2010′s Grand Prix Madrid has been an EPIC and LEGENDARY weekend. It isn’t easy to explain everything that happened this past days. There’s too many stories, too many great moments, too many friendly moments, too many people!!!!

I’m going to divide this report in three chapters. Each chapter represents one day: Friday, Saturday and Sunday (How smart!). So, before we begin with the first chapter, let’s get the picture of it:

Chapter I: You sir need forces!

My plain takes off at 11:40 from BCN’s new airport terminal. On the way to the airport I was listening the latest album from MIA to start getting in the mood. I unexpectedly meet many of my eternal mates there (including Ruben González, who managed to top8 at the GP as you will read in chapter 3). They were taking a plain a bit earlier tho, so I moved to my boarding gate and kept listening my music.

Once in Madrid, David Menor (a crazy taxi driver from Madrid and one of the best spanish dealers we have), came pick me up with his mercedes SLK. Dude, that was fast! He took me to his place and he packed his stuff before we went to a local “burger” (they call restaurants like that in Madrid) and had a 10€ menu: Raviolis with Pesto for starters followed by “Huevos fritos con chistorra y patatas” (go google translate it!).

That’s the kind of meal you do expect when you travel abroad. If you go to Italy, you want to eat good pizzas. If you go to germany, you want to eat good sausages. And if you go to Madrid you want to eat many things, including the “not-so-greasy-and-almost-cholesterol-free” eggs with chistorra and french fries. I forgot to take pics of it! Anyways…

After lunch we moved to my hotel, where I checked in and left my bag, and then we headed to the GP location. It wasn’t far.

Once there, we started greeting many well known friends, some other less-known came greet me, and we finally placed ourselves at the registration queue. It was around 17:30 when we arrived and it was crowded already. Four hours later, it was as crowded and the queue was the same or even longer. Before leaving, we were told that there was around 1600 pre-registered players, and that they got around 1500-1600 chairs only.

If lunch wasn’t enough energies to play properly during the GP, what comes next will actually make it. I can promise!

At 21:00 my friend Angel (aka Angelo) calls; he’s waiting for me downstairs at the hotel hall. I properly dressed for the occasion with a not-so-formal jacket + shirt + tie. Dressed enough for what was coming next.

We ask the taxi driver to take us to Hotel Hesperia, which he didn’t know… Once there, and while waiting for David, we moved to their lounge and asked the barman for a couple of cocktails. I went for a G’Vine + Sprite with natural grapes and Angelo tasted a London Gin with Tonic.

Minutes after, David shows up and asks for a Belvedere Vodka with raspberry juice that seemed quite tasty, actually.

David and Angel enjoying their drinks.

So, after the drinks we moved next door. Our destination was the 2 star Michelin graded restaurant Sant Celoni from Santi Santamaria. The place was nice, chic and really classy. Initially we were supposed to be four for dinner, but our friend Miguel (aka Juzam2) finally couldn’t make it.

We decided to go for the Menú Gran Gastronómico. I got real shocked with the outfit from the sommelier. He was walking around with a skirt-like thingie and with a HUGE GOLD necklace that was holding a big golden cloister. He looked more like Puff Daddy than a wine experte, I gotta say! Actually, we laughed when I suggested he looked like a mix between Gravesen (from R.Madrid) and John Malkovich.

What would you like to drink for starters? – He asked.

Catalan Cava - I answered.

There’s nothing better than drinking a good catalan cava. Well, there is: Drinking a good catalan cava in Madrid! Ok, drinking champagne beats both!

I took some pictures of the dinner, so I’ll just place here a slideshow for those of you who’d like to watch:

Food was excellent, seriously. We paid a lot for the whole meal (including the drinks and stuff), but it was definitely worth it. It’s a thing you should do once in a while, or present somebody you care or love with it.

We started around 22:00 and exited the restaurant around 1:00. It was probably one of the best eating experience I’ve had lately. 1000% recommended to any of you guys!

So, after the dinner we had the thought of going out and drink some cocktails at the new Sergi Arola’s lounge/bar. They supposedly have the best cocktails in Madrid… BUT! (there’s always a BUT), I had to be fresh and ready for the Grand Prix, so I decided to skip the fun and we headed back to the hotel.

If you ever drive with David, don’t expect to have a calmed ride! He decided that the best way to return was going through some creepy neighborhood that was filled with transsexuals, bitches and weirdos. Best moment was, when David decided to stop next to a guy/girl über tanned that looked like a boxing fighter just to piss us off and then a police car came  with the bells and lights on. Hahahaha, they scared the hell out of us!!!!! Anyways, in the end, we managed to scape from Moria land, and no creatures of the devil assaulted our car.

Minutes after I close the door from the hotel, Sergi and Toni knock the door. They were finally there, after a 5-6 hour road trip from Cabrera to Madrid. They went straight to bed because they were tired, and I still had some sleeve’ing up to do.

At 2:30 I finally go to bed.

To be continued…

You can now read the second and third parts of the report:

The GP Madrid epic report! Part II

The GP Madrid epic report! Part III

15 Responses to “The GP Madrid epic report! Part I”