Buckeyes are alive and well in Madrid

Today was awesome :)  We slept in until about 10 and then got up and took our showers for the day.  Then Christina and I packed a picnic and took the metro to Retiro Park.  This is my new favorite place in Madrid.  It is a huge park that right in the middle of madrid with a rose garden, pond, tons of running and biking trails and beautiful monuments and fountains.  This place goes forever!! It’s so beautiful.  We walked around for a while and then sat down under the trees for our picnic.  Spain threw another curve ball at me when i looked up and noticed five long, rounded leaves in clusters with pointed balls in groups of one or tree all over the tree.  HHMMMM, could it be?  I shook a branch until a little nut fell off and I was in shock.  BUCKEYE TREE.  No, seriously, there are buckeye trees all over Retiro.  Little signs of home all over the park to help me feel welcomed.  After we explored a bit more (and only walked thru maybe a quarter of the park) we headed home and got our Abono passes on the way.  They are one month metro passes that you get so you can ride the metro as much as you want for a really reasonable fixed one time fee when you pay for the Abono.  When we finally got home we quickly changed and headed out for Christina’s friends apartment because they were making us dinner.  They are Dominican and they are fantastic.  So nice and welcoming and their english is very good so that is always a plus!  This was the meal they cooked: the salad consisted of lettuce, mayo, tuna, and onion all cut up and mixed together.  You are then supposed to put this mixture on a tex-mex dorrito and each it like nachos.  It was actually pretty good.  Weird.  After a few drinks, dinner, and conversation we left their place to meet Kristina, Michael, and their friend Cally out for Michael’s birthday.  We went to some bars and a club on our street and had a pretty great time.  We got home around 4AM and listened to music, played some card games and then drank until about 5:30.  Thus, I am telling you about the day the next morning, hung over and tired :)  But it was really worth it and I slept like a rock.  The jet lag is starting to go away I think.  It’s another beautiful blue-skied 95 degree day here in Madrid and I think we’ll be walking around again today to figure out where things are.  Everyday’s an adventure, right?? :)