Wow quite hot for me when i arrived in Madrid and everyone around me in their winter wollies!I headed straight to couchsurfer Juans house not too far from the airport. After walking about an hour UPHILL in the wrong direction(!!!!good exercise i suppose) i eventually found his place. What a lovely apartment all painted white inside with the table and chairs red with cow coloured seats!Juan lives there with his 5 bikes! While i sipped on some lovely wine he made the most delicious salad (nicer than yours Aymen sorry!!)with homemade hummus. We had a great chat about travels and cycling (see not just me whos crazy about cycling!!). He is very involved with the Critical Mass in Madrid its a group of people who cycle all the time and want bikes to be recognised just as much as cars on the road and rightly so!They once had a naked cycling protest in Madrid....Its not illegal to be naked in Madrid can you believe that!!Just once you dont go near a school or deliberately flash someone! ..and i brought so much clothes...
(this is me rubbing the fold up bike really fast!)
The next day i relaxed at Juans house, before going for a 5 hour walk getting so so lost Madrid is BIG! Later that evening i went cycling with Juan through the crazy Madrid rush hour traffic on a fold-up bike! Jaysus the cars were coming from all directions i was just following Juan!I was still having problems getting used to cycling on the other side of the road!We went to a cool building where Samba Da Rua practice (the band i was minding during the Festival of World Cultures), there was also a workshop with bits of bikes and if you want a bike and will take the time to make one its all yours! Juan spends some time there helping out, i think its a really nice idea except i cant imagine how upset i'd be if i made a bike and it was stolen.(bloody knackers...im still sour about that...)
While Juan was looking at bits of bikes i went next door to the FREE clothes shop!How great...clothes that are free!I just took a cool little bag as i cant fit one more thing in my backpack! I was planning to meet up with one of the guys from the Festival of World cultures but everytime just as our pretty normal phone conversation was ending he'd go into this mad old man voice saying 'ohhh guapa guapa...something or other' it was really weird i just ignored it then the next time as the conversation was coming to an end his voice changed to this scary old man voice again...strange!
I walked for probably another 5 hours again that day doing nothing in particular just enjoying the sunshine and the smell of cologne and olive oil, and getting lost. Thats what i really like about travlling just for the sake of travelling there´s no rush to see the touristy things.
I stayed in a hostel that night and met Jon from Pensylvania who has been growing his beard since he started travelling and takes a photo each day to put altogther at the end how cool!...i will put a link when he has that all done! Some nice girls from the states and myself drank our 59c carton of wine then headed to bed...Toledo tomorrow!
I got off the bus in Toledo what a really gorgeous day. Found a nice field beside a river and had breakfast. I was in heaven ...so peacefull and relaxing. I went for a walk around, climbed kind of a mountain!then head to the main part of Toledo to meet Mar for some tea!
She had been to India a few months ago it was really great to talk to her about how it was arriving there as a lady on your own!I think our reasons for going are quite similiar and i feel a lot more relaxed about going there now that i spoke to her.
I headed back to Madrid to meet Chema a good friend i had met in Dublin and havent seen in years! We went to a few bars, unfortunately i had hardly eaten all day and had danced with my poi!and climbed the kind of mountain so i was too tired for a crazy night of bars all the same it was really great to meet up with Chema im sure we'll meet again in another few years!
ok so now Madrid pt2.........!!
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