mis cosas favoritas

I have compiled the following list for the following reasons:
(a) a celebration of my first month here (!)
(b) a legitimate excuse for not reading about Felipe II
(c) a distraction from thoughts associated with dropping out of school, dying kittens, and infernos of fire...all of which have resulted from the looming presence of the demon campus.

So let's get to it! My favorite things about Madrid (in no particular order...)

1. Chocolateria San Gines
Jess and I have yet to pay for churros con chocolate at this 100+ year old Chocolateria since befriending one of the servers during our first few days in Madrid (we are now his "invitadas" and yes, we're kind of a big deal). Frequented daily by tourists and geezers and nightly by the post-bar crowd, the place is usually packed.

2. Cafe Commercial
Another veteran Madrid establishment, I went here for the first time last night with Jess (it was the dinner part of our dinner-and-movie date night). Although I feared that my instant obsession may have been largely a result of the McDreamy look-alike server, upon returning this morning (with no McDreamy in sight) I can confirm that the obsession is legitimate. The dark marble tabletops housed old men reading the newspaper to my left, a meeting between intercambios to my right, and a couple sharing a beer and chips in front of me. As I was getting ready to leave two men walked by my table followed by a French bulldog. All three of them seated themselves at a nearby table. No, that wasn't a typo...the bulldog hopped up onto a chair and sat patiently, his droopy eyes conveying his boredom with what has clearly become routine. (Fetch could probably pull this off, but Rufus and Fiona? Never.) I'm hoping that the casual manner with which these three characters seated themselves implies that they are Cafe Commercial regulars and as long as the Charmanda gods are on top of things, I am guaranteeing another run-in.

3. Dogs
Though Mr. French Bulldog is clearly a special Spanish phenomenon, Spanish dogs in general are amazing. While New York is filled with chihuahuas on leashes (whom I love dearly), Spain has one-upped New York twice (two-upped?) when it comes to dogs. Firstly, dogs rarely are leashed--there must be something in the water here that makes dogs super easy to train. And secondly, I have seen a wider variety of dogs roaming the streets here than I would see on Saturdays at Rufus' dog-park...pugs, golden retrievers, greyhounds (wolves), chow chows, and tons of mutts (clearly the best option). Now if only the owners could adopt better clean-up-after-your-dog habits...

dogs playing in the park around the corner | wolf

4. Frutos Secos El Rincon
There are tons of somewhat grimy "Frutos Secos" stores here (stores that sell nuts, dried fruit, gummy candy, and chocolate by weight) but I recently crossed paths with the Queen Bee of the Frutos Secos world. It's bright yellow, spotless, and has just about every type of Fruto Seco imaginable. Today I stocked up on pumpkin seeds, "ositos" (gummy bears!), and "almendras" (almonds. duh.)...but tomorrow I think I'll give into my constant chocolate craving and fill a bag with the chocolate covered raisins I've been eyeing.

punkin seeds!

5. Blue skies!
The Madrid sky is honestly the clearest sky I've ever seen. Other than our first few days here, I hardly ever see any sign of clouds. Seriously...it's almost creepy. Now I've probably already jinxed myself and am going to wake up to a hurricane tomorrow...

seriously? SERIOUSLY?!

6. Viena Capellanes
Though I usually prefer to support small establishments rather than chains, the Viena Capellanes (one of eighteen locations in Madrid) just down the street has some of the most amazing cookies ever. My hermanas and I frequent this place so often that we're probably paying its monthly rent. And, despite its being a chain, the company was founded in 1873 so it's totes legit.

7. Maria Rosa's Tortilla Espanola
My Senora makes the best tortilla espanola (Spanish egg and potato "pie") in all of Spain, hands down. Enough said.

8. Mis hermanas!
Jess and Maya are finally back in 128 Fuencarral and I could not be happier. Las eche de menos este pasado fin de semana!

hermana love : )

Mood was temporarily lifted but Monday is crawling closer. Yuck.

and Autonoma enters the picture...

Universidad Autonoma de Madrid is about to enter my life and what has seemed like a month of vacationing in Madrid (plus two classes that have yet to require any work outside of the classroom) is about to abruptly come to an end. Sigh.

On Tuesday Gabriel took Jess, Katie, and I to the campus for the first time. Getting to Autonoma requires switching from the metro to a more commuter-rail type of train line. The university claims to be situated in Madrid but I became skeptical as our train chugged its way through farmland and pastures with wandering horses. As we stepped out of the station upon our arrival my heart sunk even further. If there existed an award for ugliest university campus, Autonoma would be the proud recipient. My eyes darted around in a desperate search for any sign of Ionic columns or twinkle lights but there were none to be found, and in came an intense longing for Columbia's campus. In short, Autonoma looks like a poorly constructed public school from 1950. The buildings are dreary gray cubes, the signs do not match, and what perhaps at one point used to be patches of grass have turned to dirt. Painfully unfashionable students smoke in the hallways, the windows have apparently never been touched with windex, and one must constantly go up and down small staircases (initially designed so that students could not make a quick escape from police during the Francoist dictatorship). In order to choose our classes, we had to approach a bulletin board that had lists of available classes. Part of me wanted to find my way to the University President's office so that I could break the news that it is no longer 1920 and enlighten him with talk of the capability to have ::gasp:: online registration. I would elaborate more but I trust that you get the picture, and I wouldn't want you to catch my wave of nausea that has resulted simply from speaking of the demon campus. I start attending my two classes this week and will keep you updated.

Despite Autonoma's existence, my week has been a good one. On Wednesday my art history class had our first trip to the Prado in which we listened to Selma's attempt to "get us acquainted" with the museum. That night I went to the "cave bar" with my hermanas and some other people from my program. The inside looks like the inside of a cave and their signature drink, Panther Milk, includes something milky that flows out of a stalactite on the ceiling. It's yummy, I swear. I walked all over on Thursday and discovered a really neat Moroccan store that smelled like dead goats. Jess and I went to see a new Picasso exhibit at the Reina Sofia on Friday and had our first Europen gelato and afterwards I made heart shaped ginger break cookies despite some baking obstacles (lack of measuring cups, cookie sheets, and a real oven). Today I got out of bed to eat and then promptly found my way under covers again where I watched Grey's Anatomy and skyped with Robbie and Maya. My first completely lazy day in Madrid and I'm okay with it. After an busy night out last night, Jess and I are going to take it easy tonight and do dinner and a movie. Enough mindless rambling, Shamoo needs to be cuddled.

this is the oven i will attempt to bake with...please notice that i made a cookie sheet out of tin foil and pity me | gelato!

hermana love | jess sniffed out some chips hiding in the kitchen of Dubliner's

barcelona!

A rundown of my weekend in Barcelona:

Wednesday
Jess and I arrived in Barcelona around 11pm after a somewhat turbulent flight. Despite our efforts to travel from the airport to Olivia's using public transportation, we were forced into taking a cab after missing the closing of the metro by about ten minutes. It started to pour and we pulled up to Olivia's Residencia wet, tired, and feeling defeated. Although Olivia had warned us that space was limited and that she did not have much to offer in terms of bedding, the lack of mattress, pillows, and comforters made Jess and I homesick for Madrid. We ended up laying out the clothes that we had packed for the weekend on the floor and sharing one top sheet, very homeless. And cold. And uncomfortable.

Thursday
We woke up Thursday morning and walked down to the beach. There were all these kitties climbing around on the rocks and I got to put my toesies (aka tootsies if you're my mom) in the Mediterranean for the first time. We wandered around Barceloneta (the beach section), ate bananas from a fruit vendor and got cafe con leche before walking north towards the Picasso museum. On our way through "Barri Gotic" we ran into Iglesia de Maria del Mar which was beautiful. The Picasso Museum was amazing, they had a lot of little drawings and paintings that he did when he was really young and also had a special exhibit of all of the works that Picasso himself owned. We kept exploring afterwards and ended up in the courtyard of the "Catedral" where the weekly "Mercat Gotic", the antique market, was taking place. Tired from so much walking, we sat down and read for a bit before making our way back towards Olivia's.

the pretty water | cold toes in the Mediterranean!

inside Maria del Mar | courtyard of the Picasso Museum

dolls and other goodies at Mercat Gotic

beachy colors : )

Friday
We were excited to finally be reunited with Maya, Vera, Anoop, and Sophie. Jess and I dropped our bags in the hostel before meeting up with everyone. We decided to try to see all the major Gaudi things and started off with Casa Batllo, walked up Passeig de Gracia to La Pedrera, made our way across town to La Sagrada Familia (where we took a lift to the top of one of the towers and had to make our way down on a tiny spiral staircase), and then jumped on the metro and made the uphill trek to Park Guell. Drained physically and exhausted visually, we all took siestas back at the hostel. Although we probably should have gone to an authentic Barcelona restaurant, we instead gave into our mutual cravings for sushi and sangria which really hit the spot despite an alarming lack of edamame and spicy tuna rolls. Some of Anoop's friends who are studying in Barcelona took us all to a bar called Pippermint's. Their specialty is giant drinks (2 liter beers with 8 straws shoved in them) but the atmosphere was a bit too fratty for my liking (and the American frat boys that took up most of the place didn't help). After hanging out for a little we took cabs to Club Pacha where we danced until heading back to the hostel around 4:30.

Casa Batllo | La Pedrera

La Sagrada Familia | inside one of the towers (we went to the top!)

one of the facades of La Sagrada Familia | spiral staircase down!
(click to enlarge)

group shot!

entrance to Park Guell

inside the park

Casa Museu-Gaudi (pretty and pink!)

Saturday
We spent the majority of Saturday's daylight hours in bed but it was a much needed and well deserved rest. After lots of whining, yawning, and sloth-like movements Jess, Vera, Maya and I finally made our way to Las Ramblas. We slowly made our way down the activity-filled street (people in costumes, cuddly baby bunnies for only 12 euro, and shops and cafes) before ducking into the colorful Mercat Boqueria where we gawked at the colorful fruit and candy displays, held our breath through the fish section and picked up some amazing coconut-strawberry-kiwi juice. Towards the bottom of Las Ramblas we were transported into a fairy wonderland (a fairy themed cafe but still...) where we warmed up with tea. Energized from our caffeine boost, we climbed all over the lions at the foot of the Columbus statue and walked along the ports towards the Catedral. Sadly, the facade of the Catedral was under serious construction (seems to be a recurring theme in Barcelona) but the inside was still stunning. We grabbed some bocadillos and then had another little siesta session back at the hostel. Afterwards we made our way through the rain (!!) to Chupitos, a bar that has every type of shot imaginable. Jess and I started off with the "boy scout" (they give you a marshmallow that you roast in a fire that is lit on top of the bar before using it to chase the shot), Maya and Vera followed up with the Monica Lewisnky (and lived to tell the tale...), and we continued with a shot topped off with whipped cream and m&ms and another with a lolipop. Very yummy indeed.

tiny little bundles of bunny

inside Mercat Boqueria
fruit, huevos, candy, and flores

Fairy Wonderland | playing on the lions
(i spy a creeper...)

approaching the Catedral from the back | interior of the Catedral



candles inside the Catedral

pre-Boy Scout shot

Sunday
Jess and I woke up around 8 to pack and go to the airport for our flight at noon. The flight was smooth, I read "The Little Prince" for the first time, and we were happy to be back on Madrid soil. Barcelona was fun but Madrid definitely is my new home and I'm happy to be back!

bye bye Barcelona!
(ps i risked my life to take these)



good to be back :)

the weekend in photos

hookah, a belly dancer, and apple tea with my favorite girls

snuggled up and studying starbucks
(it's too comfortable to pass up!)

tried to order a tall iced coffee and i got an espresso shot with a separate cup of ice.
::sigh::
(at least the cups were the cutest tiniest lids ever)
(and they didn't think my name was Amalia this time...)

my favorite word

Sunday morning at El Rastro
these are my favorite things in the world

antique goodies at El Rastro

cloth lanterns

perfect day

post-game victory feast with my hermanas
(even though we didn't really watch any of them game...)