Evening all or should I say Buenous nachos. Steven here. As you can see Anna is yet to write a post, this is because she is currently sitting engrossed in her book and I quote 'can't be arsed to do the blog'. We have also come up with a new name for her which is Anna "The Card Shark" Browne as she keeps beating us both at cards. She is either cheating or has ridiculous luck (it can't be because she is better than us)!!

Anyways yesterday was our first full day in Madrid and we managed to catch the last bit of breakfast which the hostel offered. After the free tour we had on Wednesday we decidd that we would go back to the Palace and look around inside. It was very impressive inside with all the lavish furniture and decorations but the outside lacked any "wow" factor except for a pillar box which amused us considerably. The palace had 2400 rooms, but unfortunately we didn't have time to look round them all.

After the palace we went to have some lunch and then found a bar with brilliant views which overlooked the Almudena Cathedral and the northern mountains. We sat and had a massive jug of sangria (which I now like) and enjoyed the views while playing a couple of rounds of cards (and I bet you can't guess who won the majority! Well actually it wasn't Anna because we were playing uno and she is crap at it).

We wandered around the botanical gardens and then went to an Art museum which we didn't especially like given none of us can appreciate art unless its a well known piece. We treked all the way round to find the Rembrandt room as he was someone we had heard of only to find that it was closed and not due to open till the 17th October much to our annoyance.

We headed back to the hostel and had the delights of microwave lasagne for dinner. Talk about performance to get it cooked!! First of all we only had tin plates which were big enough to use but obviously we couldn't use these in a microwave. The plates we found which we could use were to small so we had to put the lasagne in on these small plates in order to defrost it first so we could then cut it in half and put it back in to cook properly! All in all it took us almost 40 minutes to cook the two dishes!!

After dinner we went out in search of a cheap bar where we could have a bit to drink and play some cards. We had a quick glass of "Vino Tinto" (red wine to those that don't speak Spanish which I now also like. By the end of the holiday I think Tom and Anna will probably have turned me into an Alcoholic!!!). We then found a great little bar in a place called Tribunal which we spent the remainder of the night in. The music was great and the drinks were cheap. Rounds cost us 7 euros for 2 glasses of wine and a bottle of beer. We also got some honey rum shots which were very enjoyable. We staggered back to the hostel at around 2.30 and fell into bed.

The morning began with Tom and I missing breakfast and all of us feeling a little worse for wear after our night on the town. We managed to make it out of the hostel for 12.30 and went in search of food.

Right this is Thomas taking over as Steve has gone for a drink (no alcoholic after last night!). I don't know what he's been babbaling on about so i'll be quick. We got a sandwich and sat there until life felt better again and then headed up to the park to partake in a little sunbathing, IPOD listening and reading. Basically we spend the rest of the day in the sun and meandered our way back to the hostel. There are not big plans for this evening as we have all vowed to never drink again. Well your up to date and we will strive to keep the blog current but excuse us if we miss a few days.

A quick note about the pictures this computer doesn't like them so we'll try in Barcelona to update them. Also a shout out to Vic and Cristine for the message posts keep them coming if you have any pearls of wisdom, places to visit suggestions or amusing comments. So it's left to me to say good night. Bye for now.

Anna's just joined us because she's got scared by her book and in her word said "I was hearing noises like a rustling"! This girl has severe problems. Night