Absinthe

So....no green fairy revealed herself to me last night after we all took shots of green, European absinthe last night for Alex's birthday...despite the almost unbearably foul flaming licorice taste. But, it was a great night nonetheless. We started at an irish pub where we had the absinthe, and also some delicious cider, and a live band played a few Spanish songs mixed with American ones, which we sang along to.

Oh, did I mention we arrived at about 12:00 am, and the place was only beginning to get busy? I don't know how these Spaniards do it, but even the older population is going out late at night for drinks, tapas, and ice cream. The city was bustling all the way through our aventuras in the irish pub, which led to aventuras in a bar/discoteque down the street where I am pretty sure they gave us all free shots of vodka and lime.

Bartenders serve drinks right before your eyes here---not so much as a safety precaution as a way to show you haw much alcohol they are putting in. Rum and cokes are almost three shots of rum---half and half. Dancing in the disocteque, which was filled with little moving green lights from the disco-ball, still no fairy, was a blast.

When we got out at 2:00 am, the metro had stopped running, and the bars had stopped serving so unless we wanted to pay cover to a club we were done drinking. My girls and I shared a cab home, which meant we each only paid about 2.30 euros, and had a hilarious conversation in our kitchen sitting on the counters. What an incredible night out.