6th January

Surfing and Dublin

Today we got up for breakfast again to find ourselves in the middle of a power cut which was a pain as we wanted to check the internet for Couchsurfing messages! After 10mins or so it came back on and we were able to see that Alex, a guy we'd met and danced with at the salsa couch meeting was able to host us for a few days and had given us his number to call. After breakfast we went out to find a phone and eventually got through to him and got his address saying we'd be over in an hour or 2. We went back to the hostel and finished packing then made our way to the metro where thankfully it wasnt too busy and we were able to get on straight away to make our way over to Alex's. A 10 minute walk after the tube and we were there at a pleasant little flat in a quiet neighbourhood.. We got ourselves settled, our bed (a huge blow up double) was in the living room, and chatted with Alex for a while before sorting yet more stuff on the internet. A while later we had some dinner and discussed what we'd do for the evening, then we got ready to go out. Alex's room mate Jamie came in and introduced himself and we talked about our travels for a bit whilst waiting to go out (not until about 11.30!) and he offered to take us our to his club the next day where there is a nice restaurant, park and swimming pools. We agreed to this, a really nice offer, then went out with Alex where we got a taxi into the Bella Vista area, after walking a short distance we met up with several of Alex's friends who decided the night's venue would be an Irish Pub called Dublin's. We waited for a table and eventually were seated upstairs on the patio (very un-Irish) and after asking if we wanted beer 2 pitchers of a dark stout were ordered and shared out between 7 of us (just under a pint each). We spent the night talking and drinking and at after 4 in the morning it was time to pay up and go home. We were a little annoyed that the bill came to a lot more (3 x more) than we'd have liked to have paid as the beer they'd ordered was the most expensive on the menu whereas we'd have ordered the cheapest, but we paid and luckily Cristian was there again to give usa lift home. On the way we stopped off for completos...hotdogs before heading back to Alex's and having a cup of tea (sooo good!!) before going to sleep at about 5am.