Airport trip and a night in Madrid

Morning:
I was scheduled to take Thammatat, my last student on my hall, to the airport this morning. We sat in the taxi, and arrived less than an hour after leaving. Checked his bags, and I sent him through security. Thammatat looked up at the board, walked left, walked right, looked some more. Finally turned and waived, grinned at me, and headed off towards somewhere. I began my wait for his flight to depart. There is nothing to do in the Madrid airport, at least outside of security. I tried to purchase a coke from a vending machine, but it never came. The manager of a cafe gave me one though. I walked back and forth. Finally, as it got close to his departure, I made my way towards the metro to wait. It was "final boarding call" forever, approximately an entire hour.

I took off once the flight cleared the board, and headed towards salamanca street. I heard there are some places there I wanted to check out. Oops. That was supposed to be an area called Salamanca. The street itself is somewhere up north, not a particularly interesting neighborhood. I did however find a place, and get the menu of the day. First course, Gazpacho. Second, Fish. I thought it was going to not be fried. I was very wrong. Third course, Flan. I asked for a cup of wine. She left the bottle, I clarified, I want only a cup. Drink as much as you want the waittress told me. It was to early for that, so I ordered a pitcher of tap water.

Found the streets I was looking for, found the perfect linen pants. Just formal enough, but just informal enough as well. Also, just a little big for me. I asked about alteration - but the guy helping me said unfortunately, that would put the back pockets on top of one another. Alas. We checked the system to see if any other stores in Madrid, and Spain have them. None in the computer. They were Ermengildo Zegna, white, linen. Very comfortable. So, when I got back, I looked up the other stores, and emailed them to check just in case the wrong sizes are in the system. I am hoping that they can find them, they were awesome.

On the way back, I got an email, and purchased additional facemasks. I then returned in time to meet Devon - Nick's replacement, and be sent on a salad purchasing errand for which Joel came along. We stopped to chat with his friend at the Mercadora, and had a nice Tapas with Anchovies. I also donated my own veggies to the salad upon returning. I had a lovely large salad as my first plate for dinner which was stupendous. It didn't even have any ham in it.

Night:
After a "surprise" pizza party, and a staff meeting where we were asked our plans should the site hypothetically close, 4 of us took off for Madrid. Shiva, Anabelle, Rachael and I caught the last bus which didn't go where we needed it. Luckily, the driver was nice, and took us to a station after he finished the route. We took light rail into Madrid from there. Again, last train, so no time to buy tickets. Luckily, we were able to buy the tickets upon arrival, and avoid any hassle and fine.

Once we arrived in Plaza del Sol, we couldn't decide what to do. I didn't want to pay a cover charge, as many of you know, I am morally opposed to paying cover charges on a number of grounds. I haven't once had a club where I left feeling like I would gladly give them money to gain access to their facilities again.

We found some places that offered welcome shots, which most likely explains my upset stomach. Sometimes they were mixed drinks, which were very sweet. Shiva, in his usual outgoing manner, met a few people, and I danced by myself most of the time. In the Plaza De St. Ana, Shiva was practicing his spanish with three girls from spain. He decided to tell them all about our little epidemic. After that, they gave us a lot of space, which was nice, since I had the whole rail to sit on by myself in that case.

We went to Sol y Sombra, which wasn't very exciting this evening. Hotel ME was closed - I was hoping for a nighttime view of Madrid city lights. Then we ran into the pub crawl people, who were also kind of boring. I took some pictures for them climbing all over a statue with their phones, and we parted ways until Shiva befriended a group looking to go Flamenco or Salsa dancing. I was excited about seeing some salsa and flamenco, until I realized that they didn't have a destination, just a desire. We ended up back at Joy, where we had left the girls the night before. One of the guys in the group had sandals, and the group couldn't go in. We bid them farewell, and went for chocolate and churros until the time we planned to meet the girls.

Caught a taxi right in front of the club, and came straight here. Nothing spectacular, but had a good time without spending significant money on anything.