Now that I understand the public transit system, the possibilities are endless.On Saturday night, Mariah and I took on the greatest challeng that the public transport system of Madrid has to offer; Nocturno Bus.
It is a super complicated mess of busses which only run on Friday and Saturday night to get the party people home. The charts condradict themselves, and are made to confound even the most sober person. As a personal test, Mariah and I got on the train from her house at 9:30 into the city, knowing fully well there was no way we were going to catch the last train home at 11:30.
Mariah found an ourtdoor churro cafe straight out of everyones' Spanish dreams. It was conveniantly hidden on a tiny, cobblestone, side-street, with soft glowing lights and a feeling that makes you want to start singing in Italian...except we're in Spain.
Since we had no pre-arranged plans, we decided to just walk around Madrid and enjoy the nightlife. We passed the giant Tio Pepe, and spent an hour or so sitting on the ground in Plaza Mayor listening to possibly hundreds of Spaniards singing one of the commonly known drinking songs. I think it may have been an engagement party, because one of the guys started stripping on the table, and from what I have heard, the engagement parties here go something like that.
We eventually planned to take the Nocturno bus from Montcloa (another part of the city, which is also botellon central) at 12:45 am.
Word of the Day:
Botellon [bow-tay-own] Noun/Verb- 1. A drinking party in the street or park. 2. The act of drinking in the street or park.
However, everything is in 24 hour time here, and we confused 0:45 for 1:45, and read the wrong chart for the wrong bus. After many more mistakes, we missed our correct bus. Lucky for us, there was another one...at 2:45. It was fine though, we walked around the city, watched someone drunkenly crash into a parked car, saw 2 guys dancing in the middle of the street, and listened to a couple girls throw up. I love Madrid!
We did eventually make it home around 4am, happy, and proud that we have found our way back all by ourselves. Oh, and did I mention that neither Mariah nor I had any money on our phones? So we had no way of contacting anyone if we actually did need help, and that did put a little bit of pressure on us to figure things out. We did though, and it was good.
Love,
Chloe
Fun!!!
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