Sighting: My Street Madrid

Attención: ¡Estoy Boracho!

I had to put this one up, I just don't think I could pull this one off at home.

Fabrica de la Yaya

What can I say about Fabrica... fabs if you will. This place has been my second home since we arrived. We couldn't have been luckier because its only a block away and you can see it from my room.  The bar features 5 tables each equipped with their own tap. You pour as much as you want and the amount you drink is recorded on a flat screen by liter, and it even keeps track of which table is in first.  

Not to mention you get free fries every 5 liters, *clutch*.  We're part of the family down there now and good friends with the bartenders, who own the place, Ignacio (aka Nacho) and Enrique, as well as our lovable server Yolanda. Fabrica will be missed dearly when I leave.

 Note the old spaniard rockin out with the mic stand guitar.

This is our post fabrica haunt, Disco Pub.  This obscure hole in the wall bar is a local karaoke hotspot for the elderly madrileño crowd and also happens to be near a block from my house.  When fabs closes up shop we often find ourselves rubbin elbows with old-folk and jamming out to some righteous tunes.  A great place for cougar hunting i must say.

More dam photos

My Dutch lover and her sweet whip.

The crew ready to embark.

Amsterdam

Thats alot of bikes

It only took the short cab ride from Central Station, through the heart of the city, to my hotel to convince me that Amsterdam would forever be one of my favorite cities. Everything about it, from the architecture, style and beauty of the city to the people, bars and shops, this town is unbelievable.  There is such a diversity of culture and style here.  Unfortunately, the bathroom in our hotel room reeked as though something had died, rotted, and then caused an extensive mold problem within our shower drain, but we were in high spirits and didn't let it slow us down.  The city shows that bike advocacy is a real, working lifestyle and not a trendy fad like in the states and everyone commutes by bike.  Despite freezing temperatures, rain, sleet, snow and putrid bathrooms, Amsterdam well may have been my favorite trip to date. I really hope I get an opportunity to spend a longer stretch of time there soon because a weekend just wasn't enough.

Plans for my return..

I found this application over at pedalmafia that lets you mock up this little model of a fixed gear with different components and colors.  Being obsessive as I am, obviously I had to make a model of my bike with all the modifications I'm going to put on it when I get back... haha. check it.

I'd have to say I think she's looking pretttty good. Equipped with asian banners for that NJS Keirin feel haha.

Cold War Kids

The Opening band was sick too, Hitaljín, check them out. Here's us with the main singer.

Last week, Cold War Kids came and played a show at this tiny venue in Madrid.  Under the impression that we were late and lacked time, I pounded some beers in front of the venue and really absorbed the scene. Probably the most hipster setting I've seen in Madrid, and I fit in quite nicely touting my forty in a paper sack, I was reveling in the scenery.

  However we weren't early and in all my nostalgia I kicked back a little more than my small dinner expected.  The concert was awesome, regardless of my sloppyness, the band played great and the venue was ideally sized.  AND in the heat of the scene before the show, I saw and hungout with the band in front of the venue, one on one. We apparently hungout with them after too, but thats all in the blurry aftermath of the show.

Segovia with MJ

Our drive back through the mountains to Madrid saw some cool clouds and lighting.
Basically a miniature Versailles outside of Segovia.
The view of Segovia from the peak of the castle's tower.
After 100's of stairs up a winding turret, we made it to the tower.

The day after our trip to the beer factory, our wonderful señora MJ, short for Maria Jesus Monjas, had planned a trip for us to her home town of Segovia.

  I didn't even know she could drive a car, let alone that she owned one, but soon enough I found myself zooming through the spanish countryside sitting shotgun with MJ.

  Segovia is an amazing and historic town.  There are castles, a roman aqueduct and loads of old cathedrals and churches. 

 Thankfully we had a resident to show us around. A day with Mj proved to be a pretty fun/comical experience.

Like college students in a beer factory..

So, for our final excursion with our traveling class, we visited Grupo Mahou San Miguel which is the leading producer of beer in spain.  After a quick tour of the facilities and the factory, we were lead to the private pub within the factory.  We were given 25 minutes, and it was still only 11:30 in the morning, but this seemed to only inspire our efforts.

  25 minutes of free beer and tapas got us all in the right state of mind for the second leg of our journey to Alcala de Henares. This town is home to one of the oldest universities and also the home to the writer of Don Quixote. The university is supposedly the model after which USD was built, but I didn't see too much of a resemblance.

Valencia

Our second excursion with our travel class found us in Valencia in the Southern region of Spain.  A little bit smaller than Madrid with a bit slower and more relaxed vibe to it.  I liked the city, the nightlife, and all the sites. We attended the Museum of Science and Arts the first, which was housed in two unbelievable buildings by the accredited architect, Santiago Calatrava.  Less exciting, but surprisingly interesting, we visited a tile/ceramic factory outside of Valencia and also visited the Lladró factory.  We finished up the factory visits with a well needed stop by a winery on the way back into Valencia. Valencia is another great location in Spain, and the trip was another great break from the daily schedule at school. My plans for the rest of the time are pretty tenuous in regards to travel, but we'll see what I scrape together. I think I have a couple more free weekends lying around....

Valencia (Part 2)

I only got a few minutes at the beach, but it was a nice sight.  The waves were lacking, but I was impressed for the Mediterranean and couldn't help but imagine getting a few lines on the right board. 

Jimmy Came to Madrid

Sunset over the gardens in Parque Retiro

Well its not quite the ocean, but its still pretty nice to look at.

The sanctuary.

I miss CA

So as much as I try to resist, I pulled up surfline today and one of the featured stories was "California Combo-Swells".  I hate my life. I couldn't be happier to be here in Madrid right now, its amazing, but when I see perfect surf alll over CA, especially in Newport and HB, it makes things difficult.  I hope you've all taken advantage of these gifts because I have been incapable and sorrowful at my lack of ocean/wave activity. I miss CA, from the beaches to the homies to my scene....I'm so excited to be here till Dec., but I'm equally stoked on my inevitable return home...

More Italy

Italy

After a boring week of finals I was pleased to find myself on my fall break.  We had Thursday - Tuesday off of school and had made plans to travel to Italy.  

We landed in Rome on Thursday night, late, and made our way to our mediocre hostel.  We were only in Rome for two nights so we were gonna make due with the hostel, but the next morning some friends of ours in the same hostel but a different building, woke up with bed bugs... sketch.

  After we switched to our new hotel, Rome was ridiculous; having only one day there we had to cover some serious ground.  We covered all the basic tourist stops (coliseum, trevi fountain, pantheon, vatican, etc) and made our way through a pub crawl that evening that started at the spanish steps.  The next morning we caught a train to Florence to see all of our friends studying there and stayed for another two nights.  

The food in Florence was incredible, I ate at the best Italian Restaurant I've ever been to and there's pizza, paninis, gelato and tons of other food available everywhere.  Needless to say, I ate my way through Florence, and Italy in general for that matter.  After partying with all our friends in Florence we took off on Sunday for Venice.  

I couldn't help but feel reminded of Balboa as I walked around the streets over bridges and by canals.  I would love to have a place there with a boat and be able to get around by boat all the time.  

I really had no expectations coming into this trip and was pleasantly surprised by how sick Italy was. It has everything from the historic sites and the night life to the food and its amazing climate and countryside.  good times for sure.