We got up early and did what we do best, explore without knowing where we were going. We stumbled by Museo de jamon again and I got this carne empanada and Nate got a ham sandwich. We walked around a long time and started to notice how many people were drinking before noon at every restaurant. Lots of the restaurants have these buckets of beer you can order, but they’re mini beers, about 8 oz. and dirt cheap so it’s worth it. Pretty much every different type of beer we’ve had here has tasted the same, kinda like bud light but not really. But every beer is over 5% alcohol and bud light is closer to 3.5% which is nice.

The city of Madrid is kinda boring during the day we found out and there’s not a great deal of sights to see. There’s definitely some, just not anything that would take multiple days to explore. But at night the city takes new form. Everyone is out and about whether it’s locals or tourists and everyone is eating or drinking whether it’s churros and hot chocolate or sangria and tapas. Our roommate went on a pub crawl the night before and he went on a tour today but left us a note saying he wanted to take us to a good paella spot and then do the pub crawl with us that night because we were interested. He is a hilarious guy from Venezuela that kept apologizing for his broken English even though it was very good.

*Pop up note: We were warned that hardly anyone in Spain speaks English and they were right. Mine and Nate’s knowledge from high school Spanish actually helped even though we still struggled to communicate. We got by though and it was fun to actually speak sentences in a foreign language since our French, Italian, and German is beyond terrible.

We went to this small version of your local co-op and got a good sized portion of paella with bread and a beer for 10 euro and it was delicious! The first rice dish I’ve had on the whole trip. Then we went back to the room and digest before the pub crawl began at 23:00.

The pub crawl was 12 euro and the bars and clubs you go to differ every night. So we started at an Irish pub and everyone got a free tequila shot. There was about 15 of us ranging in ages from 21-30, a good mix. After we ordered a couple more shots for a euro each we went to this bar that was really fun. We walked in to American music (a common occurrence throughout Europe) and got free shots of caramel vodka (not good) and then sangria or white wine for one euro after that.

Then all of a sudden all the bartenders got on the bar and a Lenny Kravitz look alike got on a table with some drums and started beatin those drums and the bartenders did a dance then had a little dance contest. It was really bizarre but really fun. Then they had 8 people at the bar do the same dance contest on the bar. One of the girls from our group won and got a bottle of champagne. She shook and sprayed it like she just won the NBA finals. Then the bartenders got back on the bar with bottles of vodka and just started pouring free shots into everyone’s mouths. It was wild and this was just the second bar. The third bar was a hookah bar and more chill; another place that made strong gin and tonics. We met a guy that lives in Amsterdam that was adamant on us staying at his house and showing us around the city when we go and he gave me his number but it didn’t save right so we’ll just get a hostel like planned. Then it was time for the club. No free drinks at the club but we didn’t need em. We danced the night away and our hostel wasn’t a far walk. We made it back at 4:30 and felt terrible the next morning.

*Pop up note: people are shocked every time we tell them the bars and clubs in Seattle close at 1:30/2:00 and that we start going out to the bar and pre gaming at 20:30/21:00. That is dinner time here and 23:00/0:00 is time to start going out. That’s why the day time seems to be so dead. Unless you have somewhere to be or a job that starts early you stay out late.