Day 1: Surviving Jet Lag

Suppose somebody offered you a million dollars a year to work for them. Suppose you knew they were the absolute scum of the Earth, and your job was related to the scummy things they did. Would you still do it? Adam would not, but every time he flies coach from the US to Europe, he wishes he could take that money. Such flights are generally red eye flights, and you arrive at your destination lucky to have found an hour's sleep somewhere on that endurance test of cheap and or bad food. When you arrive at your destination, it's about noon, and you must fight your heavy eyelids to stay awake long enough to put yourself on the new time zone's schedule. The best way I've found to do this is to keep moving.

We left the airport and made our way to our hostel in a relatively central area of Madrid. We were hoping to catch El Rastro, which is a giant flea market thing on Sunday mornings, but alas, we were too late. Instead, the hostel receptionist pointed us to an area nearby called La Latina, which he promised was "full of bars and restaurants". Boy, was he telling the truth.

La Latina and the other bits we wandered through remind Adam strongly of Paris. The narrow, gridless streets are full of sidewalk cafes, specialty food merchants, small clothing stores, booksellers, and the like. However, there is one huge difference, and that difference is the cost.  €5 can get you two beers that are about 12 oz, and a tapas portion of two pieces of bread with amazing ham and sliced tomatoes. To further illustrate this point, here's what we got with our first €15.

2 cafe con leches  (essentially 2 espresso shots with steamed milk)

2 12 oz beers

2 ham and tomato breads.

2 manchego cheese tapas

1 glass of white wine.

Try doing *that* stateside out at places. In between stuffing our faces, we wandered through streets surrounded by ornate buildings in a hodgepodge of different architectural styles. We also stopped by the city's main plaza, the Plaza Mayor, which was set up for a Christmas market. We will be back here later, and will cover it in more depth, but for now, we will say that Alecia's family will receive some traditional Spanish nativity scene figurines from either here or Barcelona. We also stopped in at the San Miguel Market, which is in a wrought iron and glass pavilion, and is full of places selling a variety of tapas, food, drinks, and souvenirs. We will also be coming back here, as we completely missed the stuffed olive stall because of the cheese and ham salespeople. At this point, we are going to try and find some dinner or a few more tapas nearby, and then finally go to sleep for the first time in about a day.