Sunday May 15th to Thursday May 19th.
So the first 4 nights in Madrid, I stayed in a hostel called Cat's Hostel, also my own as Living Cats Hostel on Hostelworld. It's a very pleasant hostel, and appears very clean. The wifi didn't work anywhere expect the common room, which wasn't a terrible thing because the common room was beautiful. It had a lot of seating room and was very cozy. I would've really liked wifi in the room though cause Netflix was calling my name.
If you stayed in the hostel for more than one night, you'd realize how unclean the hostel actually is. Th cleaning ladies come into the rooms around 11am, and quickly change any sheets that need to be changed. The big blanket on the bed is never changed. I watched multiple people come and go and the blankets were always just refolded and put back on the bed. They never changed the blankets while I was there, so I'm really unsure how long those blankets have gone since they were washed last. Normally I assume the fitted sheet on the bed isn't clean because a lot of hostels hand you sheets for the bed, but I never would've thought the sheets were cleaner than the blanket. Basically, that hostel could've diseased me. I'm sure they just don't expect people to be in the rooms paying that close attention to what they are doing so they cut corners, but they knew I was in there so you'd think they would've been a little more secretive about it instead of making it obvious. Then again, most of the girls in my dorm didn't even notice that they did it when I pointed it out. The cleaning ladies also would just throw those blankets wherever was out of the way in the room, sometimes on a huge pile of dust that was the top of the lockers, sometimes half on the bed half on the floor. The blankets were not clean in case you haven't caught that yet.
So the first night I was there, they put me in a female only dorm which I hadn't asked for but greatly enjoyed. I didn't even have to go to the bathroom to get changed! The bathrooms there were wonderful. It was a lot like a locker room set up with a long row of toilets and another long row of showers. There was never a line because there was enough showers and toilets. They also had changing rooms in the bathroom as well. It always appeared to be clean, but I didn't sit in there to watch the cleaning crew do their job ya know. Anyhoo, on the first night I was there the boiler was broken. They were sending everyone who asked why there wasn't hot water to their sister hostel 2 blocks away to shower. One of the girls in my room, Tessa from LA, went through the trouble of going here but I couldn't be bothered. The showers weren't nearly as cold as I thought they were going to be, it was freezing but I didn't die so it wasn't terrible. Tessa was actually the only girl in the dorm that was traveling alone, so she was willing to chat with me. There was another girl traveling alone but she didn't speak English or Spanish very well so we couldn't really chat. Tessa had just finished a semester in Salamanca and was waiting around in Madrid for her friend to arrive so they could go backpacking through Europe before her summer semester started. She was extremely ready to go home and stop living out of a suitcase.
Other than hanging around the hostel, I can't say that I've really done much in Madrid. I walk around a lot, gotta get my 10k steps in every day after all, but other than aimless walking I haven't done much. The second day I was in Madrid, I was out of money so I walked around everywhere looking for an ATM. The first one tried to eat my card. I admit it was just going really slow and not saying anything on the screen so it just seemed to eat it. After about 5 minutes of clicking the cancel button, the ATM decided to spit out my card. Needless to say, that banking company and I have ended our relationship, not really though. I tried 4 other ATMs, all telling me they were temporarily unable to do my request. One of them was from the same company as the card eater ATM. By the 5th ATM, I just gave up and decided I would never eat or do anything ever again because I had no money. It was obviously ATM siesta time because a couple hours later when I was finally heading back to the hostel, I found a Bankia ATM that decided to grace me with the ability to eat again. So yeah I mostly just walked around and watched gross tourists do stupid things. I also did a few touristy things because I decided it was perfectly acceptable since I am technically a tourist.
One day, I was craving kiwi and had walked passed a prepackaged thing of 6 kiwis but knew I couldn't eat that many without my tongue bleeding. I can eat one maybe two before it starts bleeding, and I would want the kiwi cold but the hostel didn't have a kitchen for us to use. I ended up buying kiwi yogurt. 
It's not nearly as good as I was hoping for. The yogurt really didn't have that strong a flavor, it was very bland. I think it was just normal yogurt with chunks of kiwi thrown into it cause that's what it seemed like and then the yogurt flavor outweighed the kiwi flavor. Speaking of yogurt though, I did get some froyo but nata wasn't an option, only natural. Let me tell you, it is definitely natural. Froyo should never taste so purely of natural yogurt ever....
On the same day I got my kiwi yogurt, I found a Dia (obviously where the kiwi yogurt came from). When I went to enter Dia, a beggar came up to me and was very insistent that I listen to her. I wasn't really feeling the whole trying to understand Spanish at that moment so I just told her no (multiple times) and kept walking around her to get into the store. Then as I entered she slapped my back and called me a witch so I'm sure that I've been cursed or something now. I'm ready to go back to Santiago where the beggars were at least nice. Madrid has rather mean beggars and they always are shaking their money cup at you too. Like please, I'm no more likely to give you money if you shake that at me than if you just sit in your spot. The spot that you are at day in and day out. I understand that begging is a job for some of them and that's why they have their specific spots outside shops (don't be stealing their spots now) but when they get mean about begging and more insistent I don't want to give them anything or be near them. I don't see how the mean ones ever manage to make money because why would you give money to mean people when there are plenty of nice ones about?
On my last night at Living Cats Hostel, a guy stayed in my room. I'm almost positive he was in the wrong room since his key didn't work on his locker door and he couldn't open the door. Mind you the door is very hard to open, but still you'd think he would've figured it out after so many times of trying. Plus I'm almost positive that dorm is always a female only dorm and it doesn't just change based on who arrives, it wouldn't make sense to change when there's already people there ya know? Anyhoo, he was a Daniel from TN who had been living in Spain for the last 2 years doing the Auxilery program, the one where you teach English. He was extremely ready to go home and when we chatted he had 2 days until his return trip to the states. He also brought up the point of what a youth is since the hostel we were staying in was considered a youth hostel. We decided they don't actually care how old people are that stay there since there were adult adults in the hostel and it's not like they ask for your age. I did point out that he was probably in the wrong room, but neither of us cared so hopefully the cleaning ladies realize he was in that room and clean that bed. I doubt they will though since they just go by their list.
On Thursday May 19th, I repacked my bags (managed to get almost everything into my big suitcase somehow) and began the 20 minute walk to my next hostel. I definitely got lost on the way there but managed to find it eventually, no thanks to google maps. There's a reason I only use google maps as a guideline instead of as a GPS, half the time it just completely screws up in giving directions.
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