THAT WAS NOW THIS IS THEN. Time is running. I am walking. And actually I just read yesterday that there is no time. It is just an invention of ours. So fuck that. And I have. That´s the reason of two months pause in writing. Well, as a matter of fact it was just a test. To see reactions of my dear readers. And know what? Did I get huge amount of posts to continue writing? what would you think...? YES, I GOT!!! Thousands of emails and normal mail too! The amount of my fans totally surprised me. Thank you all! I love you!

TO THE FINELAND Some music, or voice, or ringing. have to be robotmonsters or something. I open my eyes. Where the fuck am I? What is this? Why I´m hearing the ringing? it´s the middle of the night. Every cell in my body and the only one thought in my mind tell me to close my eyes and continue what is the only sane thing to do. Sleep. But behind, there is supposedly something else, because against the nature I fight to keep my eyes open and sit up on the side of the bed. freezing. I feel horrible. What am I doing. I go to shower in hope for some warm water. Waiting the hot water to come, shivering naked in the bath. Soon it comes but I still feel cold. and dark. I turn the water cold. It´s better. to wake up. to get the shit moving in my body and those good chemicals smashing around in my head. Feeling little bit better after the shower. For a while. I take some dry bread from the kitchen table and finish a half full glass of wine from yesterday or day before. And damn it feels good, instant warmth inside me. this could make a habit. For some caffeine i open a chinese red bull can and finish it with a sip or two. I look around the cold and small room I´ve lived for 5 months. Nothing. I take my stuff and get out. For the last time. It´s cold outside. Almost as cold as inside. I head with all my baggage of around 40kilos to a nearest big street. Taxi stops inmediately. my luck. I watch the passing-by city through the window. some people are already on their way to work. better paid people are still sleeping. The driver laughs with the talk show from radio. It´s still dark. and everything unconfortably unstable. Maybe i´m still sleeping. it surely feels so. We ride so fast through the dark city. Only cars. robots. no humans. We are only ones, my driver and me. I think they don´t know we are we. I really trust him, the driver. He´s going to take me where I want. And he´s fast. big streets and houses. But my body is still sleeping somewhere. In that small cold room but warm and cosy bed.

Eventually we arrive to the airport. i´m checking myself in. I put my backpack on the line. I don´t dare to look long the weight it shows, 25 and some kilos. I´m sure i have to pay. a lot. Girl starts to say something. There it comes. fuck. But she says that maybe it´s better to put a tray for the backpack. I almost fart. I sobble something out and thank the god. The girl even accepts without a word my bag of two jackets and some shirts. More than delighted I continue through the security check. Have to take the final cup of coffee in Spain. It will be a cortado, a small one, with a hint of milk. Caffeine really doesn´t seem to help. should´ve take a double. single is for pussies. I´m still walking. sleeping, sleeping walking.

I wander around the terminals. With a funny small cart. smaller than they usually are. and quicker in turns. it ends up being a great fun. to pull it and make circles (made a 360° on the move) with it and everything. little fun for tired mind. With my cart I go through the shops and can´t resist to buy one litre bottle of Havana Club 7. Just for medical purposes, you know. I´m the last one to go through the terminal. of course. The others are waiting me in a small bus taking us to the plane. Hope they haven´t wait for long. Some people just hurry always. Soon everyone´s in the plane and after a while we´re on the move. Have to admit that the acceleration was quite lame. But somehow the plane got itself of the ground. And I´m happy for that of course. After a while I fell in a coma and saw some really strange dreams. I just opened my eyes for a while to eat some food they offered and then I went back down for horror and psychedelia.

I got some extra time resting my mind because we circled around for a while to get the licence to land. Some snowing they said. And true it was. When we landed I thought we had come to Siperia or some other less touristic spot in Russia. But then I remembered that this is how it is in Finland at winter. at least sometimes. Dark, grey and snowing and lots of trees, dark gloomy trees. And no one nowhere. Cool!

So, the trip went, dunno if well is the right word, but not bad either. Back to the roots. End of the story. for now. But new stories will come. Nobody´s reading but I´m fuckin writing! here in Fineland are some strange things which I really have to comment... So be aware, it´s coming soon. First posts from Finnish ambient. Let´s see what happens to the cruel and egoistic bastard in the dark winter of minus 20 degrees. suppose it cools down the opinions a bit...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Me. Thanks. but no thanks. time is running. and fast! where´s my wife. what about by my career. what career? im a fuckin student!! volvo? a dog? anything!!!??? fuck. i´m gone. there´s no hope. well, maybe a little. but have to stop playing around. I´m serious now. Tomorrow i will look a wife for me! I already know a street in the center of madrid where there are a few possible ones. but fuck, they rate for hour basis. well, one or two hours a day will do. it´s normal nowadays, postmodern life. and anyways, you wouldnt see your wife all the time. 2 hours a day is enough. yeah. and volvo... baah. well, maybe an old one. from eighties. does it matter if it works or not? guess not. so, i´ll buy a one and ask some company to take it to a free parking lot and i can go there and sit inside it a while everytime i feel the crisis coming. I already feel it, sitting inside the volvo, maybe wearing a suite and suite case, black leather suite case, it´s like a shelter, a place to reflect a bit, to get a little distance and calm down. yeah yea, sitting inside a volvo, they won´t get ya, im just telling you. it´s a safety haven. yeah absolutely! thats the one! absolutely! and and and, a career. something. already have a volvo and kind of a wife. yeayeayea, hmmmm, well. it has to be something normal. nothing special. something boring. kind of. you know what i mean. selling something maybe. maybe like door to door thing. yes why not! lately people dont do that. like vacuum cleaners! yes like in movies! and its fuckin great idea! they have never came here to spain. propably because yankees dont speak spanish. and spanish dont of course speak english. and its obvious! people dont use vacuum cleaners here. they dont! they use moby, you know that thing you put in water with cleaning chemicals, then dry it a bit and then clean the floor with it. It´s so 20´s! or something around there. This is Big. Bee, Ay, Gei! B € I € G ! BIGBIGBIG. But i will never sell the old volvo. It´s the cornerstone of my new life and wealth. Maybe I just move it to a better neighbourhood.

METRO OF MADRID:
















METRO OF HELSINKI:

THIS IS MY HOME. always the same. you go to the bar. you are feeling great. taking some drinks and nothing can stop you. then you leave the bar. and nothing can stop you. and you are looking anything to stop you. come on. stop me. come on. stop me. but nothing will stop you. and you go home. same home. if you want you make some food. you remember those chinese trying to sell you a beer on a way home. cerveza, un euro. you frie and warm anything you got. you dont have much. and you eat it. it´s all the same. it all taste the same. almost. it´s 7.29. the time, i mean. it´s all the same. who cares? you care. a lot. but not now. or so you want to think. it doesnt matter. i dont care. you dont care. she doesnt care. it´s all the same. nobody remembers it tomorrow.

CHILL OUT SANTA CLAUS. It´s christmas day. Hangin out in a nearby café. A sharp contrast to my home. Temperature is 25° (at my place 10° tops), smooth spotlights, white leather arm chairs, cool decoration and cool music. Actually it ridicilously cool but besides the heating, they sell fuckin delicious ice creams and they have free wlan. So cant complain listening to those typical over-eclectic chill-out tunes while drinking a tea and surfing around the virtual world deep inside the soft white leather totally isolated from the surrounding world.

After my shit hole flat this kind of normally uninteresting coolness is something you really start to apreciate. But now i have to go, some child-terrorists came with they parents and started their tipical act; screaming and laughing and whining. And throwing away the teddy-bears they got yesterday. Irresistable. There should be sign at the doors of restaurants, cafés and other public places like that: No noisy children, please.

Here´s panoramic view captured with my lousy (swedish) mobilephone so you´ll see what i mean.

SOVIET UNION WISHES YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

LE CANARD FRANÇAIS. During the holidays in the beginning of december i left the cold Madrid and headed to Barcelona after moths away from my old hometown. Of course it was the day when it was raining in always so sunny and warm barcelona. But fuck that, i had a car waiting for me and before i had said hola our spanish-uruguayan-french-finnish-group were already on the road to the north. We hit the border soon with masses of spanish cars getting away with us for a long weekend. It was strange when i realized in the gas station that i cant really speak anything the people would understand. It feels stupid. like you suddenly lost half of your intelligence. But well, people in the south of france understood well spanish and also english, which for me after visiting only paris in france was hard to believe. So it seemed for me that its not everywhere in france that people are arrogant and rude. And as we visited a picturesque middle-age town Carcassonne walking the ancient streets on the hill surround by stone houses and sitting a while in a café for a hot chocolate and a crêpe and in the evening wandering the streets of Toulouse, stomach full of delicious duck dishes, the specialities of the southern regions of France. Fat French Duck and its smoothy and deliciusly greasy liver (preferibly fried in its own fat in pan) being of course the first thing i remember from the trip I was also very impressed by the atmosphere of Toulouse, its really nice little city and the people are relaxed. And great student parties! heh heh. Well that was not all. After having a good lunch in Toulouse next day we directed the van towards the big forests and Armagnac region. After riding some hours passing small towns, dark green forests and fields with dears eating the grass and after changing all the time to smaller roads we finally arrived to big country house of parents of Elise. And the next days passed us by us eating all the good foods of Elise mother and drinking the fine armagnac of her uncles´ at the old distillery nearby. We made a ride around the french Basque-country which was really beautiful, especially the atlantic sea of course. It rored with all the powers and hitted hard the sandy and rocky beaches. The big waves climed the high walls of Biarrits and almost drowned all the city under the power of the kingdoms of waters. Impressing.

Here some photos from atlantic coast.

COLD. Summer is over. Think its something like 5 degrees outside. that wouldnt be so bad but the temperature inside is equal.

When lingering in the twilight of life and death, freezing and tembling, trying to survive till the next day and biting the blue lip to stay awake and not to fall into the valleys of the darkness, my mind wanders some four weeks back in time to the beautiful island of Mallorca, to those empty long beaches surrounded by mountains and big blue mediterranean sea with warm and refreshing water hitting the fine sand beach slowly and with those sounds of waves communicating in some strange eternal language of higher intelligence of great secrets hidden out there somewhere just waiting for someone to find them. And as well as those beaches, I remember the nightly walks through the ancient towns and hiking between the mountains in the nature and goats following our route behind. And I so remember the big house of Alejandra with swimming pool and palm trees outside. A slight smile could be seen in my blue´ish face maybe when im dreaming away from the cold reality. If I die here in the cold, you know I died somewhere warm and peaceful place, by the turquoise sea and under big sun.

Here are a few photos just for you to know what im talkin about.

SOUTHERN COMFORT. Also checked the vibes out there in the south. Some heavy culinary and luxury orientated travelling with the people of my work. Luckily the trip was well sponsored. Well, cant complain. First to Sevilla. Visited cathedral, hmm, it was a cathedral, well nice views it offered from the top as you can see. But what was really something was the river (of course even a brown river seems nice after living in Madrid and seeing water only when it rains). But yeah, sitting in a floating bar by the river, water reflecting sun beams full of positive energy and flowing easily away to other unknown destinations, while me sitting comfortably and sipping a drink, yes, nice.

After Sevilla we accomdaded ourselves in an old castle converted to a hotel. Paradores. Very interesting chain of hotels in Spain. If you want to have something special, i surely recommend it. Just check it yourself and youll see why... Sitting in the balcony of the room in the evening and looking the sky full of stars and enjoying the silence after never-ending noise of the city can be beated only by the experience of the next morning in the same place. Huge breakfast in my stomach, big and warm southern sun in the sky, green fields as far as eyes can see. And me, sitting in the balcony high above them.

Cordoba was also interesting. Beautiful arabic mosque was the architectural highlight of the trip. And narrow streets and white houses of the old town had that special feeling.

one photo tells more than thousand words, see for yourself.

NOCHES. It´s half past five. at night of course. my house mate is vomiting in the bathroom. He didnt want me to see he´s throwing it all back up. So im just listening the sounds and laughing. heh heh. Now i´m going to sleep and dream of beautiful spanish girls.

IL RIDE. Riding through Rome on a scooter. It´s one of those things you remember. Well, some would absolutely remember scaring like shit, becouse the traffic is slightly chaotic. But luckily i'm not one of those people. When the bus passed me 30 centimeters away with full speed while we were passing cars with scooter i had more important things to worry about, getting a good angle on the group of girls walking nearby. here you have some pieces of the ride to get a feeling and see some roman street life if you havent been there.

Fasten you seatbelts and click here

And to my finnish friends: When you are walkin those depressing lonely streets there in the dark and its winding cold through your clothes and the rain is beating hard on your face, think about me riding in the back of scooter in sunny and warmy Rome and zooming to beatiful roman girls. My friends, La vita è bella!

VENI, VIDI, VICI. In English, All the roads go to Rome. And so do airways. At least Iberia. Yep, I was there, in Rome, hosted by my dear Alessandro. Mille Grazie! 1000 thanks. What a good holliday it was! I slept usually almost till noon and sometimes even more and besides visiting sights and Ale´s friends and bars and places, i often just hung out at Ale´s place reading italian magazines and drinking some tea and eating plums, or checking out some italian bands from Ale´s housemate´s computer (but didnt find the winner of Subsonica., italian cool n´carino, unbeatable:). And I found it essential to rest well and take it easy while travelling. No more fast-and-stress-and-chaos-holidays for me and coming back like from a 5-year war. Well, let´s see.

But while drinking that tea and chewing those plums I came up with some strange things in Italy:

1. In bars and coffeeshops you usually have to pay first to one counter and then with the receipt you go to another counter and they will give you what you want. If you change your mind it surely is a mess, but i then realized that italians seem not really to mind it, maybe even like it...

2. Of course travelling with a city bus cant be as simple as entering a vehicle and buying a ticket from the driver. No, no, no! You have to find a news-paper stall and buy the ticket there. Logical.

3. Kebabs are not bad in italy. But with meat and salad they also put FRENCH FRIES in the fuckin pita bread! :D

4. The most stolen product from supermarkets in italy is Parmiggiano cheese.

5. In rome people drive to nearby villages to dine (especially porchetta, roasted small piggies... yami yami). The roads are so jammed at weekends because of this that the 30km trip lasts one hour. And finding a parking lot... and a seat in a tavern... But it surely was worth of waiting :D

6. Italianos prefer their pizzas with simple ingredients, like Margherita for example only with tomato and cheese and maybe a leaf or two of basil. But I was a little bit suprised when the guys offered me pizza and it didnt have any fillings at all! Pizza bianca they said... I have to reconsider my idea of pizza...

7. Pizza is also second name in Italia.

VISUAL UPDATE. My dear friend Kristian sent me my camera battery charger from finland. Thanks to Kricky´s efforts you can now enjoy some atmosphearical photography captured from the hoods of Malasana. I will enjoy the bottle of cheap wine i just bought from the super across the street.

SUPERSONG. The oficial song of the summer 2006 has been chosen. by me. independently. its not far from perfect with those catchy melodies, swinging beat and flecmatic and hazy oh-so-cool vocals. But what is the dot over i is surely those whistling parts! :D This is straight continuation to Walk Like an Egyptian, Patience, Wind of Change and other whistled classics! There is a psychological sub-level in these songs. Now of course for those who for some strange reason dont like whistling, believe me, as hard as it is, there are living that kind of creatures among us, me myself has been commented to shut up when whistling around some beautiful melodies, for those people i recommend keep on listening jean ludwig beethowen and his 5th simphony. Or wave and animal sounds from walkman to relax your stressed mind. and see, there will be a day in your future, just wait and see, when you´ll find yourself walking on the street, and, whistling. :D

The song is Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn and John - who are swedish of course - and you can download it from an other blog right here. of course stricly for educational purposes!

Enjoy, and whistle along!

KEBAB. Just had one. and you shitheads out there in the north, dont think you had one if you´re pupping in that shit they give you there! Im just saying that here you´ll get a quality döner kebab with 3 euros and its something different here! you´ve got a real greasy lamb meat stirring, warm and crispy pita bread, fresh tomatoes, onions, yogurt sauce, chili sauce and for extra 50 cents you get a fuckin good piece of a fresh feta cheese in it. its D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S, i just say you!!! in a hostel here i talked with a canuck backpacker and he said that cos its cheap and good he eats two kebabs a day!! ...in Canada kebabs must be even worse than in Finland. :D

FUCK YOU! Well, nobodys reading this, so Im just talkin to myself. Yeah, have been hangin around here for a good few weeks now. almost two weeks of work already, who would believe! not me. more like long tasty lunches and lots of wine. Well, its my kind of work. heh heh. hey! tell me if you have this kind of work for me!

well yeah, went for a cup a drinks with guys of my work. my paisanos. de finlandia. claro. y nada. drinking cheap wine in a plaza, mixing it with quality coca cola. heh heh. haaaa! yeah its good. and of course we are not left alone because we have 2 blond finish girls with us. a mexican guy join us and we head for some nearby bars. 2xmojitos 6e. good enough! price si, the place no. pues, drinks dranks rapids and on we go to a mexican bar (well known before, check the photo! hehheh). whiii... good quality herradura tequila reposado, claro, with a sangrita. Yas! It makes my day! I felt kind of depressed and tired before. I remember it now when i think it, after that, noup. haaaa. yas yas. thats my kind of drink. tsip tsip. okay okay.

Tupperware. its a good bar! we went there there with the french guys before. and the portuguese girls. its so so descriping that we never knew that there were also bar in second floor. cos we never went there. but of course for the finish it was too full and crowded and they wanted to go upstairs to sit down and so on. heh heh. its so like that. yeah.

While i was walking home, just around the corner, i live in the neighbourhood where theres lots of bars and stuff. and there were 2 spanish guys walkin the same way. drunk. and little passive-aggressive, it seemed, but not like in finland of course. heheheh. other one said me "welcome to spain" of course with that typical spanish accent. I of course said in spanish that i dont speak english sorry and added that do you speak spanish, in spanish. We had a chat i asked if they lived near (i was already almost at my door). they said they lived outside of madrid and they were totally pissed to have such a long way ahead. well, we were already at my door. i wished them good nights. when they realized i lived there, they started swearing (i think more for themselves than to me). Well it was the parked car who paid the bill -other one kicked off the side mirror.
its the choices you make...
and the side mirrors are always broken anyway.

im going to bed. actually im already in bed. but im just going to close this shit and getting in to some lizzy and wicked nightmares. im waiting for the snakes. its all in my mind. dont you dare to cross too deep inside.

TEQUILA & CO. Today I moved from culture-mixer Lavapies to punk-rock Malasaña. And not at all bad! small streets, nice bars, cafés and shops, clubs, restaurants and anything you want! And it´s Friday of September the first, when Madrileños come back from the holidays. Streets full of youngsters sitting and standing and running and jumping, having their bottles of booze and mixers there on the streets like it was a fuckin festival! Allright!

After getting all my stuff to my new home, i´ll serve myself some quality tequila with fresh squeezed orange juice, on the rocks. Outside it´s still hot and I look down to street from my own little balcony. And it´s looking good. Small and peaceful street with old buildings of different colours. Reminds me a lot of Gracia in Barcelona, where I lived a few years ago.

After cleaning up a bit, I finish my delicious drink, take a fast and cold shower and forward myself to nearby Tribunal metro station. A Spanish girl I know from finland is already waiting with some friends, all anxious to go some bars and have a nice time. We head to La via Lactia, a rock bar. But it gets more interesting when i here that it´s some 40 years old. And the doorman is still the same guy! Now serving the children of former customers... hahaa!

Nice time, cheap and strong drinks and lots of chat, some of them which i understand, some not, some of the dirtiest ones I get explained. There´s also music, but the spanish speak so much you really cannot hear it :D

Nights of Madrid. I have a feeling that there´s a lot more to see still.
And let´s see it!

GASTRONOMIC HALLUCINATIONS. It´s midnight. Just finished up my dinner, which was hearty and plenty. Here food is good. Even going to buy the food is always an experience. Even in supermarkets you find things you´ve never. Well, maybe it wouldn´t be an experience for all. It´s hard to believe but there are people who are not interested in food. They just eat it. Well I just went to El Corte Ingles (equivalent to Stockmann in Finland) food department. It was a long journey. I walk there and look things laughing and talking to myself every now and then. Especially the meat section was really interesting. Of birds you see usually only chicken but here that´s not the case. There is duck whole, breast, legs (I myself took one of those cuties:) and small or big greasy livers. and some smaller birds i didn´t even recognize. Also pieces of rabbit are nicely packed in plastic. For more experiencing people there are for example lamb brains - whuu, it was hard to resist! Just imagine, steamed lamb brains with fresh salad and a glass of wine. Or whatta heck, what would be a better way to start a day than lamb brains fried with eggs and onions and put on the toast softened with melting butter. Accompanied with fresh orange juice! Or for those into sports, just put two eggs, one raw lamb brain, banana and milk to your blender, give it a few good rounds (less if you like it crounchy, more if you prefer smooth). And voulá, what you have there is a healthy and tasty breakfast! Rich in proteins, just like you sport addicts want it.

TO WICKED WONDERLAND. at wednesday night i decided to go to railway station to check if there are vacancy in a night train to barcelona. With the necessities in a small backpack I headed to station, late as always. Luckily (or not) there were no waiting with metros and i got to the station 10 minutes before train would depart. And there were free places. So I thought a half minute and decided to go! Soon I found myself in a crowded old train moving slowly but without hesitation towards my old hometown. Old trains are always an experience! at least when you sleep in a 4 square meter room with 5 other persons. There are some things you just can´t do without a little help of alcohol. So, I went for bar and bought a small bottle of wine. Sipping the wine and looking how the image in the window turned from night time city view to reflection of a boy sitting still and drinking wine. When the bottle was empty, I felt i could sleep anywhere. Just the effect i was looking for!

In the cabin I started to chat with a spanish guy who turned out to be a dj in some clubs in madrid. Detailed and very interesting description of Madrid lightlife followed. In the morning I woke up when conductor came to tell that we would soon arrive to barcelona. I went to hang around in the toilet. You know. Getting fresh and charging the mobile and other things you do in train bathroom. It´s very underestimated place.

Okay, let´s move to some more interesting things... yeah, soon I was in those old metro cabins listening catalan announcements concerning the properties of next stop. Proxim estació! (woman´s voice), Plaza Catalunya (man voice renouncing the important fact), currespondencia con linea cinc (Hahaa, give me a break!). And a bit later i found myself wondering in La Rambla, the main avenue of the city! It was around eight o clock and still free of big turist masses that time. Such a beautiful moment! Headed to Boqueria to buy fresh bread, ham and quality spanish cheese and some fruits. In the bench of a nearby public garden hidden inside the big walls and small gates, i enjoyed my big handmade sandwich. After the breakfast I followed the example of others and layed down in the bench for a small nap. Well, I think for those others it wasn´t just a nice nap but more like everyday routine, if you know what i mean. All was perfect until those BCNeta bastards came terrorizing the peace with the cleaning car and shooting water everywhere! It's imposible not to meet those pricks if you visit the city! I bet BCNeta is the biggest employer of the whole fuckin city!

Yeah what! I visited some old institutions of mines and met some old friends! Tiny bar Trece near plaza real seemed to miss something. The drinks weren´t like they were before and the prices had gone up. Friendly oasis in a narrow old street, Cafe Bliss, was great as always! Always so delicicous and temptating cakes and quiches are hard to resist when seen behing the glass. My old classic, Pai Mu Tan white tee was still there and delicate and perfect as it was those first times I got to know this finest of tees in this very place. Lazy music and comfortable armchairs. Perfect escape from hectic city life. Many of my favourites were closed for august but at least Pla Dels Angels next to MACBA was open for great diner with friends. Duck confit is a secure tongue taker (finnish saying...) always! And it´s not expensive. Bar Marsella was also open. Absinth is still the speciality. I thought my body had already forgotten my last winter crazy absinth session, but I was wrong.. I just couldn´t drink it all. Some scars won´t go away.

LOS AMIGOS. Friends having it easy surrounded by mexican psychedelia in one bar last Friday.

REWIND. Rewind. What happened before these peaceful days hangin out in Lavapies, eating ice-cream and listening to sweet and lazy brazilian music? The man disappeared without traces from his hometown up North. Here´s what happened.

It was early morning when I woke up at my dear friends house and headed to airport. Of course on that particular day all the computers in the check-ins were down. And result was some terrifying long queues. Flight was late. And I had to change in Norway. There was some 30 minutes time before the flight would leave to Madrid when we landed. I ran. And I made it!
Unfortunately my luggage didn´t.

But, whatta heck!
I got to Madrid! Thought it would be 40 degrees or something. But to my surprise the weather was on some days last week even colder than in Finland! I didn´t mind. So, I headed right to the hostel MuchoMadrid where I had reservated a bed via internet. It was okay although pricey for. And awful loud! Even for me it was hard to sleep when below is one of the biggest streets of Madrid. My Taiwanese roommates didn´t seem to mind...

It was good that the next night was full and I went for Los Amigos hostel ( www.losamigoshostel.com ). It was really nice place with friendly staff. In my room there were 4 French lads. I had beer in my hand before I noticed anything. And after a while we were heading for Tupperware, a nice bar in Malasaña barrio. Rock n Roll! I remember these guys with warm feelings!

There were also other nice persons in the hostel. Marta and Susana from Lisboa and Adriana from Buenos Aires. Wonderful girls! So, with this great group we howered bars at night, and of course I was walking around and checking out some rooms on rent at daytime. During one of my long walks through the city I found a small chinese restaurant. It didn´t seem any special at all, but the long menu seemed interesting and different from all the semi-chinese-restaurants. I went in and ate well! And from that day on, I was there everyday. Delicious big noodlesoup costs 3 euros. Fried noodles 3,5 euros. Fantastic! The place is just around the corner from Gran via, near Plaza Callao, behind McDonalds (for those who are in madrid). Have to pay a visit there tomorrow so that they don´t think I´ve gone away :)

And finally, I released the stress and decided to rent a room from Malasaña hoods. But since it was free from the start of September, I didn´t know where to stay 2 weeks. But luckily, I found straight away this place to stay in those 2 weeks.

So, that´s about it till this point.

PHOTOS. Streets of Lavapies, Madrid

HERE I AM. typing the machine. My house mate is making herself a dinner and I can hear the tv shouting some, propably, more than stupid news or other things that´s no use for you to hear. But you listen to it anyway. Thats the way it is. But I like this place. It´s a nice apartment, big rooms with high ceilings, all stone. Old windows, with shaped black iron barriers there to keep out those punks going on the streets and wanting to steal my powerbook lying on the table just under the window. So near, but still so far. Hahaha. No, no no, just making it a bit more dramatic. Actually there are lovely kids of all colours playing a ball on the street just outside. When I look out of window, minding you that it´s a street level apartment, they stop for a while and look at the white boy in an open window and after a while one of them says - Hola. Can´t do nothing but smile and say likewise. They are so cute... Until they draw out those 9mm semi-automatics.

This is Lavapies, most multicultural of the barrios of Madrid. Nice place what i´ve seen in a couple of days. People are hanging out on those narrow streets and pleasant plazas, taking a cup of coffee or like me, eating a homemade italian ice-cream. Fuck, it´s just the best ice-cream I´ve ever eaten! What can i do? Nothing less than eat it at least two times a day, I tell you.

Up there you have some photos I took earlier this evening as walking around this barrio. Feel free to comment! But if you say something negative, I´m happy to anounce that Blogger nowadays host a service that shows the ip-adresses of people who write comments, so I will talk to the big brothers of those lovely kids playing outside and they will make a nighttime visit at your home. :D