serenaded with guitars and accordians. I gave away all my coins to them, feeling like they deserved a tip. Yeah that´s the last time I´ll do that. REVIVED, we walked towards the Prado Museum and truly enjoyed A. walking around and seeing pieces of art by Goya (Black Paintings), Titian (The Cardinal), Velasquez, El Greco, and Fra Angelico (The Annunciation), and B. getting in for FREE. 6-8pm is the way to go, anyone who is headed to Madrid. On time and feeling super confident, we metro-ed back to the train station to grab our bags before heading to Patrick´s apartment.
Alright, this is when the whole "reading the directions" thing comes into play. We got to our locker, filled with all our worldly belongings, and found that we needed to have a "secret code" to open lucky locker #13. We don´t have a code. In trying to explain this to the guard, he looks at us and sign-languages with us that if you don´t put in money then the locker will automatically re-open after 30 seconds. WHAT?! Hyperventilation almost setting in, we desperately seek the security person and beg him to open the locker just so we can SEE if our backpacks are, in deed, still in there. Or if someone else had actually known what was going on and found the locker empty.....and put in their own stuff and secret code. Breathe, Mathilde, breathe. No worries: our stuff ended up being there and we recieved it after proving our identities but ALWAYS. READ. DIRECTIONS!
The rest of the night was the opposite of this potential disaster. We made it to La Latina (metro stop Puerta de Toledo), found the apartment, were set up in the living room with mattresses, and even had Pat´s roommate Armand take us to an ulimited tapas place where we literally ordered one of everything on the menu. Yes, please.
DAY 2-- walking around the city having a key to where we are staying and knowing how to get back there is truly a good feeling. So really no hiccups today. Mercado de San Miguel was a fantastic way to start off the day (after we woke at 1:30pm/13:30) where we ate some salmon croquetas and paella. I am a genius and had brought my secret stash of Louisiana Hot Sauce. It was love at first sight for the paella and hot sauce, and I am so proud to have introduced them. Después, we walked to the Catedral y Palacio, and past the Jardines until Horacrux Mood set it yet again. This was nothing that cafe solo couldn´t solve, so we fixed that little situation and did some kindle-emailing in the cafe of the Museo de Reina Sofia (we didn´t actually go in, realizing that tomorrow entrance would be free). Seriously though, the Kindle has been AMAZING. Even though it totally sucks up my battery life, I can check e-mails and Facebook and even write small things. For FREE. Kindle plus Mathilde equals True Love.
That night, I got my first taste of HASHING in Europe, and Megan got to On-On for the first time! Dude, when my home hashers were telling me that they´re a little more intense about the runs in Europe, they were NOT joking. Despite us asking Rat with a Snatch, Flat Bastard, Ginger Ninja, AND Wurtzel Gummage how intense the runs were and being advised that "Don´t worry, it´s a Friday this won´t be bad AT ALL"...we proceeded to run 9.9 kilometers after metro-ing up north (vaguely to where we got lost in the beginning of our trip) and literally sprinting the entire way. I was called a "true hasher" when I left Megan behind with another local named Sofia. I felt horrible but when, at one point, I found myself not seeing people in front of me OR behind me I knew I needed to speed up. Also, going back to a fully packed bar filled with nicely dressed Spaniards and shimmying past them red-faced, stanky, and sweaty was a new thing for me. Circle was great, we drank some Mahou cervezas and I sang them a hasher song sort of like "Take me out to the ballgame" which they totally loved :) I truly enjoyed hashing with these crazy Brits (mostly British, some Americans, few locals) and I can´t wait to hash again soon.
DAY 3--Again waking after noon, apparently we needed the sleep, we walked to the SuperMercado and picked up some more meat, cheese, and bread. Breakfast/Lunch of champions as we ate it on a bench. Ticket purchased to Sevilla for the following day, we finally made it to the Reina Sofia to see Picasso´s "Guernico," a stunning wall-sized portrayal of the slaughter/bombing of Spanish citizens by Franco. But honestly Megs and I aren´t into modern art so the rest of the museum was blaah. Cool? I just don´t get it.
Okay. So tonight we were going out to a party thrown by Patrick´s friend, Danny. Before going to his super-sweet apartment, we met a grounp of Pat´s friends who fortunately all spoke English (Marcus the Austrian, JT and Alison from UGA, Dennis from Netherlands, etc) and stopped at a "bar de viejos" aka Old Person Bar. In order to qualify, this means that the bar must have cheap beer, crappy food, and gambling machines. Love it. Danny´s apartment in the Writer´s Quarter had a great balcony and we played the oh-so-European game of...beer pong?! At one point I saw that people had stopped playing so I recuited teams in the entire party and had to teach a few other foreigners how to play. So comical. Post-house party I went to some dance club........techno style! Danced my heart away on the floor, on the stage, on the balcony, until finally heading back around 4/5am. Which would have been fine had I not set my alarm for 9am and slept through it, waking up 20 mintues before the train, frantically NOT finding my jacket (with my phone in the pocket...), getting to the train station to realize that we were at the WRONG STATION (ALWAYS READ THE TICKET YOU BUY) and must trek allll the way back towards Patrick´s house b/c that station was so close that we literally could have made the train.

All in all, great trip. Madrid was a crazy fun city with crazy fun people...and you can win as long as you follow the directions :)