Parks and Squid!

 Today I drove the car 6 times, I repeat, 6 times, without stalling.  !  I think I deserve chocolate con churros tomorrow for that.  Churros have quickly become my reward for just about everything. 

   In other news I tried squid this morning! Way better than I expected.  My friend Mati and I explored the botanical gardens, and concluded all of the prettiest plants are from japan.  

Mati at the Botanical Gardens

 I didn't have classes for a couple of days so I got to do some exploring.  I went to Casa del Campo, Madrid's enormous park.  Its huge.  6.6 square miles. 

It used to be the royal hunting grounds and then was converted to an urban park.  This provided a much-needed break from the endless noise of traffic that most people are oblivious to, but it drives me insane. 

Casa del Campo

Madrid has a good number of really great parks, and I spend lots of time in them.  During the nights the parks are a very very popular place to meet up with friends and get drunk on (mostly)cheap wine mixed with cola. They call this tradition Botellon. You get drunk here first, then go to discos, etc. There is no end to the nightlife here.  Incredible.  Some friends and I tried to go to a techno party the other night, but it was already full with 10,000 people.  No joke.  There was another 5,000 partying outside the club. 

I want to live here!  Gardener's shack in one of the gardens

 

 Spain is going through a unbalanced time, unemployment is very high (25%), the national banks need to be bailed out, and the government itself may  need to ask the EU to bail them out as well.  There is a rather right-wing government at the moment, and to budget they are trimming many social services.  Due to many of these factors, there have been many protests around the congress lately, some becoming violent.  Students and young people (whose unemployment is at about 50%) have been protesting off and on for quite a while. There are also metro strikes often, the three weeks I've been here there have been 4 separate days of metro strikes.  Lots of unrest, and its very apparent here.  

 

Last but not least!  This one is a disco.