Grabbing the bull by the horns.

Although it has taken me, ahhh, a month to post (I swear I am not lazy just really busy), I recently had yet another amazing trip….this time visiting the land of bulls and sangria, Madrid! What was going to make this trip extra special was there was going to be a reunion from some friends from Seattle who were doing their own Euro-tour.

But before that reunion, I got to spend a night meeting some of Secil’s friends who were living in Madrid:

From left to right: a Belgian born Peruvian-Italian living in Madrid, an Argentinean living in Madrid, and a Belgian born Turkish girl living in Luxembourg. Not pictured is the dorky American.

We went out on Friday to enjoy some of that famous Spanish night life, and it did not disappoint. There were not many pictures taken, but needless to say it involved a lot of this:

Which might have been one of the best freakin drinks I have ever had. Oh, and during the course of this night we wondered into a bar that happened to be showing the NCAA tournament. For 2 whole minutes I was in heaven (as this was the only 2 minutes of the whole tournament I would watch), but I was definitely the only one enjoying it so I bit the bullet and suggested going somewhere else. But more tappas and sangria did much to alleviate my mood.

The next day Secil and I went out sight seeing on a beautiful day.





In a stunning turn of events, I doubled the number of museum/galleries that I have actually visited and gone inside from 2 all the way up to 4 by going to the Royal Palace and the Museo del Prado. Both were great and I felt like an official tourist learning about the history of the place I was visiting. Craziness.

However the one thing I truly wanted to find/see was the official symbol of Madrid:

Seriously, that is what it is…a bear in a strawberry tree. Is that even real? I did not know there were even such things strawberry trees. And really, the symbol of Madrid isn’t a bull or somebody passed out at 5 am from partying all night? Those two would have seemed much more appropriate.

Anyways, the Seattle crew arrived Saturday night and we went for a repeat of the whole “eat tappas, drink lots of sangria, and bar hop” thing, which I would highly recommend to anyone by the way. It was great to hang out with friends from back home and to see Bethany and Carl again….but it really nice for Secil to be introduced to some people from my ‘other’ life (as she said. Plus, we found a great Mexican place (see the connection) to enjoy Corona's and eat authentic Mexican food! In Spain!

On Sunday the whole team headed out to the bull fights. It was pretty amazing, definitely a huge draw (even though this was ‘semi pro’) as the season was just starting, and the fact that there were so many locals around gave it an authentic feel as opposed to being something just for tourists.

I had seen a bullfight before in Mexico, so it wasn’t too shocking for me and knowing a more of the history and tradition added something to the whole event. However, most of the action took place right in front of us and seeing the blood gushing from the bull with each breath was hard to look at. We ended up only staying for 2 of the 6 matches (one of the bulls did manage to take out a matador, if only for a few minutes), but I was glad to get a chance to take part in the event.

To commemorate the Seattle reunion, we went for a little taste of home and met at Starbucks for a muffin and café before heading out in our respective directions. It is hard to imagine that there is no Starbucks in Luxembourg or Belgium so this was quite a treat for me and a a good capper for the weekend.

So once again an amazing trip to an amazing city. Whatever shall I do for an encore? Check back again for further tales from my travels….cheers!