July 20- Burn Out

One huge day of shopping. I'm not sure if I can sum up my disappointment in the spending of our last days in Europe. Though from what I head the "culture" of Madrid is the only thing to experience. And thus far the only real culture I've experienced are the multitudes of prostitutes outside the hostel every night. I'm not sure why we are in Madrid so long when there is nothing to do, and in Barcelona for so short a time where there was so much to see. Most everyone woke up really late (some still drunk) and I put in my head phones to avoid hearing the previous nights play by play escapades.

I ventured off on my own eventually after I couldn't take looking at shoes and dresses anymore and walked until I realized I had hit the "gay district". Every shop was rainbow and every other person walking down the street was holding hands with their male partner. The bars were all gay bars and I was happy that I had finally found something different in Madrid, and experienced something I havn't really seen in the U.S. much outside of the occasional gay festival.

We met back at the hostel a few hours later, and got ready for the over 24 hour long- never ending "Laura's Birthday celebration" We went down to the bar at the hostel and had some dinner and Sangria. We bought a couple mixed drinks, I had a tequilla sunrise, which made me feel ridiculously sick the rest of the night. Some people they had met the night before came and joined us, a creepy old man stayed with us the rest of the night. It's just me, but I do not want to "hang out" in a foreign country-let alone on the United States- with a man old enough to be my father. But when I expressed this feeling I was quickly jumped on and told that "he's human too" and given disgusted looks. Right, so I'm the one who now has to deal with the perve all night and watch his hands and move away when he tries to grab my hips, all because everyone else thinks its cool while they are with their other conquests.

They went to a bar and I left when they decided to go dancing somewhere else. I couldn't take the old man anymore, or the tequilla sunrise.

Madrid has burned me out of Europe.