Appropriately Timed Thoughts On Madrid

I've been here for 3.5 days worth of activities now, so I think I can have some opinions that aren't based on first impressions.

During the walking tour, our guide mentioned that something would happen to her about once a week. She called it "getting drunk by accident". She would go out to meet a friend for a tapa and a drink, and the next thing she knew, she was salsa dancing at a gay bar at 4AM while hammered. This sounded like a personal issue when she said it, but the more time I spend here, the more I see why this isn't abnormal. This city is like that one friend you have who is a total shit show and gets you to act a fool. You know the one. They wake up at 10, deal with a hangover, get going a but before noon, have lunch at 4, eat dinner at 10, and go get wasted and pass out in the wee hours of the morning. That's Madrid's schedule even if you don't drink. And Madrid insists you fucking drink. Lunchtime? Madrid insists it come with a free wine (or shitty beer), and you will linger long enough to have a few. Tapas? Best deal involves more booze. You can easily get a buzz going without trying, and then you're quite open to suggestion. If not for the need to be functional and see things, I'd be drunk a lot too.

Perhaps another thing keeping me soberish is the beer here in Spain. My guidebook said that the Spanish love beer. The guidebook was clearly written by somebody who never actually bothered going into the cervecerias that are everywhere. The Spanish love drinking. They tolerate beer. If they loved it, there would be more than 4 different brands, and they wouldn't all be godawful macro style pilsner. Even in my girlfriend's home town of 3000 people, where the one bar is full of taxidermied varmints shot by the clientele, there are 6 varieties of beer now, and several are craft beer. Madrid bars have one tap, and the standard serving is about 12 oz. "The Spanish love beer" my ass.

The 15000 step a day estimate I gave was way off. It's actually closer to 20000. My feet are a bit sore now.