Magic Spain

Well kids, after sleeping in til noon, we woke up to our usual fabulous breakfast courtesy of Esperanza, did some reading (homework's gotta happen sometime, armirite?), then went to meet Hannah and Alexandra, plus a Danish girl named Emily who Alexandra met last weekend, at the train station so we could go to the big event of the day: Spanish Oktoberfest.

Spanish Oktoberfest?? Isn't that a German thing, you ask? Why yes, yes it is. Spain does not know how to do Oktoberfest. I suspect they skimmed a Wikipedia page, possibly one written in JAPANESE, and then decided they knew what it was all about.

It was held in Colmenar Viejo, a tiny industrial town at the end of the train line, PAST Getafe. The "fest" itself was in a local park which also contained a children's playground. There wasn't any live music, but the did have a couple of speakers playing some early Christina Aguilera. Why go to Munich when you could have all this?

So many to choose from!

All kidding aside, though, we really had a great time. It was super affordable, and there was actually a great selection of craft beers, definitely the biggest spread I've seen since being here. We didn't get too crazy because 1) It was early afternoon and 2) I'm still kind of off alc after 1-Euro Shot Night on Wednesday. I tried a blonde ale, a wheat, and this weird "smoky" ale that literally tasted like beer-infused barbecue sauce.

After WeirdBeerFest, we headed back to Madrid for dinner at "La Gringa," the sister restaurant of Carmencita, where we had brunch last weekend. It's owned by this woman from Arizona, so it's got the best American Southwest food in Madrid, as far as I know. This country somehow missed the whole Tex Mex thing.

We tried to hit up El Tigre afterwards, but we were all so full of guacamole, pulled pork, and chicken flautas--oh and also carrot cake whoops--that we couldn't even finish our first mojitos. Plus the taste of liquor made me want to vom.

Tomorrow we're going to have to hole up at a cafe for some hardcore homeworking before the week ahead, but, then again, chilling at one of Madrid's many fun cafes for the day is no great hardship.