Spit- a new Welcoming Ritual

 Normally, when you arrive to a new country, you get your lovely passport stamped, everyone looks at you a little funny but is relatively nice, you find your way to where you are supposed to be, and VOILA you slowly slip into the background and no one really notices. At least that is what happens in Madrid, because it is a huge city made up of random people from all over the place and overran by tourists. So really, you can easily slip in and begin your life as a Madrileña and no one will really say anything about it.

I mean look at all these people, you could easily fit right in.

 UNLESS you are ME, then you receive the warm welcome of a glob of spit in your hair by a drunken dirty beggar dressed in a homemade jean cape and ratty jeans. 

Google failed me and I refuse to get near this guy to take a photo- so this is BASICALLY exactly what he looks like. Now just imagine him SPITTING on you.

 Yes, that is right; my warm welcome was quite literally warm yet not as welcoming as I had hoped. What is even worse is getting it in your mouth! Poor Maureen, she was looking at me when I got spit on and she too enjoyed the warm salivate welcome - pow! right in the kisser. It’s one thing when you exchange saliva with a sexy European man, but it’s another when a dirty old man decides you should be bathed in his saliva. 

Ahhhhh, that's refreshing!!!

 I mean I’ve heard of spit as a welcoming ritual back in the days of Pangaea, but seriously I never read anything about this exciting new Spanish welcoming ritual! Oh man, sign me up!! Every time I see this guy, I just want to walk up to him and say, thank you, thank you sooo much for welcoming me to Spain, I can’t believe that you would be so kind as to spit on me! NOT. 

Yeah... I wasn't happy either.

 Who does this guy think he is? I mean I barley take a shower daily, let alone twice a day, and I definitely didn’t want a Spit Shower from a guy who doesn’t even remember what a shower looks like. Honestly I have never seen him asking for limosna, so perhaps he dresses up like this and is selectively a drunken dirty old man that enjoys spitting on young girls. Sounds like a dream job to me; maybe I should quit my studies and become a Welcoming Spit Girl for Spain.

The Grand Adventurers Ruby and Krista visit Madrid

How did I become a stop on the infamous Year of Ruby and Krista adventure!?!?

It all began when I received an email from my friend Madison’s best friend Ruby stating: 

     “I’m in Europe, you’re in Spain. Let’s randomly meet each other, because well, Madison thinks I’m awesome and said you’re awesome too.”

Well, más o menos.

Me, being me, replied:

                “I loooove strangers sleeping in my bed! Come right on over.”

Well, más o menos.

And thus our story begins.

Day 1: Let the adventure begin

Two strange exciting and outgoing adventurers arrived to a place they had never been, to find a person they had never met, with whom they were going to stay with for the weekend.

This is where the magic happens ;)

Strangers soon became acquaintances as we ate Spanish-y food at Plaza Mayor. We were going to eat where this hot guy invited us, but he was too expensive. So instead, we ate at the friendly round Spanish man’s terrace, where Krista still had a nice view of the hot boy. 

See, these strange girls look like "bring home to your mother" types ;)

Day 2: Tourists for the day

I woke up on the floor with two strange women sleeping in my bed. Then remembered that we’d met the day before, and them looking harmless, I invited them to stay over. Wait no, that isn’t right either… The girls slept in and went to Prado while I went to class.

Google Images FAIL

I met the girls after class at the Prado museum and we all wondered around until we found the MOST DELICIOUS EMPANADILLAS in Madrid. They were quite tasty.

Wish I had Krista's awesome photo... but this will do

We then illegally took an awesome picture of Guernica from Reina Sofía. 

Oh yeah, that's an awesome secret photo of Ruby and Guernica!!

Then we had Churros con Chocolate, because for some reason Spaniards and thus foreigners have a weird desire to eat disgusting fried sticks of dough and ruin perfectly good chocolate by dipping them in it!

Gross. Well the chocolate was good.

After this, we all wanted to throw up. So we went to my apartment where I made delicious decent pasta for the three of us and Henry. Krista was tired and stayed in for the night. :( Meanwhile, Ruby, Henry and I met up with some other students in my program! YAY fun. We went to a few bars, talked loudly and animatedly and had a good time. During this outing Ruby and I realized why we were both Madison’s friends and attempted to teleport her to Madrid because we missed her.

Good thing we tried with a cat first

Day 3: Adventure at the train station

Everything up until this point in the trip went fantastically well, but unfortunately the train station ticket machine ruined all the fun by not allowing Ruby and Krista to purchase their much desired Segovia tickets. (Machines may not have feelings, but they do inflict them upon us)

Now see, this nice gentleman wouldn't usually be so crude

So, what did we do? We went to Calle Montera (prostitute street) and sat in McDonald’s to use their WiFi. Sitting there for almost two hours discussing how sad and unfortunate the sex slave industry was, we decided to go the History of Ham museum in order to cheer ourselves up.

SHOW ME THE HAAAAAM!!!!

After this we were hungry but didn’t want any ham, so we took a short adventure back to our favorite Empanadilla shop and ate lunch. We sat there for over an hour chatting and then wondered into a weird shop that sold early 1990’s famous actors postcards. 

We were quite proud of ourselves for Re-Finding this place.

Unfortunately, this concluded our adventure. The girls are off exploring Europe and I am here, writing this blog for you, and reading Ruben Dario for class tomorrow.

Until next time,

Besos,

Raelynne