Madrid Day 1: Larry Stays Awake for 28 Hours

So, the much anticipated 34th birthday trip to Spain was last week. We missed you Shim, Shim.

The trip begins on a Thursday. Well, technically, it begins on a Wednesday because that's when you begin flying if you want to end up in Madrid by Thursday morning. I meet up with the lovely Princess D in Philly, and we hop the USScare flight to Madrid. Things that are nice about being in your thirties? You don't feel like you MUST sit together on a plane. You recognize that you don't have 8 hours of conversation in you and you're both better off getting window seats so that you can lean and sleep instead of cramming one of you into a middle seat just so that you can be connected at the hip.

Dee and I arrive in Madrid around 10am and promptly catch a cab to our hotel. Which is this one. Which, more importantly, IS DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE SCIENTOLOGY CENTER OF MADRID. I kid you not. It's amazing. I can't even begin to tell you how amazing it is. I feel warm and light-hearted knowing how close I am to the chosen. And by chosen I mean Tom Cruise and John Travolta.




We meet up with Lis, who has already been in Madrid for a day and checked in. As rooms are switched around, the three of us head out for wine and tapas in whichever Puerta Del ... is closest to us. It's a beautiful afternoon and a perfect way to chill out as we first arrive. Or, as the Spaniards say...perfecto. I like any culture where red wine begins at 11am. Heck, in this culture, red wine time is really any time.




After lunch, Dee is ready to nap. Lis and I decide to take a walk in whichever parque is closer (and if you want the name, you'll need to ask Lis). We stroll, we listen to the language, we look at flowers, we take some pictures for Lis's new man, we talk about boys and why they are confusing.




We enjoy some sculpture that I did not love so much, but later Larry Halff explained to my why I must love it because it's so artistically relevant. And that is why I love Larry Halff. Perhaps you will enjoy the culturally and artistically relevant sculpture in photographs, many of which were by Princess D.




Then Halff texts. His flight was delayed. He's been up for the better part of a day, but he just needs to shower and then he's ready to go. Lis and I visit him, at his hotel, which is this, which is much nicer than our hotel and has a better concierge, but we are not Halffs.



Lis and I, however, are not ready to roll and need siestas. So, thinking that Larry will nap as well since he has been up FOREVER, we touch base, make a dinner reservation at a small place recommended by the concierge and depart for naps.

Siestas, really.

Siestas are nice.

I REALLY like my room. Here's the view from the balcony.



I also have the only functional laptop at chez Vincci Soho. This means that each night before dinner, Jocelyn's Internet Cafe opens up because Princess D and Lis both have boyfriends. This may sound annoying to you. Two women invade your hotel room while you're waking up from your siesta and getting ready and take over your laptop so that they can coo and ooh and aaah about their boyfriends while you TOTALLY CELEBRATE YOUR SINGLENESS by texting some crush you have in Canada and sneaking things from the mini bar. But I'm going to tell you that Jocelyn's Internet Cafe was one of my nightly favorite things that happened because we all got to bond and talk and share secrets and be girls together. It was wonderful.

And then we go to dinner. And I wish that I could remember the name of the place where we went to dinner, but the important thing that you need to remember is that we were very near the Scientology Center of Madrid.

We sit down at our dinner table.

Dinner progresses.

About halfway through dinner I look up. I believe that I am hallucinating, so I look away. Then I look up again. And I am forced to say to my lovely companions, "Do you realize that we're dining under a signed photograph of Tom Cruise, circa Top Gun?"

Oh my gosh. If ever there was an omen that a trip would be wonderful, it must be sitting down to dinner on your first night on a trip and seeing Tom's shinning visage above you. It must be.



Dinner begins, by the way, aside from the food and the food served before the food and the extra half bottle of wine given to us by the Peruvians sitting next to us, with some local sherry that's very popular. Or, as we liked to call it, Spanish Moonshine. Or when we were really drunk, as we called it, Spanish Hooch.

Please to remember that Larry has now been awake for 28 hours. And the bottle is placed in front of us, and nobody wants to turn it down because ... well ... SPAIN! So we drink it. And it is wonderful. And as the trip progresses, you will see us drink more of it. And more of it. And more of it...



Dinner is really, really, really good. Wine is good. The extra wine from the Peruvians is good. It's all good.



Finally, after dinner, we deposit Larry back at his hotel so that he can sleep. SLEEP, man, SLEEP. And Lis, Princess D and I go off to wander around.

Remember the chocolate churro place I mentioned here?

We accidentally stumble upon it.

I mean it. It was purely, purely accidental.

And even though we felt just the tiniest bit guilty about getting chocolate churros at 1am without Larry, we did it anyway. And...oh my.

Here is where the night one error happens. If you read your guide books, you are warned that in Madrid, the pour is big if you order liquor. I order an amaretto to go with my chocolate churros. And the bottle comes out. And it is poured.

And continued to be poured.

And poured until the glass is full.

And the evening is perfect and we end it with chocolate and sweet liquor and girl talk and then peaceful sleep in our lovely hotel with the loving eyes of the cult of scientology watching over us.




It is only the next day when the mistake of the amaretto comes back to haunt me, but that's another day's story...