So here I am heading out of my hostel on Monday morning about to do something drastic.  Not like it is that crazy but c'mon, for me it was a bit considering how planned my trip was and that I am heading back to a city mostly to spend more time, relaxed time, with a great guy I met.  I had Pablo's phone number of course but had decided to really daring and surprising (you have to admit that it is a really romantic thing to do too) by going back without him knowing I was coming.  I got all cheesy and bought a ticket that would put me back in the Museo de Jamon at the same time as when I met him exactly one week later.  Heck, I even wore almost the exact same outfit for total dejavu.  Of course I was really counting on his work schedule being the same and other little details like he was really a genuine good guy and hadn't just moved on to some other tourist and was willing to let me stay with him per his offer.  In some ways that was a lot to gamble on, in others, not really!  I knew it really wasn't a risky gamble.

 

My train (the fancy super fast AVE train again) delivered me to the Madrid train station at 3pm.  I was really nervous/excited the whole ride and tried to watch some stupid movie they were showing but the connection for my earpiece was broken so unless I pushed the plug in hard and held it there was no point.  So instead I tried to distract myself by trying to memorize every word in my Spanish phrase book that I could to help with upcoming conversations.  I got to the train station, checked my bags into the storage area there and then took the underground metro to the Puerto del Sol station and headed towards Pablo's work.  By the time I surfaced from the metro station I was starting to feel a little stupid and kept going through all of the what-if's and whatnot.  But heck, you only live once, I had such a blast with him I wanted to see him again and best case it would be a fantastic surprise for him, worst case a disappointment for me and I'd have to find a hostel and still take some time to relax. 

 

His work was only 5 blocks from the station so I headed straight for it so I wouldn't have to think too much about changing my mind.  Not that it was was going to happen at this point.  I was careful when I approached the building because it is on a corner and the two sides on the corner are all glass and pretty easy to see in and out of.  Was going for the element of surprise here.  I was approaching the glass corner so tried to be discreet about looking in.  I walked past on the main street and saw that there was maybe one customer in there and two employees visible. . . neither were Pablo.  That sucked and alarmed me a bit.  But heck, that wasn't a much different crowd from a week ago.  Not wanting to look obvious and walk back by, I just continued up the block and circled it from the backside.  Then I walked by the other window.  At first I didn't see him but then he walked out from the kitchen to the front and I knew it was time to make my move.  

 

So anyway, the rest of my time in Madrid was another 4 fun-filled days and I headed to Portugal.  Oh, you wanted a little more?  Okay, just a bit.  I walked in the front door and one of the other guys working recognized me and I gave him a little "shh" signal.  I headed straight to Pablo and ordered a beer like I would any other day as if it were nothing.  He reached for a glass and then did a total double-take when he saw who it was.  It was perfect.  He could not believe I was back and kept stammering with an ear to ear grin.  I quickly asked, as cool and casually as I could, if he knew of any places I could stay now that I was back in town.  He said his place of course as if there were ANY other options!  It was hilarious.  For the rest of my almost hour there he was a total nervous, happy wreck.  I loved it!  He went from being the suave, cool guy the week before to a nervous school-girl kind of guy.  He even messed up the only two other customer's orders and they ordered a simple sandwich and a beer.  It was so cute.  He wrote down his address for me, gave me his key with instructions as to what key worked where and I eventually headed back to the train station.  I grabbed my stuff from the station, took a cab to his apartment and hung out there for a bit.  Eventually I took the metro to go back to the center, grabbed a bite, made some calls to family, chatted with Tiffany (about boys of course) online and met him just before he got off of work.

 

Apparently my re-appearance was all the talk at his work and I felt like everyone was staring.  They were all really excited for him that this car racing chick from Seattle that he had had such an amazing time with, and had apparently been very sad about when she left, came back just for him.  Everyone waited on me hand and foot, kept my glass full, gave me lots of free samples and plenty of winks and smiles.  David of course took the best care of me.  We were famous.  As soon as he could get off we headed out to one of our usual haunts to catch up.  I didn't want to dance that night, just talk and catch up.  It was a perfect night and my plan couldn't have worked out better!

 

Turned out his schedule was the same as the week before, which is what I had counted on, so he only had to work from 9a-2p the next day, had all of Wed off and sadly worked from 2p-midnight on my last night, Thursday.  My counting on his schedule being the same is also a part of what made going back there at this point a good move.  I slept in on Tuesday when he went to work and then we met for lunch and wandered around the local parks holding hands, riding in a little rowboat, chatting for hours on end and stuff like that.  During my second visit during the time when he was working I spent relaxing at his apartment, at internet cafes or shopping in the neighborhoods and when he was off we went out in the late mornings and evenings--it was perfect!  We did go salsa dancing again at the Havana Club and towards the end I decided I was going to need to take some classes to be a better dance partner when I got back to Seattle.  Oh on my last afternoon in the Museo de Jamon it was really funny, and a tad embarrassing, because they named a dish "una Seattle" after me and would call out that instead of the real name to the guys in the deli side to make.  I never knew which sandwich it was but I'm sure it had cheese in it.  All of the guys (about 12 at this point) thought it was hilarious and would call it out as serious as possible and crack up Pablo. 

 

One of the days I bought my ticket to fly from Madrid to Lisbon, Portugal.  I got a good deal on the ticket and ended up ahead of my budget with the change in plans even with this unexpected flight.  My flight left at like 7am on Friday morning.  We were used to being out most of the night anyways so we stayed up all night and then he accompanied me to the airport to wait with me.  He was so sweet and it was a nice way to say goodbye.  I was so tired on the plane it was crazy--crashed hard in an uncomfortable chair at the airport gate since the plane ended up being over an hour late and then crashed on the plane.  Wouldn't have done a darn thing differently!  When we parted he said that he really wanted to come visit me in Seattle and would like it if I would visit Ecuador with him perhaps the next summer.  I told him I'd call him when I got home in a week and a half or two and we would talk and see what happened. . .