Madrid!

Woah! It's been a while since I last blogged, and lots of cool stuff has happened. Most of that being my trip to Madrid to visit some friends (Lidia, Carolina, and Elena) from camp. Elena is a few years older than us and was my cabin counselor in 2005, and Lidia and Carolina both worked in the kitchen last summer. It had been a while since I had seen any of them, so I was super excited to go.


I was met at Madrid-Barajas airport by a very excited Lidia, who literally ran over and nearly knocked me down with the force of her hug. I was staying at her house, but she had to go to school until 11 the next morning. I was going to sleep in (Spain is an hour ahead, so it's really like sleeping until 10), but of course my body had other plans. It's a good thing I speak Spanish, because neither Lidia's mom nor her dad speaks English. When I walked out of Lidia's room, I was attacked (in the most adorable and loving way possible) with questions of how I slept, whether I could understand what was being said to me, and most importantly, what I wanted for breakfast.


Lidia's mom (who is also named Lidia) told me she had juice, and I asked for orange, thinking she would pull a carton out of the fridge and pour me a glass. I was surprised when she instead grabbed 4 oranges and proceeded to juice them for me. I also asked for toast, and once again it wasn't the simple food I was expecting. Apparently, Spanish toast is like French toast, only without the egg, and with delicious jam that may have been apricot. I was also given a concha, which is some small cake type thing with chocolate shell between the layers. So. Delicious. Lidia's mom sent a box home with me, because they're not available in the UK.


Lidia and I went to Parque Juan Carlos 1 with her dog Tana. Tana the Chihuahua. It was sunny and glorious and there was a pretty cool rope playground/structure/climby thing. I'm not really a fan of heights (or walking/hanging from ropes, or being more than 4 feet above the ground) so I only went up about 6 feet or so. Lidia was much braver than I and climbed all the way to a platform, about 10 feet up.


Lunch is Spain is very different from lunch here or at home. It's served a little later (3 ish) and is bigger. On Friday, Lidia's mom made green beans with some sort of red sauce and hard boiled eggs, spaghetti (carbonara? the one with bacon), and sliced up some fruit to serve with a topping that was delicious and somewhere between the textures of cool whip and pudding. Delicious.


After taking a short nap and watching El Rey Leon (Disney in Spanish = fantastico) Lidia and I left to meet Carolina, as well as their friends Adrian (my favorite), Maria, Sofia, and Ana. We went to Gran Via (the biggest street), la Plaza de Espana, El Templo de Debod ( a gift to Spain from Egypt), and then to VIPS (a chain with a lot of American food) for dinner. When we were on Gran Via, I was very excited to see the hotel I stayed in last time I went, in 2008. The area around the hotel was exactly as I remember it, from the H&M next door, to the Pans & Co. downstairs and the Schweppes building just down the road.


Saturday was packed with tourism. We walked around the city center, seeing El Oso y El Madroño, la Plaza Mayor, El Congreso, and many other places. I ate a Serrano ham sandwich (a very small one), and fell in love with that food. If it were legal to import Serrano ham to the US, I would do it. Sadly, it's slightly against the law right now, and I would prefer not to be arrested coming back through customs. Anyway, we met Elena for lunch, where we had Calamari, Croquetas (fried cheese with bacon inside), potatoes with spicy sauce, and some sort of tapa made with yesterday's bread. I also had one beautiful glass of my all time favorite beverage, KAS naranja. It's available in the States, but only if you order it online for an exorbitant price.


After some more sightseeing and buying some touristy stuff, we had some churros y chocolate at a cafe. It was, of course, delicious, and after the rest of the food I had eaten I was stuffed. We headed back to Lidia's and slept until we had to leave to go to Carolina's for dinner. We arrived at 8, so I could meet Carolina's parent and her little sister, who is also named Lidia (I'm sensing a pattern here). Lidia is 8, and goes to a bilingual school, so she speaks some English. After much prodding, we got her to ask me what my favorite color was, and when my birthday is. Apparently, it's only a week after mine.


We left dinner a little early (bear in mind that in Spain, any time before midnight is early) around 11, and headed to bed so I could be up at 6 to get to the airport the next morning. I was super sad to leave, and I will miss my friends there, but I'm glad to be back in London. It's really weird, coming 'home' to a foreign city, seeing the things you recognize, and realizing how much you love them. Even the District Line on a Sunday, with closures.I guess I'm a lot more comfortable in London than I thought I was. I'm really going to miss this city when I go home in May. Hopefully I can come back soon.