In Spain it rains mainly on the plains, mountains, coast, cities, and everywhere this time of year. I arrived in the dark and took the metro from the train station to within two blocks of my hostel. The metro system here is fantastic with about 191 stops and about 11 different lines. The hostel is the high-tech MAD Hostel with wristbands that operate the doors and lockers in the rooms. The beds are too small and close together, but they have free breakfast and wi-fi. At $20 USD/night, who can complain?
One of my roomates, Phillip from Ireland, was mugged just outside the door of the hostel last night. He was walking along about 1 am, enjoying a good beer buzz and particularly tasty and messy kebob, when someone grabbed him in a choke hold from behind. He woke up laying on the cobblestone one camera lighter. Listening to Phillip, it sounded as if his seeing the kebob laying in the street with its juicy goodness violated was what most bothered him. Fortunately, they must have been in a hurry, they left him with his wallet. All humor aside, he was shaken by the experience and it was an unpleasant warning to the rest of us to be careful in the dark and narrow streets.
My other roomate, Jake, a 18-year-old Austrailian is a refreshing change from others I have met. He is very young and naive about the world, yet he ventured out on his own to see it for himself, which is unusual for the pack-mentality that is normal for Austrailians. He also broke one of our stereotypes that we had of Aussies--he didn't like to drink. Luckily, there were plenty of his fellow countymen around to uphold their reputation. And they worked very hard at it.
I went out to get some good Spanish food with Jake, Adrian (Seattle), Sarah (American Peace Corp worker) and against my protestations ended up at a Lebanese restaurant. It was cheap and we got what we paid for. Although, I must say that the sangria was absolutely delicious. The interesting part was watching them smoke a sheesha (spelling?) They are big water pipes in which they smoke flavored herbs mixed with a small amount of tobacco. I tried a little just to experience it and was not overly impressed. The smoke was completely cool and tasted minty instead of like tobacco. I just don't see the attraction other than that people like to look cool sitting around sucking on the things and blowing smoke. After a while it made me feel a little sick. It might have been the food too.
At this point, I have not seen anything beyond a few blocks of the hostel.
