Friday, December 3-Today
Since it’s a long weekend—aka Puente—Will, Arturo and I had discussed going to Madrid for a few days. Arturo and I even walked to the train station on Friday and bought tickets for one of the Saturday trains. We wanted tickets for the noon train (there was also 8:15AM and 6:30PM), but it was full (maybe that should have been a sign…) so we opted for the earlier, 8:15 one. We got back home and I started looking for hostels online (which in retrospect, we should have done that first, obviously). EVERY hostel I looked into as completely booked! Will started looking with me and he couldn’t find anything either! Even the hostels that cater to “primarily gay clientele” were booked, go figure! At that point, we pretty much called defeat. Will looked up the train ticket refund policy and it said that if we got there at least five minutes before our train was to leave we could get a full refund! So Arturo, bless his heart, went back at 7:45 on Saturday morning and got our money refunded.

Saturday Gunita and some others were supposed to go to Lisbon, but there was a massive airport strike in Madrid from Friday to early Sunday (I think!) and the whole country was basically shut down, flightwise, that is. Thousands of people were stranded and stuck sleeping in terminals. The government threatened prison if they didn’t return to the skies! All because of working hours and benefits…they spoiled so many people’s plans. Spanish air traffic controllers earn the most throughout all of Europe, by the way. So with the strike, we probably could have gone and found a hostel with space available, but oh well…it wasn’t meant to be this time.

Saturday night Gunita, Conchi, Jesús and I went to Stone for dinner and then to Tomelloso for fiesta. We picked up Jesٖús’ girlfriend, Rosalía, long the way, so that made us five. We didn’t even get there until about 1:30 and I was already tired. I didn’t have too much fun that night…between the noise, smoke and being tired. I was more than ready to go when we left, I think about 5:15. I’m not exactly sure; all I know is that it was nearly six when I crawled into bed Sunday morning.

I got up at three o’clock on Sunday afternoon and Gunita asked if we wanted to go to Albacete for fiesta and the night. And of course we all went…the three of us, plus Jesús and Arturo. Luckily, Jesús drove, so we didn’t have to take the train! We left I think a little after eight and by the time we parked and walked to the hotel, it was about a quarter to ten. A little while later we went and had dinner at this little tiny café. We only went to two bars the entire night, but they were pretty nice. When I say “nice” I mean is wasn’t wall to wall people (so we actually had bar space!) and the smoke wasn’t that bad either!

              Here we are at one of the bars…Arturo, Gunita, I and Jesús!

We got back to the rooms around five I think and hung out in the boys’ room for a while—actually Gunita, Arturo and I talked while Will and Jesús slept. We went back to our room at six. For some reason I woke up at 8:30 and was ready to get up, but I made myself stay in bed until 9:45—my alarm was set to go off at ten. We left the hotel at noon and went to a nearby café for a small breakfast. We walked around the city a little more; walked to the cathedral, but none of us really wanted to go inside. We got in the car and were just kind of driving around and we ended up at this Chinese store and took a look around. We bought a little tiny tree, some ornaments and garland. I also bought some coasters with different Madrid scenes depicted on them.

We then drove to Imaginalia, a big shopping center there in Albacete. We lunched at Cocina Wok, a Chinese buffet. It was so good! We walked around for a bit after that and found is arcade! Will and Gunita played the dance stomping game (or whatever it’s called), Jesús tested his strength with the hammer thing and Arturo and I played some air hockey! It was fun…I haven’t been to an arcade in like ten years! Gunita said she felt like some ice cream and there just happened to be a McDonald’s right across the street from where we parked, so we all got McFlurries. Those were also really good…it’s been forever since I had one!

We got back home at 5:45 and Gunita and I took naps. Arturo and Jesús came over again to watch a movie, Perfume, at nine. What a strange movie…we started to watch another movie, Scoop, but no one was really watching; Jesús and Arturo left a short while later. The three of us hang out of a while before going our separate ways for the night. I went to bed at 2:45.

It’s three o’clock now and has been raining the entire day. I don’t have to go anywhere (thank goodness!) but there’s something peaceful about listening to the rainfall. I’m still in my pajamas and debating whether or not to get dressed at all today…right now I leaning towards having a pajamas day…

Xoxo,

Court