Hostile Hostal

I´ll start this off by saying I just sat down on a bench in the Jardines de Sabastini next to the Palacio Real for a brief respite before continuing on to conquer Madrid à pied. A bum just sat on a bench across from me, stripped to his boxers, and is now reading a newspaper and catching some rays. Awkward? Slightly. Speaking of bums, they seem so happy here. There is one in particular who lives on a stoop a few buildings down from my hostal. He´s got a nice palate set up and greets me each morning with a toothless grin, then takes a swig from his bottle of wine, his two dogs chilling at his feet. All the bums here have dogs, well fed dogs, even though they are begging for money for food. Gotta love socialism. I guess I´d be pretty happy too if I could spend the day hanging out on a stoop with my pooch, drinking wine, and collecting money from passersby. Maybe I´ll rub some dirt on my face, find a stray, buy a cheap bottle of wine and give it a shot, since it´s only day 2 and I´m already running low on funds.

Anyway, I digress. My hostal really isn´t hostile, I just thought it had a nice ring and couldn´t think of another adjective that started with ¨h¨. It is a little ghetto, though. The showers are 2x2ft. You press on the water and every 60seconds it shuts off and you have to press it on again. Like a sink. Only, it´s a SHOWER.

I have one roommate, a cute Italian girl from Venice. She´s a soloist there and here for an audtion for the Madrid opera. She sang Rossini. She made callbacks this morning and is there now for round 2! We are going to go out to dinner and celebrate her audtion tonight- she is in for a treat! I really hope she makes it, for her sake, and also so I can say I am friends (because obviously we are bff now) with a famous opera singer.

Last night, I had a sandwich and a beer in a little bar near my hostal. There was a big soccer game on. I have no idea who was playing, but I cheered for the team everyone else in the bar was cheering for, thought that was a safe bet. I then listened to a Spanish Stevie Ray Vaughan cover band. The Spanish accent really brings out the bartione notes in his music. Obviously, it was a good night, since any night that ends with SRV, accent or not, is a good one ;).