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.