Madrid

Madrid was a city we did not intend on going to at first, although we decided to have a stopover to break up the 15 hour train journey from Barcelona to Portugal.  Lucky we did get to stay in Madrid - otherwise we would have totally missed out on being lucky enough to celebrate with the rest of Madrid and Spain on their World Cup win against The Netherlands.

We began our first few days in Madrid slowly, as David was sick and I was busy caring for him in our Hotel room.  We were then surprised to find out friend's of David's from University - Roxanne & Grant were in town as well, so we spent time with them - watching the World Cup finals - David finding a friend (a man who accosted David and soon wanted to spend most of the evening hugging him and touching his neck, it was quite funny.  Just picture this - the biggest bogan - drinking white wine out of a flute glass, caressing David's neck and yelling into his ear in Spanish and the word "España" every fourteen seconds).  Luckily for David, Spain won and his new friend went off to find his friends.

From here we continued to drink copious amounts of alcohol and then went home, wasted the next day and then went walking around the city - around to the Temple of Debod; Royal Palace; and parklands and then returning in the evening to meet Roxanne & Grant for more sangria, tapas and shisha.  Another random outing.

More tapas and sangria was consumed the next day - we did some gift shopping and I brought some perfume as I was sick of smelling like sweat all the time - deodorant just doesn't cut it sometimes! (it's just 30+ temperatures, roll-on deodorant, I end up smelling worse than when I put the roll-on on).

The day before the World Cup Finals - it was just magical - seas of red and yellow (a bit different from Bangkok as they were seas of excitement and happiness).  The city was covered in flags, people, vuvuzela's (which gave me a constant migraine), people dancing, singing, you name it - the city had it).

The day of the Finals came and people where out early - again - seas of red and yellow.  The square was full of people, so we decided to head to a bar, where we could see the T.V. screen and not be killed just in case Spain lost.  We got there a bit late so we got the better of the "crap" tables, but we were able to see. 

It was so fantastic to be amongst all the Spanish fans - just so exciting to be apart of it!  The bar was fun - we had jugs of sangria (again, seems repetitive, but it's yummy - most of the time); some more tapas and enjoyed the game.  It was awesome that Spain won.  The streets were mayhem - fireworks going off at every street corner, crowds chanting, people dancing, boys chasing one another - again you name it, it was going on).

No sleep for us as the party went on all night and all morning, we ended up getting some sleep and waking up at 4pm the following day.  The city was still crazy - music and parades going on throughout the city.  We ventured out down the street and then waited around for the grand parade of the Spainish champions to hit the streets and thank their fans.  Again, we were lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time and were able to catch a glimpse of the sporting champions.

Our last day in Madrid, we spent 5 (five) hours at the Prado Museum and lounging in the Jardin Botanical Gardens before heading back to the hotel to collect our bags and depart for Lisbon.