Lessons in Madrid

Another day in Madrid, and another day filled with lessons about travel. Number 1: Don´t piss off the local tour guides. We went to go on this free walking tour of the city but it was interrupted when the tour guide union reps interrupted with brochures detailing the illegal activities of said free tour. Apparently, the free tours are not official tours in Madrid so therefore the tour guides aren´t legitimate and aren´t supported by the city or the union. After some heated exchanges between the guide of the free tour and the official guides, we decided to support the union and leave. It was disappointing to not get the tour we had looked forward to but we felt like we needed to support the cause of the tour guides.

We decided to continue on the way and explore on our own. Lesson number 2: Always zip your purse & watch out for packs of women. As we were walking towards the next destination, I (alex) observed a woman standing ridiculously close, right behind us. I then saw the woman had her hand on Kirsty´s purse. At this point, I pulled Kirsty away and the woman walked away with her posse of two other women. We were both in shock at what had just happened. Luckily for the gang of the purse-snatching bitches, we were too shocked to yell or hit them. And it was probably for the best because we would have started an all-out brawl. More than just that, it was very very fortunate that Kirsty had her purse all zipped up or else it could have been bad news. From that point on, we made sure to ALWAYS have our purses zipped and made sure to both watch out for one another while keeping an eye out for potential thieves. We made sure to follow through on this lesson when we wanted to get our picture taken in front of a lovely fountain. We watched for potential photographers and decided our safest bet was two elderly women who wouldn´t be able to run off with our cameras. Yet, they were also unable to handle technology and while taking the photo, cut both of our heads out of the photograph. Oh well!

Finally, we ended our day in the central park in Madrid. Lesson number 3: Never turn down a boat ride for 5 euros. We rented a cute little boat and paddled our way through the pond/lake. It was a lovely day and we didn´t get robbed. Mission accomplished.

Hope all of you are surviving the cold and the snow.
Much love,
- alex + kirsty = sunburned