Day Sixteen: Eight Hours of Carpooling

Today was the dreaded 8-hour carpool ride to Madrid. And we slept in a little, but we didn't have time to do anything before he picked us up. He made us walk 30 minutes to a pick-up location and even kinda forced us to come early. It was normal Ford focus, and there were 5 of us. So, the middle seat! Me and Ethan ended up splitting being the middle, but man, it killed my ass. It was worse than the flight over! When we finally got there, they even dropped us off 30-minute walk away. But that's OK, it's a beautiful city and fun just to walk around, a much needed walk after sitting for so long. There seemed to be a lot of large historical buildings too. We walked past the largest parliament? Building I have ever seen, too. Check-in was easy, and the beds seemed nice enough. The pillows were strange, though; they were super narrow and very long. There were two of them, so one was a nice cuddle pillow. But before the night we really needed something to eat. But everything was so expensive and full. We kept going somewhere and it was too full or too expensive. Finally said screw it and ended at one. It seemed seemed expensive at first, so we decided to split one order of ribs, and it turns out the dish was huge and delicious! For the night, we came to the conclusion that every new hostel we go to we should start with some event to meet the people there. So we did the pub crawl. And it started with free sangria! Anything free always tastes better. There were probably about 10 people for it, and they were all really nice! Going out, we ended up mostly hanging with this guy named Tom from America, someone from Britain, a guy from Greece, and a lady from Ukraine (who is living there now). Turns out she has to go to a shelter every night to sleep, and they can see the missiles in the sky, too. It's some really scary stuff. But it was one of the best nights. We ended up going to 4 or 5 bars finishing the night at a nightclub. And multiple times, we thought we were at the nightclub, but we weren't. The bars are so insane and fun here. Me and Ethan even used his jacket for limbo, and everyone loved it! It was one of the best nights so far. Everyone was super friendly, and the bars were so fun! I have now found out that I enjoy dancing! It was so fun that it turned into a very late night. Everything is open crazy late. The party culture is so much different, but the people are so easy-going, and I'm never worried. But I have still been smart enough to get home safe :)Read more