Snowy and rainy Madrid

Hey Everyone, yep the damn winter weather mix followed me here to Madrid. I awoke to large snowflakes falling outside my window which has subsequently turned to rain drops at this afternoon hour. I had forgot to mention in yesterdays blog post that when I arrived at the hotel and opened my bag half of my stuff was wet! I just knew those Delta bastards would screw up my luggage...how the hell does it get wet I wonder...assholes. Anyway, I´ve become really good at the ghetto drying technique.

So last night I walked around the Gran Via and Chueca areas. I stopped and had some Asian food for dinner...I know not very Tapas but I was craving some noodles. Anyway, I´m not having the best time dining around here because of the cigarette smoke...it is absolutely insane how smoking is allowed in restaurants and bars! I´m frankly sick of it and I know Paris will likely be more of the same :(

Anyway, people were out up and down the streets and everything was pretty tame but that is likely because I was doing the scouting early in the evening. Madrid really doesn´t get its drink on until midnight or later...although it was Sunday so I suppose a coming work day may have had something to do with it. I didn´t last that long anyway before I was back in the hotel and preparing for bed. I figured a good nights rest was more important to get my body clock on European time. I had a day of shopping planned for today.

I did sleep well but there was a lot of street noise that somehow I managed to drone out and awake around 10 am. I cleaned up and jumped on the Metro for the ride into Salamanca for some shopping. The weather was wet and not the best day for roaming up and down the streets. I did pump more money than I should into the local economy before returning for warmth and comfort of the hotel. Breakfast was a coffee shop and lunch was a smoke filled restaurant with poorly cooked cod and potatos. I hope France has better food :)

Anyway, tomorrow I will be off early for the airport and taking my first Easy Jet flight. Basically, it is one of the low cost airlines in Europe. At this point, I hope that the weather does not follow me! No pictures can be uploaded yet... More from Paris. The pictures are of the Why Not bar in Madrid where I spent a couple hours one night as the only customer since no one really starts partying until midnight and I showed up at 10pm! I tried capturing the snow with the second picture near one of the round-abouts in Madrid. The third picture is the Plaza Mayor where there are numerous outside vendors and people just strolling along. The fourth picture is of the Plaza Puerto del Sol and the central area of Madrid...supposedly this is the origin of measurement for roads in Madrid. The last picture is of the train station as I searched in vain for the 11-M memorial.