Ahora, estoy en Madrid. Llegué ayer. I missed significant amounts of volcanic ash and decided to start my Dublin layover fresh with Irish Cider and a scone. Some hours later, a brief reunion with my brother, who I haven’t seen in person for nearly a year, and we’re off to check out Fiesta de San Isidro, the patron saint of Madrid. I am dead and so is my camera, no pictures.

Its Saturday, and that means nightlife. My brother, a friend of his, and I decide to screw tradition and have 1) Chinese for dinner and 2) mojitos at a Mexican themed bar.

Coral and Aaron after a few mojitos

At this point it was Sunday, but still not early enough to hit the discoteca (remember, I arrived Saturday). Spain is a late city. Typically dinner happens around 8pm. At 2am, the discotecas get started and the metro stops running. When the clubs close at the break of dawn, it’s common for hard core partygoers to go out for breakfast and relax until the trains start up again.

Instead of fighting our way down the bustling sidewalks of Gran Vía, we found the way paved in blue velvet.

All buildings standing the way of Gran Vía were removed one hundred years ago to make way for the traffic relieving (uprising preventing) street. It’s the largest thoroughfare in Madrid, and on its 100 birthday, the Madreleños decided to throw a big party and cover it in blue velvet. Well, mostly. The birthday was actually a few months back and the fiesta got pushed back as to align with the Fiesta de San Isirdio.

We hit up Ohm (a dance club) for the night, we got in free before 2am (yes 2am, Spain is a late place =P). Danced with a friendly guy. He tried to show me how to move my hips properly so we he could do the little walk and twirls of the salsa. I fail. Whatever, we had fun.

Some drunks make a nice bed of blue velvet from the celebration and trash.

Beat, we returned home to Aaron’s host family. Bad news, mother had an “aborted take-off” (appropriate for a midwife?) and got stuck in Atlanta for another 24 hours. The show would have to go on without her.