Hola, amigos! So the time has come again for 'Jiz' to reunite for another travel adventure...not so long term this time, well actually just a short break to Spain, but as you know a lot can happen to us in just a couple of days! So here's the inside scoop!

After an early bed time we were woken by the beeping sound of a 4.45am alarm. Yes it was time to head off to the train station where we begin our journey to España! I'd been practicing the Spanish language and felt very prepared and confident in being able to talk to Spanish people ... well to talk to a waiter and order 'dos cervezas por favour!' I felt that would be the most useful phrase for this holiday ;).

It was that early that on our journey to the train station we were passing people that were still out clubbing! Drunken messes wandering the streets for a taxi...and I came to the realisation that that's usually me on a Friday or Saturday night...how embarrassing!

The train was absolutely freezing! It's 5-6am and cold outside...is there really any need for air conditioning?!? I had no warm clothes with me...well I was going to 32 degree weather I didn't think of the journey to the airport!! Liz was ok though...she had her scarf which turned into a 'blanket!!' Ha! It was so good to reach Victoria station...the train to gatwick was much warmer, although we were lucky to get the train at all as we were staring at the arrivals board for ages waiting for our train time to come up! Idiots!

Well the time flew by and it was time to board our luxury flight with 'Easy Jet' and before we knew it we touched down in Spain and were in 28 degree heat! Excellent! Being pro's at this travelling malarkey now getting the metro to our destination went pretty smoothly! We were pretty on the ball! What wasn't fun was trying to make sense of the directions on the hostels website...terrible! 'Walk towards the monumento building...' Sorry but I've never been to Madrid before so I have no idea what direction that is in. I went into apple and asked if he knew where the hostel was and he seemed pretty confident in telling me it was all the way to the end of a road, passed a fountain, then keep going straight until you come to the hostel on the right! Well it felt like we were walking forever so we asked again and turns out the hostel is a 5minute walk from where we bloody started! Great directions from that guy from apple!!

We eventually found the place, tucked away in one of the side streets. By this point I think we were so desperate for a drink we dumped the luggage in the room and went for some lunch in the restaurant downstairs! Well waiting for the drinks we felt like we were the inbetweeners when they're in the desert, luckily the hallucinations hadn't started yet... As soon as the drinks came they were gone in seconds...! We were hydrated again!

As it was quite late on in the afternoon we decided to just chill out and pre drink before the pub crawl...which didn't start until 11pm. It was going to be a loooong night.

We had booked a 10 bed dorm and I'm pretty sure we had been out in a 6bed boys only dorm as the only people who seemed to be checking in were boys. We had Michael the American who lived in Scotland, another Michael from Poland I think. And Eugene...can't remember where he was from, but I think it was South America. He left us a little note when he left early the following morning, with his what's app number and to not forget to squish and squeeze the tomatoes at the Tomatina. Although Liz seemed to think he was writing our names squiz and jeez! Not quite sure where she got that from haha.

We started having a discussion about the way you should sleep and Liz says that there's only one way you can sleep in a bed! There are apparently rules on which way you should sleep in your bed...she is adamant that this is true as apparently she said she had to turn her bed around as she felt like she was sleeping upside down! Mental!

So 11pm came and we hit the rooftop where everyone was waiting to leave...we got chatting to a few people and before we knew it we were off deep into the city of Madrid. And yes I mean a hell of a walk to the first bar!! It took at least 35minutes just to get to the place. We started dancing and having a good time and then all of a sudden we were taken to the next bar... This kept happening...I guess as soon as we started enjoying the new bar we were moved on which was annoying, but a good night all in all until we got to the 'club'. Which we had free entrance into...I don't think they could actually charge someone who wasn't on the pub crawl really...the place was DEAD. We had a little dance in there, as some of the tunes were pretty good, but then we decided to leave the pub crawl and head back. Now usually that's not a problem back home as we know our way back but I think we kinda forgot we were in Madrid and just started walking. It wasn't for about 15 minutes we actually stopped and realised we had absolutely no idea where we were. It was 4am and the streets were pretty busy. We asked a few people for help and two people pointed is in the right direction...but as we were walking down the road eventually leading to the hostel, we discovered that we were on the streets where all the prostitutes were hanging. I hope those guys didn't point us in that direction because that's what they thought we were...haha! It was creepy and actually one of the freakiest walks back from a night out!!! What's worse is you don't understand what people are yelling at you. It's creepy!

We eventually returned safely and hopped straight into bed hoping for a refreshing morning to explore Madrid! I did notice that we had a new lodger when we got back from the pub crawl...but he'd actually got into and fallen asleep on Liz's bed! Liz had to wake him...he was very apologetic but still...can't believe someone slept in her bed, it was like Miami again but a lot less creepy ha.

I can safely say it was not a fresh morning! Yes the hangover from hell had hit me and we had to go and meet downstairs to go on a walking tour of the city. 2 and a half hours of walking with a hangover!!! Not ideal...but we wanted to see the city so we had to man up and get on with it. Our tour guide, Patsy (as Elizabeth like to call her) was pretty mental but actually really Informative. We got to see a lot more of the city and it was a lot prettier than I thought. But my first impressions of seeing Madrid were streets full of prostitutes so anything is better than that. We saw the palace and were told stories about how rich families didn't used to have the luxury of having toilets in their houses so when their buckets of 'waste' were full they just used to empty out the window onto the street! How lovely? Imagine walking passed that house when the tipping process was happening! Not cool!

We sat for a little bit in a nice little garden listening to some interesting stories on the history of Spain when out of nowhere something hit my back...a bird had only just gone and s*** on me! How bloody delightful. Absolutely gutted!! Liz found it bloody hilarious though, as would anyone...but I was not amused, ha.

The cathedral we went to visit isn't the best looking building from the outside, apparently as it's opposite the palace they weren't allowed to make it look beautiful as nothing can upscale the palace! But the back of the cathedral is beautiful. Boys use it as a phrase on a night out apparently. If a girl looks good from behind but turns out to not have a very pretty face, Spanish boys call them Almudena, the name of the cathedral! Haha! Found that quite amusing.

The tour ended and we had worked up a big appetite. Just so happens we walked right passed a churro bar, chocolateria de la puerta del sol. Lunch was sorted!

We strolled back to the hotel for a little siesta...well deserved after a long walk in the heat. Liz started questioning me on how I stand in the shower...she's told me there's a rule to what direction you sleep but now I have to stand a certain way in the shower?? Haha. Apparently she was just curious because she said she'd experimented on standing in different directions when she was in the shower! I'm still baffled haha.

We had to try tapas while we were here in Madrid so as it is the last night here we ventured out and had some at a lovely restaurant 'Lateral'. We tried a few different dishes which were delicious...but the croquettes were by far the tastiest! Yummy! After food we were a bit lost about what to do for the rest of the evening. We spent over half our money on the first night so we are now officially on a budget! Pretty depressing really when a mojito would have gone down very nicely. So instead we took our own walking tour and wandered around the city looking for some sort of park or grass area...but Madrid doesn't seem to have much greenery at all! We did eventually come to the museum area of the city which had a bit if grass to chill out on as the sun was still shining. It was also a great place to people watch! We ended up sitting there gathering our thoughts for an hour or so haha!

Back to the hotel it was to pack up ready for the morning! We are now currently lazing in bed at 8.30pm. We are living the dream right now ha! Well we do have an early start in the morning...train to Valencia for us where we will meet our tour and prepare ourselves for the biggest tomato fight EVER! Sooo bloody excited! So that's it from me in Madrid! A beautiful city but I'm ready for Valencia now!

Adios for now amigos! Will update you all soon.

JL xxx