Shake, shake, shake. Shake, shake, shake. Shake your booty!

I was going to post a photo of ham(s), as the search for the next culinary delight pretty much sums up our trip to Madrid, but this seemed too good not to use. This was taken on the city's metro and wasn't intended as an invitation to boogie, but I couldn't help hearing KC and the Sunshine Band's song 'Shake your booty' when looking at it.
...Go on, reef through your old CD collection - you know you want to. ;o)

So. Madrid. Not suprisingly, they had uncharacteristic spells of rain during our visit. I know - it, like, NEVER rains whenever we go on holiday...But we had heaps of fun nonetheless and some great experiences. Here's a quick run-down:

• Day 1 (Thursday): Arrived around lunchtime. Went to a swanky little bar for tapas and beer. Went to another, less-swanky-but-still-cool bar for a second round of tapas and beer. Afterwards, went to the house of a friend of B's (Monica) who had very kindly lent us her place from Thursday to Sunday. We dumped our stuff and headed out for a quick tour of a small part of the city before meeting up with Monica for dinner.

• Day 2 (Friday): B had a haircut while I explored Goya, getting lost but still still managing to find an English-speaking bookstore where I bought a map and a phrasebook. Met up with B, had a long walk through the Parque del Buen Retiro, the city-centre and a few other places, eventually ending up in a great bar for drinks and dinner with some more friends of B's.

• Day 3 (Saturday): Woke up with something resembling a hangover, got ready and headed to the train station to meet Enrique and Adrienne (yep, you guessed it - friends of B's) for the trip to Segovia for Titirimundi. Predictably enough, it rained the entire day and the outdoor performances were cancelled but we still had heaps of fun exploring the city, stopping for lunch to have cochinillo (roast suckling pig) along with two bottles of wine from the Ribera del Duero region (which, along with Rioja, is one of the most famous Spanish wine regions), followed by 'pacharan' (sloe-flavoured liqueur) in another bar. We spent the afternoon walking, if a little unsteadily, through the rest of the city before heading home in the evening to visit B's apartment to view the rain damage.

• Day 4 (Sunday): The sun finally came out so we spent the day exploring the city, having some great food along the way (quelle surprise!) before heading to another friend of B's to stay the night (which was closer to the airport. You'll see why that was so important below).

• Day 5 (Monday): Got up at 6.15am (see now?), headed straight to the airport where we ran into 200 of B's ex-workmates from CocaCola, and arrived home around midday.

Phew!

Life since then has returned to normal - the sun is out and all is well - and I've resolved to work on my CV and look for work in earnest this week. No more excuses of being on holiday! I still have quite a bit to write about, though, so expect some more posts in the coming days.