The Six Million Dollar Man

I was visited? By whom..?

Yes! LP, of course!

Starting on Friday, the 9th of September, and until this morning, Wednesday the 14th, I was visited by my girlfriend, LP. (She's in Lisbon at the moment as an ERASMUS exchange student.) We had actually agreed, that I'd be the first of the two of us to fly to meet her, not the opposite. I'm glad that I got to meet her a bit earlier than we had previously planned because I've been missing her, a lot. I mean like... umm... I-haven't-slept-properly-in-two-weeks kind of a lot.

But, let's get started with the story. So, LP came to the Madrid airport at around 9.30 am last Friday. She was accompanied by two of her friends who seemed ok enough by me. (Don't get me wrong, I guess you're brilliant guys! I just mean that I didn't get to know you in depth.) We escorted LP's two friends close to their hostels and went first to see my place in Leganés. LP also wanted to ditch most of her stuff at my place, reasonable at the very least. After taking a tour around the neighbourhood  surrounding my place we took a bus + metro combination to Madrid to see the Royal Palace, etc. In the evening we met up with a good friend of LP's, a Mexican guy called henceforth LE. He came to our meeting point at the Callao metro station with a (female) former classmate of his, KP. LE and KP gave us an introduction to the city centre, although they haven't lived here any longer than me. Isn't that a bit sad? Nevertheless, thanks for the tour! I had a blast with you guys on Friday.

On Saturday we slept late, until 11 o'clock. Although the day was red hot, we decided to visit the zoo. It was a fantastic place, I can recommend the place to anyone who's at least 10% child at heart. I love zoos, of course, being at the intellectual level of a 4-year-old. As the weather was scorching, we felt absolutely drained after our three hour trip around the zoo. After the zoo we headed to the centre, to Calle de las Infantas. There we went to a tapas bar that LE and KP had recommended to us. We ordered a glass of beer (yes, in Spain beer is usually served in normal sized glasses) and a glass of wine (also served in a regular glass) but what we got was a whole meal! You have to love this 'tapas' culture! The meal cost us 4 euros, and not a single dime more.

On Sunday the four of us (LP, LE, KP and me) went to Toledo. If you bought a Lonely Planet travel guide on Spain you'd notice that the description of Toledo stands out from the text: it's a wonderful piece of medieval Spain, a monument of exquisite grandeur, or something. But it's not. Sorry to say it, but it's true. It's an old place with old stuff, more or less. It's not a complete piece-of-junk tourist attraction as it has a couple of interesting sights but... It's not otherworldly, either. Still, I have to tell you this. If you ever go to Toledo the mosque (Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz) is a MUST! It's, well, by far the most beautiful building I've ever seen.

Disclaimer: You noticed the sarcasm there in the end of the last paragraph, right?

On Monday I had classes to attend to. Bummer! Yeap, it's sad but no can do. Hey, we still went to have a lunch picnic in the Retiro Park. And you know what? I was kinda bad... I carved 'Jope <3 LP' on a tree trunk after our little picnic! I'm so EVIL, I know. Well, I do hope the tree survives my assault. But, anyways: now it's there. And it's all true, too.

On Tuesday, well... I had even MORE classes! So, LP decided to go and explore the city centre all by herself. I joined my dove and LE in the evening and we sat in the Plaza de España for a while. Then we walked to see the Banco de España, the Prado Museum and the Museum Reina Sofia. After our quite thorough tour of the tourist attractions on and around Gran Vía we went to the Atocha train station. Finally at 23.30 pm we took a bus to the airport since LP's flight back to Portugal left early this morning. We spent the night sleeping side-by-side on the airport floor. If you ever have to do the same, be sure to bring a lot of clothing! I mean, it was freezing! But, it was bearable: I got to spend some more time with LP, at least.

And now, my life has come to a standstill: I'll be leaving for Lisbon on the 30th. Until then, I guess I have to find something to do to keep myself preoccupied.

Umm, maybe I could write colossal blog posts?