Playing catch up...

Woooooo! Just got back from the Fiorentina v. Lazio match! Hooligans were wild and brought the noise in a killer match up... But before i get ahead of myself.... I'll have to tell you how i got here:

We left SFO on a Thursday morning and arrived in Madrid on the heels of the worst jet lag either of us had ever experienced.... A return to the MAD hostel was in the cards and we quickly met some Aussie friends (typical...i know). We quickly hit the Madrid bar scene and settled on a mellow mid east bar called blue moon... The comfortably mellowed spot proved a perfect spot to relax and do what we do best on our first nite...

Madrid for us was filled with stops at outdoor bars and taperias, the sampling of the food and AMAZING white wines of the land... Rueda, rioja and verdejo proved the perfect companions to nightly self guided tapas tours.... Mercado San Miguel boasted BY FAR the best collection of taperias. Everything from fresh sliced jamon serrano to langostinos and oysters all under one massive roof!

We found an evening to see the melange of shadow creations and interpretive dance that was "Pilobolus" of academy awards fame. But the most memorable eve in Madrid was our last, when we fatefully met a group of locals as we chatted over a glass of verdejo at san miguel with our newest new yorker friend, gabrielle. We were led to an inconspicuos bar with an ecclectic group of Madrileños and drank the evening away exchanging stories about life in our respective cities.

I found that our Spanish counterparts had a profound love for Madrid and a distinct understanding and respect for the history of the city and country in which they resided. Such amazing people and so outgoing... The very way we were initially approached to join them seemed to have and alterior motive at first, but the more we talked and got to know each other, i realized that our invitation was driven by their thirst to get to know our culture and to share the ways of theirs.

I'm thankful for the perspective i gained on that final night in Madrid and the people whom we befriended... I got such a better sense of this city my 2nd time around and left pumped to experience Paris with the same reckless abandon and a sparked appreciaton for life...Lets do this!

Adrian Spinelli - International Man of Mystery

Musical selection: Dirty Projectors- Bitte Orca