DATE
2019.04.12

START
Madrid
Avenida de Oporto, 33, 3a

END
Madrid
Avenida de Oporto, 33, 3a

DISTANCE
~ 10 miles

TRAVELED BY
Foot • Metro

HIGHLIGHTS

• Slept in, got much needed rest after a long day and late night.

• Had a weird dream where I got drunk and blacked out and woke up with sore legs from some ill-advised and unexplained Simpsons tattoos.

• Hung out on the sun-filled mini-balcony with Taylor and drank iced coffee and ate a bowl of delicious chocolate chocolate chip ice cream (for breakfast) while waiting on his homemade pizza to finish.

• Did my first test run of hand-washing socks and underwear, which I’ll be doing regularly during the Camino. Looking forward to the challenge of making such an unremarkable task part of my daily ritual.

• Walked around the neighborhood a bit and bought a pack of razors.

• Met up with Stephanie at a place called Tupper Ware, which was a cool, kooky bar with a pretty wacky interior (see pic below).

• Her coworkers and students were nice and cool, though there were so many of them I only really remember a few (Fernando, a 19 year old student from Nicaragua and Málaga, Spain; and Josh, a Brit expat who is an avid hip hop fan, among other things).

• Met a few of her other friends, Johnny (an older British eccentric jack-of-all-trades who seems pretty cool and relatable) and Danielle (one of Steph’s friends from Indiana), as well as Steph’s dog Rocco (I’ll have a picture to share soon enough).

• Talked with K8 on the phone several times, including a surprise chat during her afternoon coffee venture.

• Heard from Jessica and Conner about driving their dog, Bisou, to North Carolina in mid-June, and it seems like their target date range will line up with my availability.

• Hank, one of my newer friends in NYC (who is from Indiana and went to IU) recently finished the first draft of a novel, and he finally sent me a copy of it for me to check out.

CHALLENGES

• Very tired start to the day, but the sleep was good, and I didn’t end up being hungover in any real way.

• I haven’t been able to call my bank over WiFi yet, but I will probably get a message reply from them soon.

SOME THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO TOMORROW

• I think I’ll be going on a picnic with Taylor and Paula, and depending on their travel plans, I may meet back up with Steph/crash at her place.

• Looking forward to all of that, plus hearing from K8 about all of her goings on this weekend.