Madrid!!

So I finally made it!. After all the confusion regarding the visas and other stuff I am here finally. So anyway the flights were all good. Believe it or not I liked the food on emirates! I watched pink panther 2 and some episodes of Friends . The Madrid airport was nice. Nothing spectacular.The image is a sign at the airport

From the airport i took the metro to my friend/ host Pierres Place. I was super impressed by the Metro. Its rather cheap also. So I got myself a 10 trip metro ticket and found my way to the place very easily.

So Pierre was there at the metro station to receive me. He lives right in downtown. The metro station was just a five min walk to his place.Thats Pierre in the picture

His flat is great. He lives right in downtown .The pics that follow are the view from his balcony.

Thats the room where I am staying. super couch!!. it opens out into a bed. you will see in the following pics..

I got in by about 2 pm. Hung around for a while. Then by about 5 I took off on my own . I walked about 5 kms(I know diff to believe for those who know me) !! . So basically hit the main tourist attractions. I guess some plazas. Statues and the like. Every square somehow seemed to have a horseman.For those keenly interested. I visited the plaza of Spain , the Real Palace, The plaza Mayor , the Gran via and the Puerta del Sol. This is the plaza of Spain.

Something that really struck me about Madrid were the large amount of green open spaces in the center of the City. The egyptian temple donated a 2200 year old temple to the Spanish (!!) in 1968 . So they have placed it in the Center of the City and some pics follow.

The National palace is also called the Real Palace. It is the official residence of the Spanish king. Looks very impressive!!

This pic was taken in front of the Royal palace from another side.And ya as I said horsemen everywhere!!. I wonder why.

This pic is of Plaza Mayor. Apparently the most important square in the city. Lots of ppl around. I guess you cant see it in the pic.

Something that I though was very interesting was this thing you could lean on in most of the Metro stations!!. Quite comfortable I must say.

So I headed back home by about 8 . Pierre's friend Mark was over for dinner. Pierre cooked a great seafood Pasta and a nutella desert which was yum!!.. Dinner was great.

You could hear so much noise from the balcony at night!The view was also very pretty.

So after that we decided to go out. We went to ths place close by where you apparently get super gin and tonic. Pierre told me something interesting . Apparently gin and tonic originated in India. The British ppl who were here really liked it and it spread around . Anyway we were having a great time. We went out in a group of 5(Pierre + 2 Roommates, Mark and I). But the group got bigger and bigger. So many of Pierre and his roommates friends joined us. I guess at some point there were 15 of us!!. Anyway it was a super atmosphere. I had a great time. The pic below is with some of Pierres Roommate's friends. They had a nice grafitti board where you can scribble stuff. I guess you can see that in the background.

We finally got home by about 3. Believe me the streets were busier at 3 am than at 3 pm. So many ppl were out. All having a great time. Rather noisy tho. Pierre did up the couch and this was the end result. And yes it was as comfortable as it looks!!.

We woke rather late by about 10 .We had a quick bite for breakfast and went out to this super big park called retiro. The following are some pics taken there. That was one thing I really like about Madrid. The large green spaces.

After the park we headed back home. We met one of Pierre's friend Nerea for a drink . I had some peach juice which is apparently typical Spanish . Was decent. We had a great chat.

After this did not take many pictures in the day!. I guess I was rather busy!. Pierre took me to this Birthday bash of his friend. It was bout 40 kms from the city . In a sorta vacation home. Super music . Super DJ. LOTS of Alcohol. The food was greattttttttt. We had lots of traditional Spanish dishes. As I am signing off now we are waiting for the TV crew to get here. They are from the Spanish national TV. They are interviewing Pierre and me about how we got to know each other and stuff. Through couchsurfing. Oh ya do look it up. Just google couchsurfing. Something really good. Thats how I met Pierre. He first surfed back at Salem. And then here I am . Will keep ya posted.