The Goodbye Party Was A Riot
I did not take this or take out my phone, but some Italian newspaper had evidence. **The following is a blog without photos. Reader discretion advised.** The plan was to walk from our flat in Argüelles to the tapas festival in Lavapiés, and then to obviously eat tapas and listen to outdoor live music. Evidently the anti-riot police didn't understand that we were trying to say goodbye to our roommate, who was moving on to Ireland the next day, nor the hordes of black-mask separatist protestors running through the center of Madrid. And so here we found ourselves, five minutes away from our destination and in the middle of helicopters and rubber bullet shots and pepper spray. Myself and two young Mexican friends, who could have easily been mistaken for any of the university-aged barricade builders, tried our best to walk quickly and move away from the melee. It was dark, and shops were quickly pulling down their shutters as tourists waddled frantically like ducks lade
