Wow, WHAT A MADRID WEEKEND. There has been so many fun things happening that when I look at the next few weekends in my planner, there is something written for the next few months! Lots of events, activities, and places we want to visit. This past weekend was a busy one, but it was full of lots of fun things and the fact that I slept for almost 10 hours last night says that I must have partied hard…
FRIDAY
My weekend began on Friday with lots of bagel pick-ups and a coffee date in between. Actually, last week was one of the most social weeks I have had in a long time… I made FOUR new friends and had a good time with each of them, which makes me excited for the year ahead. So anyway, we had a coffee and a chat, then Luis came home to eat lunch with me, and by 4:30, I was running out the door to get a glass of wine (which turned into 3 glasses of wine!!) with a new friend. This girl was actually a customer, but she asked if I wanted to get a coffee “or something” one day and we went on Friday and I had a great time! 3 glasses of wine certainly helped and we had to chug the last because Luis and I had movie plans!
We went to see Vivir Dos Veces which looks like my favorite type of movie in the trailer (funny, sad, but with a good story line), and ended up being horrible. It was just all over the place! Ya can’t win em all, right?
After the movie, we headed right home because Saturday was an early morning…
SATURDAY
My friend, Cristina, has been organizing these horseback-riding mountain adventures for over a year and since I had only been on a horse once and thought it was the scariest thing ever, I always gave her a big, fat NO WAY when she said we should join the group.
Luis and I decided to finally go with her this year and Saturday was the most beautiful day for a ride in the mountains. I figured that since I’m older and bigger, it would be less scary than I remember it, but NOPE, this was so scary!!!!
I was soaked in sweat at the end and my back is SO sore from all of the tension! And the horse kept stopping to eat…stopping to think about horse things.
And then he would start to fast-walk and I was mildly panicking! It was fun in retrospect, and the route they took us on was beautiful (through streams and mountain paths), but I like my feet firmly planted on the ground, gracias.
After riding, we had some time to explore the local town, walk around and see the castle, and then get a caña (small beer) with some people of the group before heading back for a huge, well-deserved paella lunch.
Unfortunately this paella had cerdo (pork) so I had the vegetarian option. FYI pork is not traditional in paella.
I was exhausted by the end of the day and as soon as we got home, I passed out for an hour long nap! I had dreams and everything- must have been tired!
We couldn’t sleep for too long though because we had TICKETS TO THE REAL MADRID vs. ATLETICO GAME!
If you don’t know fútbol, this game is a HUGE deal because Real Madrid and Atletico are the Madrid rival teams. Luis’ Dad couldn’t go to the game, so he gave us the tickets and I was super excited- my first fútbol game! They had lots of food and an open bar, which helped us get through a somewhat boring game (no goals were scored AT ALL).
Despite the lack of action, it was still a lot of fun and I would now like to see another game!
SUNDAY
The fun didn’t end there- Sunday was another jam-packed day of good things. I was up super early (ok, like 9 am) since I passed out the night before around 11:30 pm, so I got up and cleaned the house (apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Mom) and made some food for the week (quinoa, wheatberries, roasted tofu, sweet potato and zucchini, and berry breakfast smoothies). Once Luis was up, we had breakfast and then did a few things on the computer before getting changed to go running. Our favorite Sunday plan is a long run followed by brunch or lunch at a new-to-us spot in Madrid. We call this “research” 😉 We ran from the stadium, all the way to Lavapies (about 45 minutes), stopping eventually to have a caña (small beer) and a tapa (which was a salad of boiled potato, fresh tomatos, peppers, onions, olive oil, and salt).
We needed this so that I could have the energy to get to Malasaña, where we planned to go to Zenith, a new brunch place that opened in Madrid a few months ago. Zenith serves the typical “pretty” food with an Australian vibe and they also have… dun, dun dunnnn….BAGELS! But they don’t make the bagels there and they don’t look very good so I am not concerned. We got two plates to share and while the food was good, we wouldn’t go back.
After lunch, we walked around a bit and then grabbed the Madrid Bici bikes and rode back towards home. We parked further from home so that we could stop at the MadrEAT food festival which happens in the AZCA square every month. It’s a food truck festival that draws thousands of people and it is AWESOME. It was cancelled for a few months actually, but now it’s back and it was better than I remember.
They were playing loud music and people were dancing, there was LOTS of food and a lot of drinks and the weather was perfect. It was the perfect Sunday plan and we vowed to go back next month with a group of friends and to be freshly showered (yesterday we were gross and sweaty!). My favorite part was this guy playing the violin to popular music and he was SO GOOD.
Sunday evening was a very Sunday Sunday – multiple loads of laundry (4 in total), a little more cooking, writing and answering emails, and planning out the week ahead. Oh, and a small Rosh Hashana dinner for Luis and me. We had fish and roasted potatoes and a salad, a round challah with honey, wine, and we lit the candles. We also ate some apples and honey and wished each other Shana Tova. There were fireworks going off and Luis asked if they were for the new year and while I doubt it, could it have been?
