DAY 227: Los Viajes

I´ve been lucky enough to do quite a bit of travelling whilst I have been out in Spain, so here are my highlights:

1. Valencia (Take 1) - Arriving in Valencia at 2.30am, drunk after a good few litres of drinking homemade mojitos from plastic coffee cups with straws, hailing a cab at 3.30am telling them to "take us to the best club" was pretty cool. There we arrived, an open air dancefloor and an inside full of white sofas with sexy dancers and everyone wearing masks for Carnival. I ended the night (or should I say morning...8am...) being pushed back to the hostel by Andrew in a shopping trolley. Good laugh.

2. Lisbon - I fell in love with that city, it is gorgeous! So unique and so colourful and so different from Spain. We stayed in an awesome hostel called "HOME" which was really just like a home. And of course there was "Mamma´s dinner", a feast of traditional Portuguese food done on the cheap with a toast to this old woman "Mamma" at the end, each with a shot glass of port.

3. Salamanca - A day trip. Arriving at midday and leaving at 3am. A big group of us friends altogther. A very hot tour guide. A few handfuls of shots from the famous shots bars there including a "mamada" involving no hands and lots of whipped cream. The first time I have asked for a blow job at a bar. (Mamada means blow job....didn´t actually give someone a blow job, I´ll just point out).

4. Valencia (Take 2) - Another day trip. "LADS" trip. An all day boozer of beer, wine, sangria, vodka, gin, more beer whilst watching fireworks and running away from fire crackers. I made up a story to some American twat that I was with child, married to a man called Abdul and had had another child at 13. The imbesile belived me. 

5. Toledo - Pretty pretty Toledo! Definitely worth a visit if you live in Madrid. It is the old capital of Spain, even though it is very small. We got to see the start of a Spanish wedding and we gorged on marzipan as that is what Toledo is famous for. Seriously, they have marzipan EVERYTHING. 

6. Barcelona - Fantastic Bank Holiday weekend. There´s so much to do in Barcelona, both cultured and not. I had some good friends living there which is always nice. It was sunny (I of course burnt on the beach). I went to a "magic fountain" show - sounds lame but was freaking awesome. I ate lots of food. Caught up with friends. Saw the impressive Sagrada Familia Cathedral. Had an amazing brunch (yes that is going on the list). I LOVED Barcelona. So different to Madrid.

Travelling is a great experience. You meet so many people. You see how different places, even in the same country are. Everyone should do some travelling. You learn a lot and have fun. 

DAY 212: El reencuentro ecuatoriano

After my wee break in Barcelona I had some visitors come to Madrid - Graeme and Elaine who I spent my "gap yah" with in Ecuador. They weren´t staying with me, to their own benefit of not having to deal with my unwashed dishes, stench from the shower drain and general mess, and despite me having to go to work in the mornings, it was so great to see them in the afternoons. 

On Monday, after a reasonably busy day of work and a fair amount of sweating in my tight pencil skirt, which I really shouldn´t be wearing in this weather, I headed off to meet the others for some chill time in the Retiro Park...truly one of my favourite places in the world. Now, seeing as we don´t have a beach here in Madrid, this is where people go to tan and so to Matt´s delight (Graeme´s friend), I found a nice wee patch with lots of practically naked women. After that, I took them to another great place, the Círculo de las Bellas Artes, which has a rooftop bar overlooking Madrid. It´s so lovely, and although expensive, is really worth it. We indulged in some cava, whilst Graeme kept saying to me "you have such a great life here Sarah" and although I guess I do, I had to remind him, that drinking cava on a rooftop bar in the sun isn´t actually part of my daily life here.....maybe for someone from Made In Chelsea though! The next stop was to my favourite restaurant in Plaza Santa Ana, Tartufo, where I have been far too many times, showing the others the Spanish way of ordering lots of tapas and gorging on sides of jamón and manchego cheese. I felt bad not going out with them after the meal, of which the last hour consisted of taking each other´s phones and messaging people on Tinder, but Graeme had a wee "date" planned anyway and Andrew, who came along with us, took Matt out for a few drinks after too... it was sleepy time for me though as I´ve started trying to be "sensible" during weekdays....hmmm....

Drama happened on Tuesday, the crack of the screen of my beautiful iphone causing it to completely not light up at all. I´m a phone addict so this was just not an acceptable occurance, and it especially did not help for later on when I was meant to be meeting the others. However, all got fabby, I was recommended a phone repair shop in town, and left my poor baby there all beaten up, to be collected later all fabulous and new. Anyway, I was meeting the others (and Lucy) to go to the Madrid Open (ATP World Tour) and it was so much fun. They had got there earlier whilst I was at work and then Lucy and I joined them about 4pm just in time for the brilliant Ferrer/Ramos match. Ferrer won, much to what seemed the crowd´s delight, as even though they are both Spanish, Ramos is Catalan...oooh. The others really enjoyed it and it was their first time watching live professional tennis so I was really glad I got us tickets. And my mum, the tennis addict, was very jealous. Elaine then had to rush off for her flight and Lucy off on a date (people are getting lucky this week ;) ) and so Graeme, Matt and I then went off for yet another meal out, before again, I called it a day.

I feel like I´ve had a non-stop couple of weeks what with Izzy coming, then being ill, then going to Barcelona and then having the Ecuador lot here, but I can´t really complain...it´s not a bad life! Knackered yesterday, I had a big siesta and avoided once again any cleaning, and today I finished my uni essay, finally (nothing else to do at work)...so I´m a pretty happy bunny. Emma´s birthday night out this weekend with perhaps another wee trip to the Retiro but apart from that, not much else to do but enjoy my last 4 weeks!

DAY 195: La Semana Santa Viene

So another 4 months down in Madrid and it´s time for my Easter holidays and I´m really looking forward to a relaxing week at home. Spain definitely has had both its fun times and hard times and the whole experience is something I will vividly remember.

If I think about work, I came out here terrified, and speaking Spanish all day every day was so intimidating. Luckily my Spanish has improved a lot but with Mabel speaking to me in English all the time, perhaps I should be better. I think the whole thing when learning a language though is confidence and the more you speak it, even if you do make mistakes, the more you will improve. Anyway, despite her always speaking English to me, I have to thank Mabel for a lot. She´s so kind and has always been so supportive of everything and she is a really fantastic businesswoman. On top of that of course we have the fact that she is bloody gorgeous. I know I´m not a lesbian but I definitely am attracted to her ha. Her boyfriend is a lucky lucky man! The rest of the team are lovely too and Mariangeles is another girl who I ´ve really appreciated here. She sits opposite me and we chat all the time (this time in Spanish)…mainly about Ryan Gosling! It´s been really nice sitting with her for the past 8 months and despite her being a good 15 years older, she´s really been a friend. We of course have the people I don´t like though, and for people who know me well, the list of people in this world who annoy me is probably far too high! But anyway, first we have Noelia. Noelia came about a month ago and she is an intern like me but a few years older. Anyway, if I´m going to be honest here, she just absolutely loves herself and I can see her judging me every day and she always makes snide wee comments which piss me off. She´s so patronizing as well and thinks I can´t speak Spanish so just doesn´t like talking to me. Almudena is another one, or “Almu” as she gets called, which I don´t know why cracks me up. She´s nice I guess but just very…very.. dull. Finally, we have the German girl, Alex. It´s very much a love-hate relationship. For an 18 year old she is very close-minded and judgemental and comes across quite rude, but at the same time I do go for coffee breaks with her a lot and today we got on ok so I haven´t closed my opinion completely on her yet. I think she´s just complicated to understand, plus I guess we are just very different people. Anyway, enough of that bitching and back to work – sometimes boring, sometimes difficult and sometimes enjoyable – the matter of the fact is though that it has been a very good and possibly rewarding experience for me.

When I come back after Easter I will hardly have anytime left here and I know I´m going to miss the friends I´ve made out here a lot. I don´t really socialize outside of my work with my colleagues but of course I will miss them too.  If I´m honest we have probably had too many nights out of drinking far too much, doing silly things, kissing boys and munching on McDonalds but that is part of what the year abroad is about, in my opinion (that´s coming from the view of clearly a drunken mess). And of course we have had fun travelling…..Valencia….Lisbon….Toledo….Salamanca… - I literally just want to travel all the time now!

It also took me a while to embrace the Spanish culture. First of all…they eat so bloody much! I still don´t understand how most of them stay so thin – I swear they are eating at every moment of the day whether it be a “snack” (although to me a sandwich is not a snack?) or a big 3 course meal…with of course lots of bread and litres and litres and litres of olive oil. Olive oil is literally put into every single food they have here. You see people buying 5 litre bottles of it in supermarkets and that’s just to get them through the week! I for one am looking like a plump pudding. In addition to that, it took me a while to get used to them eating so late. I have lunch at 3/3.30pm every day and I´ve been out for dinner with friends at midnight, which isn´t even unusual! Spanish timetabling is something else as well…it´s so relaxed and mightily inefficient – the amount of times I have complained about at it this year has led me to write my assessed university essay on the year abroad this year about it. We also have the culture of the men, the very pervy, very sleazy, very sexist men. In clubs they want to grab you at any chance they get, so much so that two of my girl friends have ended up punching men in the face, and I´ve left the club fuming ranting my traditional “I hate men” speech. In the streets they yell at you and ask you to sleep with them and the sad thing is, that you just kind of have to get used to it!

However, as much as I do complain about things though, and I do like to complain, Madrid is a great city. The madrileños are incredibly friendly and welcoming people and the city is beautiful and always thriving. It feels like a city that never sleeps and everything is also all so cheap (apart from make-up…almost every British girl I know here really misses Boots). I can´t really complain about the weather here either – blue skies and well today, its 27 degrees. Of course I am sunburnt, and of course the Spanish are still going round in their unfashionable polo-necks!

Anyway that´s me off for just over a week. A nice big lunch with Sanderson after work today to celebrate and then Newcastle tomorrow followed by HOME. Here´s to my final stint in Madrid after Easter!! Not much longer to go!!!

DAY 135: Sanderson

Well after a horrendous week at work of office fuck-ups, people I wanted to slap and some mind-numbingly boring tasks, I was so so so ready for Friday. I met Rosie after work in Starbucks where she was waiting after her flight had come in and we went for a big fatty pizza lunch and it was gorgeous. We also indulged in a bottle of wine which lead to a very sleepy Sarah who had a siesta in the afternoon, waking up with a massive cock drawn on my face by Rosie 2 hours later - great. 

That night, it was time to celebrate Sanderson´s birthday and I had offered to have the party in my flat seeing as Sanderson lives way out in Alcala. It was good and very loud, and luckily the neighbours didn´t complain this time! There were 3 neck nominations, one of which was me drinking whisky and vodka through a straw whilst doing a handstand...fair to say, it did not end very smoothly. Anyway, we left at about 1am in order to get the last metro into town but by 2 metro stops down, it was fair to say that Sanderson just wasn´t going to make it out. As we all carried her out of the metro and into the street, causing a lot of attention from the locals who looked at us British folk with disgust, Sanderson proceeded to chunder and we all knew that really she wasn´t going to make it into the club. So, off Rosie, Emma and I left, leaving the others behind, to take Sanderson back to mine. As we reached mine, Sanderson had completely gone by this point and the taxi driver had to help us carry her up to my apartment. I have to say, it did feel a little bit like we were carrying a dead body. At mine, I threw glasses of water over her to wake her up (and to half amuse me) at which she woke up and replied "stop chundering on me"...oh Sanderson. Anyway, she got to bed, slept it off and Rosie and I got pizza and danced around to One Direction for a couple of hours....taking the party with of us of course (even if it was One Direction..). 

Sanderson wasn´t even hungover in the morning, much to Rosie and I´s disappointment who were feeling the effects of last night´s pre. Anyway, we did get ourselves up though to do something "cultural" as last time Rosie was here, we missed that part out. Of course first we decided to have a nice lunch though and surprised ourselves greatly by ordering a salad....this never happens on a hangover. I then attempted to take Rosie on a tour of Madrid, telling her that a cathedral was the Royal Palace and that a mosque was a cathedral and so on....god, I´m great at this stuff. We ended up at Madrid´s Egyptian temple "El Templo de Debod", which really isn´t as facinating as it sounds. All it is is like 3 small walls with a wee moat around it. But you know, at least we were doing something. Soon it was time to head back to the flat for yet another siesta, which turned into a good 4 hour sleep. We needed it though, as we were determined to have a proper night out this time. 

We went to this club called Joy, which is an old theatre and looks really cool. It played all the classic songs you could sing a long to and we found this amazing man who had some incredible dance moves...oh he was hilarious. We even got on the stage with him at one point just because we thought he was so cool. Surprisingly though, Rosie and I did not feel the slightest bit drunk. We had had 3 gin and tonics in the space of an hour before we left, 2 strong vodka red bulls when we first came to the club, and then a jaegar and another strong gin and tonic later on. We just did not understand why it wasn´t hitting us. Sanderson was being very sensible this night and sipped on one gin and tonic for about 4 hours. 

Waking up the next morning, we didn´t feel ill but just exhausted and proceeded to spend the entire day in bed watching episodes and episodes of 90120 on Netflix...shit show but addicting. There was a small trip out to lunch but it didn´t last long and we were quickly back in bed after being practically blown away by the strong wind and drenched by the rain. Seriously, the weather at the moment in Madrid is horrendous. Should probably just move back to Scotland where it likely to be nicer. 

So I´ve probably gained about 2 stone this weekend as we have literally eaten so much pizza, ice-cream, sweets and cheetos....(the guy at the corner shop must have thought we were weird with the amount of cheetos we kept going in to buy..but they are just sooo goooood). Attempting to detox a bit this week, but knowing me it will probably only last a day. I really am an unstoppable fatty. 

Hate Mondays and I am exhausted, but hopefully work this week is just a tad better...if not, could be getting into trouble for wacking someone in the face...really need to stay reserved.

DAY 104: Santiago Bernabeu

So I´m not the biggest football fanatic, or the biggest sports fanatic in general, but it was time to hit up Santiago Bernabeu and go and see a Real Madrid match and I have to say, I loved it! The streets around the stadium were filled with people (mostly men) drinking beer and throwing fire-crackers (terrifying) and it was pretty clear that not only were we representing some of the only girls but we were also evidently British. In the stadium we were taking so many photos, befriending a random Spanish boy so we could pose with his flag and everyone was laughing at us, but oh well, in the modern day of Instagram, it needed to happen! So with little knowledge of what actually goes on at a football match, it started and I asked Sanderson (an avid football fan) why one of the players was just wearing all black. "That would be the referee Sarah...."....so yeah, great start! Anyway, after cheering my way through the match, catching up with mis amigas and screaming for beautiful Ronaldo, I said at the end "I really want to go to an Atletico match now!"....maybe it´s time that I finally get into football.

Mabel is off work at the moment and so is the girl down from her, so with no boss around you can imagine how even more relaxed and more unorganised the office is. Mabel is always quite good at explaining to me exactly what I need to do but yesterday I had someone explain to me a task which made no sense at all. I mean, the task made sense and was pretty straight forward as I´ve done it before, but this girl took a good 45 minutes to explain to me how to do something putting in some really irrelevant things and just complicating the matter. Really, I should just run this place!

I want to get a dog whilst I´m here and have actually been told I was allowed to by my mum (which was a real shock). It would give me some company and I could take it home with me afterwards, just perfect! However, let´s be honest, that´s just not going to happen...and what would I do with it at weekends I´m away. I do just miss my doggy back home so much :(

Off out tonight but trying to keep my new year´s resolution to drink less and a few other things with friends planned for the weekend. It´s not too hard a life eh?

DAY 64: Las bebidas gratis

Well, this is great, I am sitting in work, stinking of alcohol with a horrendous headache. Everyone knows I am hungover, I have already been "told off" and eurgh I haven´t even had breakfast. Queiro morir! (I. want. to. die.).

So Sanderson and I went to a shop yesterday..."Los sabores del mundo"..."The flavours of the world"....purely to find one thing...IRN BRU. There really is nothing like it. It´s so expensive here but just so worth it (especially on days like today). I ended up spending 16 quid ...oopsies. They also sold Dairy Milk (another important purchase) and Smarties!! (I know what I´ll be doing this afternoon...). So after this (very important) trip, we decided to go for drinks and dinner. Strolling around Sol, trying to find the cheapest place for beer (of course) we were preyed upon by a promotor (of course). He took us to a bar where we each had a pint of (very strong) tequila sunrise for 3 euros. I really have only just remembered this and it definitely explains the goings on later in the night...

Dying for food, we ventured on to the restaurant where I have now been 3 times...parents, Liz and now Sanderson. They just love me there and of course we were conned into getting free drinks AGAIN. We arrived there about 7.30pm and they kept asking us to stay until 2am when they shut. We were so against this to begin with, but yes somehow time flew by (6 hours in a restaurant?!) and we both ended up hammered and going to the Irish pub next door with them....where we bought more drinks. In addition to this, there was a man selling funny glasses and hats etc outside and thinking it was hilarious, we bought some. I was going around this bar with pink flashing Minnie Mouse ears on.....We must have looked so stupid, made better by the fact that we were taking so many selfies (who doesn´t love a selfie?!). So these MEN we came if with, the waiters and two random fat bald guys separated us. It was a sad moment. Both clearly too drunk to notice, I was taken downstairs and Sarah was kept at the bar. Finally, we found each other and decided to run away (to McDonalds) and then to my apartment where we nom-ed and passed out.

I woke up this morning at 8.50 (10 minutes before work) when Sanderson suddenly said "Slaw, don´t you have work at 9?" Christ, what is wrong with me. I haven´t done this for a while now but clearly nothing has changed! However, I DID MAKE IT INTO WORK by 9.30am..just looking a bit "drab". Cannot wait til I finish. It is days like these I love just having a desk job. Poor Sanderson had to go and teach English to a bunch of 14 year olds.

So apart from that, I really have nothing else to say. Work´s the same, except for the new girl kind of annoys me...(I´ll rant another time) and I am really still pretty lazy. However, I have started walking to and from work every day, which is about 50 minutes each way...so that´s pretty healthy! It´s kind of embarrassing actually..I listen to the Nick Grimshaw Breakfast Show every morning on my way to work (brilliant show just brilliant) and I must look like such a freak because I am constantly laughing or smiling to myself about what´s being said....people must think I´m in love or just had sex or something. ANYWAY, yes that´s all for now. I´ve now been asked to "do some work" and I´ve already unimpressed them with my "antics" so best be off...ciao.

DAY 34: La Patata

I mentioned in a previous blog that when the other girls were dancing on the bar, I refrained, as to save people´s eyes. However, things change. On Friday night Rosie and I found ourselves up on the air above everyone, acting as though we fucking ruled the club. We also hopped on a podium thing and no one would dare even ask us to come down because yeah, we were fucking awesome ;) All in all it was a very good night, drinking almost an entire bottle of vodka between us, stealing shots at the bar and dancing away until it was time for a much deserved pizza slice! We arrived back at the flat (with Andrew) at about 3.30am (far too early for España) so continued to drink until we decided Mean Girls was all of a sudden a good idea :/ Munching away on doritos and salsa and a pizza I tried cooking in the microwave that literally turned black and tasted vile, we all lay in bed, laptop in front of us and loaded Mean Girls. Rosie and I woke up about 11am - Andrew was gone, the bed covered in crumbs and the titles of Mean Girls playing on my laptop...neither of us remembered watching any of it...pretty sure we all just passed out, oops. 

So you would think that as I had a friend to stay we would be proactive in doing touristy things, sight-seeing, walking, exploring the city...ok we did go and get some tapas (being all ´cultural´ and all) but really we spent most of the next day watching episodes and episodes of Breaking Bad. Yes, I am only JUST getting into it...so please stay hush! Saturday night involved slobbing in front of the tv even more, watching The X Factor and gorging on cheese. Sunday was shopping day! I say shopping day when in actual fact we only went to one shop, Sephora, spending so much time painting lipsticks and eyeliners on our hands and buying much more than we should have. For some reason I bought this sparkly fake tan that you can also put in your hair to make it ´sparkle´. Not such a great idea, my hair is not sparkly but instead a greasy, sticky mess...good thinking Sarah! We had a pizza for lunch and then decided to fat ourselves up even more by ordering a chinese for dinner. Seriously, I feel like I need to get liposuction! Diet starts today! 

So all in all it was a pretty fun weekend. Great chat and gossip (what else would you expect from two girls who haven´t seen each other for a few months), lots of wine, a lot of dancing (we were still complaining about our aching legs yesterday....we just worked our bootays so hard) and a lot A LOT of food. I am officially a potato.

DAY 11: Las bebidas y las copas

After a crazy night out in London this summer with my cousin, Izzy, I had such a horrific hangover the next day that for the entire following week I said I would be tee-total forever. Paha - coz that was going to last! Since I've arrived in Madrid, I actually can't think of any day in which I have not consumed alcohol. Here in Spain, you have your 'bebidas' and 'copas'. As I was told last night, a bebida, could be a coffee, a soft drink, water or beer - clearly beer is not counted as being alcoholic here as 'copa' is what you refer to as an alcholic drink, and this is not a beer. 

Anyway, on Friday night I went out with Lara and Christian to 'Club Random'. When I've asked Madrilenos about it, no one knows what it is. If I were to liken it to a club back home, I would have to say Cab Vol. So, for you who know me all too well, not really my scene! However, give me a few drinks, and I'm dandy and I ended up having a really good night! There was one point, where I'm not really sure what I was doing, but I lost both Christian and Lara and had a sudden freak-out. I come out with two people and I've already lost them, in a city I don't know! Classic drunken Slaw. After a while I found them though and thank God because there was this little puny man, seriously like half my height, touching my ass all night. Sometimes I would pretend Lara was my lesbian partner, sometimes Christian was my boyfriend, and sometimes we were a threesome...oh yeaaaah. So this little man, who did not want to leave me alone, asked for my number. Why Sarah, why oh why did you give it to him?! Stupid drunken Slaw. So, yesterday he kept whatsapping me even though I wasn't replying - contact now blocked! He then found me on facebook, did I give him my name? Christ Sarah. Friend request declined. And today, after all that, clearly I am not interested, he tries face-timing me. Such a wee nube. If anyone can tell me how you block a number completely, and not just via whatsapp, then PLEASE let me know. Eurgh! ANYWAY, I had a good night otherwise, and even smoked a a fag inside the club - just such a rebel eh? :P 

Saturday was LAZY. Hungover and not wanting to move, I lay in my bed, eating cream crackers ( the only food I had) and watched shitty tv. Some things don't change no matter where you are. However, Saturday night was a whole lot different. Pedro, BEAUTIFUL Pedro, introduced me to his nephew, Alvaro. We went out for drinks, then dinner, then more drinks (the gentleman paid of course)....and I'll just add now...he's a fucking Hollister model. Get in! Nothing happened though. Classic tragic Slaw. 

Today I had a massive sushi lunch with a couple of the girls from work. Despite my horrific Spanish (which I have discovered I speak so much better when drunk...any excuse for alcohol here....), it was so much fun and just proper girly chat, from fake tan to Kate Middleton to Geordie Shore, with them being in such shock that I went to Newcastle where these Geordies exist. I really hope they don't think I'm like that - not the best impression to make on your work colleagues! 

So now I'm back at my wee studio apartment, still love it, and going to have a siesta before vegging in front of The X Factor. Was I ever going to not watch it just because I'm in Spain? Er, no. Too much love for that show (even though Chezza my bezza is no longer on it :( ).