Madrid

Hola amigos!
I am just returning from an early night out in Madrid - early although we left at 1am and got back at 3 (the parties here are INCREDIBLE).

It´s been day 2 of my trip, and also my second day in Madrid. I got my room, and passed out as planned for a while. When I got up, I went to the internet cafe which also doubles as a lounge/cafe. While I was surfing the net, this group of people starting improvising on guitar and drums, and all of a sudden a gorgeous flamenco dancer started dancing for the next hour. That´s when I realized I actually was in Spain!!

That night, I met some amazing new people - mostly Americans, but I met a girl from BC who I am traveling to Barcelona with tomorrow on an overnight train. Everyone has great stories to tell, and I am getting so much advice on where to go I have added two more stops to my trip: Budapest and Innsbruck. It´s going to be a lot, but I want to see as much as possible.

Today I met one of my new roomies. Jen (also known as Genia) is from LA, more specifically from Santa Barbra. Her and I took a long walk on the east side of Madrid, and tomorrow I have to fit in the west side as well as Toledo, which looks fascinating judging by the pictures.

Finally, tonight we went to a bar with a bunch of people from my hostel. The men are indeed aggressive, but definitely not as bad as people keep telling me. THe highlight of the night was when there was a ´hot boys´contest, and the boys were forced to strip for deisgner Corona t-shirts. The winner? A super hot Canadian boy - I´d like to think that he won due to my cheering of ¨"Ca-na-da!" Too bad he´s from Quebec...

Future plans- the Spaniards celebrate the summer solstice with style (in Barcelona)!

P.S. Shout to Jamie - who actually saved my ass with the bag and the rainjacket. I owe you!!