Valencia to Madrid

Early morning. We got up, packed, and left for the bus. Shay wanted to get his horchata, and luckily there was a horchateria open on our way to catch a taxi to the bus station. It tasted kind of coconutty. I wasn't a fan. We bought some pastries for the long journey, and took a taxi to the station for 6 euros.

On route to Madrid

The bus was easy, I think it was Avanza Bus? We just had to show our e-tickets to driver. He didn't need printed tickets or ID. Buses here are like Greyhounds, but without washrooms. They also assign a seat, but everyone just sits where they want when they get on. But for some reason, there is always someone who is looking for their actual seat. Leslie moved twice, until finally just staying seated and speaking only English to the person who was trying to take her seat. 

It was a long bus ride. We stopped at a rest station off the highway. There wasn't any hot food, it was pretty pathetic in comparison to France. There was tea, coffee and pastries as well as big wheels of cheese and oil. Random.

Back on the bus, we watched a French movie dubbed in Spanish. It was actually really good (what we understood of it).

We got to Madrid and took cab to our apartment. It was off of Gran Via, a very good location in Madrid. Up until our arrival it was very hard to communicate with our host Miguel who owned the apartment we were staying at. He spoke no English at all. He kept telling me to use google translate to translate his messages and his instructions on his site on how to get to the apartment, but there were many sentences that didn't make any sense at all.

We ended up getting there fine, and we texted him, and he showed up in the window above. He let us in, and wrote everything on the computer for us to read as a translation. The fridge was filled with juice and water which was extremely welcoming!

The apartment was awesome. It was like staying in Barney Stinson's bachelor pad. It had a double rain shower, ac, an induction range and oven, red counter tops, two large flat screens, two bedrooms…a very nice place.

Leslie's room

Our room

Best shower ever.

We rested a bit, and got groceries at a dingy Asian grocery around the corner. We would be eating some Mr. Noodle to save on money here! We picked a place where we wanted to eat for dinner. It was delicious.

The restaurant was called Gastromaquia. It was on Calle de Palleo. We ate grilled rabbit, ribs, fajitas, a goat cheese app and sausage app… all delicious. Probably one of the best meals of the trip. The restaurant was close and we could walk there from our apartment. We could walk everywhere!

We walked back through town, through what must be the gaybourhood, as there were many gay clubs and male strip clubs around.