Last weekend Alasdair came back to Madrid for a short visit. It was simultaneously exciting and disappointing. Exciting to spend time together, but disappointing because I was sick the whole time. Wah wah waaaaah.
He arrived late Wednesday night and waking up Thursday morning feeling horrible, he set off to try to set up a bank account for me. I had trouble sleeping (turns out living directly above a Peugeot repair shop makes it a tad tricky to nap) and he had trouble finding an office that spoke any English. The bank account has been put on hold until we have considerable more time (and Spanish skills) to spend on it. Thursday's a "long" day for me, meaning I had a whole 3 hours of class to suffer through, sniffling and aching. It was kind of a bust of a day to be honest, but when I crawled back home, we made a nice dinner and had an early night. I know, we lead thrilling lives.
Friday I'd planned on taking him to a great park near my house, Casa del Campo, which was formerly the Royal hunting grounds. However, he received an email from a company I'd found out about a few days earlier, which was looking for people to write articles about travel in Spain. A perfect fit for his future career as a travel journalist. We headed to La Latina, a beautiful area in the center of Madrid and had overpriced milkshakes in the sun. It was a beautiful day, and having procured some flu meds from a Spanish pharmacy the previous day, I was feeling half-human. (Note to self, avoid any and all establishments with English on the menu. The waiters are as rude as the prices are high.) After meeting with Carlos, who runs a small travel business called Letango Tours, we headed off to the area where I had class. While I was busy teaching some sort of hodgepodge of business English and Spanglish conversation, Alasdair was busy shopping for a surprise...LIMES! These are surprisingly difficult to find in Madrid, but given our love of Mexican food, a necessary staple.
Walking to the metro from class, we accidentally stumbled upon an awesome NYC pizzeria. The guy who ran it was American and had worked in Florida and New York. You know a restaurant is good when they make the food out in the open. The best part (besides the food)? The name of the restaurant is En Guay Si (say it out loud). I didn't appreciate it til Alasdair pronounced it. We had another night in, watching Family Guy in Spanish. Boring, maybe. But free, yes. I see a lot of this in my future.
Needless to say, the only pictures we took were when I felt less zombie-like. Here we are in the Teleferica.
Saturday we made it to the park after a laaaazy morning. Casa del Campo features a lake with rentable boats (and some sort of water polo looking setup), tons of outdoor restaurants, tennis courts, a zoo, an amusement park, and three metro stops running through it. We played some frisbee and found the Teleferica, a cable car from the 70s that rolls down from Casa del Campo to Park Oeste. There was some commentary in Spanish which we ignored, mainly because it had interrupted some Phil Collins, but you can see the Royal Palace and much of downtown Madrid from that high up.
The view!
Despite being a sweaty bum, we walked from the park to downtown Madrid for some Sangria at one of our favorite bars and later churros y chocolate from another overpriced, rude vendor. Hey, look, we did something cultural! Alasdair was eager to get home because we'd decided Saturday night was Nachos/Movie night! One of our favorites. Plus, he'd brought a really nice bottle of wine (meaning it came in a bottle and cost more than $3), which I'd previously been too sick to drink. We watched Clue and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I'd wanted to have at least one night out of the house, but money, weather and health really prevented that from happening. Fortunately, we're both content to just spend time together since it doesn't happen much.
Sunday was rainy and cold, which matched my mood, as his departure that evening seemed to be looming. We both tried to ignore the fact and distract ourselves with TV, music and making flyers for English lessons. It didn't work. The trip to the airport always seems much faster than the one home. The weekend flew by as always, but I've already got my flights booked to London for March. I'll be there to see him post-knee surgery and for his birthday, which is nice. But that's 3 loooong weeks away. At least we're dealing in weeks instead of months now!
