I write to you today from the relaxing shade of a palm tree, next to an ancient African temple (which was moved to Madrid brick by brick), overlooking the vast expanse of the Casa de Campo park, and with lots of happy dogs running around me – just another day in Spain!

With the last update focused mainly on work, I thought I’d divulge a little bit of Spanish culture and what I’ve been up to when not working really hard (questionable) in the office. As many of you may have celebrated Easter recently, you’ll be aware that that all those festivities have been ongoing, however I can assure you that Easter in Spain (or Semana Santa, hence the title) is celebrated in a completely different way…

First up, and for me rather disappointingly, there’s no chocolate. I have only seen chocolate eggs for sale twice in the past few weeks: both times in the English food section of El Corte Inglés, and both times with exponentially high price tags. Secondly, there’s the parades.

The parades, or procesiones, are really not to be missed, and so I dragged my (rather ill at the time) body to the city centre and grabbed a coffee and waited for the drums to begin. As the drumming drew louder, people began to move into formation, lining the edges of the streets. Sooner or later the drummers arrived, faces completely veiled, followed by a small brass band.

The music is very loud but also touchingly solemn, as here Easter is treated more as a time of mourning and self-sacrifice, hence the veils and robes with the famous pointed hoods. After the music comes the rhythmic procession of the imagenes, which are beautifully intricate depictions of various biblical scenes, held up by a group of people with strong arms and plenty of stamina…

The movement of the parade is accompanied by the rhythmic beating of a drum, the periodic ringing of a bell to coordinate those carrying the images, and the respectful silence of the throngs of people watching the spectacle. The pungent smell of frankincense fills the air too, as the hooded figures slowly make their way past, swinging lanterns of the burning resin in their wake. The atomshere created by all this was particularly amplified by the darkness of night, which I experienced as I made sure to catch one just outside Plaza Mayor.

As the procession drew to a close, people were invited onto the street to follow it further along its trajectory. I took the chance to join them as they sauntered through the Plaza del Sol, right in the centre of Madrid, and I’m very glad I did as it was a surreal and moving experience – I have never seen so many people in the square!

One last thing of note before I turn in for the night, and something without which one of my blog posts would not be complete, is for me to talk about food. During Semana Santa here in Madrid it is customary to eat a sweet treat known as torrija, which is stale bread soaked in cinnamon and sugar infused milk, which is then fried generously in olive oil and coated in yet more sugar and cinnamon.

Having already tried torrijas out a few times at work, I knew that they were delicious, and so I thought what better way to celebrate Easter Spanish-style than to try my hand at whipping a few up myself? Having let my bread go stale overnight, I dropped the cinnamon sticks into the milk, and an hour later I was packing the torrijas into a box to take into work the following day.

Surprisingly the torrijas were a hit in the studio, and amongst my flatmates, and I must say that I did enjoy eating a couple myself! But as I ride the crash that has come after the sugar-high of the Easter weekend, I must unfortunately  bid you adios until my next update, where I’ll be moving flats once more… Until then!

As mentioned in my post from a couple of weeks back (apologies for the extended delays), here at Erretres we have just finished off a week of packing, shifting, and unpacking; all as we make our way to our brand new home! As documented on the Tumblr we made to give a peek into la mudanza (the move), we’re sadly leaving behind our gorgeous view of the Plaza de España, but we’ve upsized rather exponentially to a cool and modern new space.

The one thing I never really got to try out in our old studio was the huge outdoor terrace, which was kind of useless in the bitter cold of the Madrilenian winter, but looked like a lovely to relax space in the heat of summer. Braving the cold, however, me and Thuy decided to say our farewell by hosting a water-gun superhero-inspired photo shoot — obviously.

However there wasn’t really all that much time to sit around getting nostalgic about the Plaza de España studio, for we were soon setting into our new space situated on the street just behind the old studio!

With all this shifting and moving around, during the weekend I decided to take it relatively easy – so I really did not expect the Sunday market here in the city to be so lively! Time to backtrack a tad and explain…

Much unlike England, everything here really does shut shop on a Sunday, and with the exception of the El Rastro market in the south of the city, there isn’t that much to be done. Intrigued, I hopped on the metro and sauntered on down to the market at La Latina, where I was greeted by the colourful curved roofs of the indoor market and the throngs of people wandering in and out of the main market street.

From the Metro station I followed the crowds down a little side street brimming with stalls and on to the main street and Madrid’s most popular flea market, where I ended up flowing with the crowds up and down the lively streets. There was live music, stalls selling every little thing imaginable, street food, and much more! The atmosphere was great, so I stayed a while to enjoy a live Latin band, an African acoustic group and a chocolate pancake – needless to say I didn’t really spend much time taking any decent photos, but here’s one which hopefully captures some of the buzz…

Apart from venturing out to experience the city and working hard on the studio move, I’ve also been occupied by day-to-day domestic jobs such as washing, shopping and generally kicking back in my flat. Just a few nights ago we all sat down in the living room to watch El Laberinto Del Fauno – Pan’s Labyrinth – and enjoy a multi-cultural feast of Mexican-style popcorn and crisps, German chocolate, and my best attempt at a selection of Spanish canapés. Here’s me and Levin, very excited for a little bit of Pan’s…

And so with another fortnight full of locura y caos (craziness and chaos), it’s no wonder I have decided to spend this weekend finishing off some chores and tidying my room – I am on the move once again this coming Saturday to a new flat! It’s no surprise then that Thuy managed to capture me kicking back in the new studio!

I should hopefully have another post up in the next few days as the Semana Santa (Easter) celebrations begin to kick off here in Madrid – but until then I am going to gorge on some chorizo and remain horizontal as much as possible…

Today I realised that remarkably, in the blink of an eye, three weeks of my Spanish adventure have already come and gone! It’s been a fortnight now since my first update here on the continent, and so I thought I should probably nip back again for an update on all the fun and hard work that I have been getting up to…

I write this particular post slouched in my armchair, bowl of half eaten cocido madrileño by my side, in my lovely new flat in one of the city’s residential districts, Salamanca. Having crammed all six months of my worldly possessions into my suitcase once again, I found myself once more deep under the streets of the city, lugging my baggage on and off the Metro. Having met my landlord for the next month, I grabbed my keys and bolted into bed to get some much needed rest – but not before snapping a photo of the beautiful sunset from my balcony.

I have finally moved out of the hostel which, as lovely as it was, had started to become a little lonely, with every evening being spent on my own with no capacity to cook, or even store a nice cold can of cola. My new home is a shared flat of four of us; and with flatmates from Mexico, Hungary, and Germany, it’s a great lively atmosphere!

We have already managed to get out together a few times for some drinks, tapas, and just to explore the city in general, and I am really happy to have wound up with a lovely group of people, and to have the ability to actually throw some meals together!

Speaking of food, it was soon time to head back to work at Erretres, where I was introduced to cocido madrileño, a delicious chickpea-based stew of chorizo, vegetables, and other meats. It doesn’t look very appetising or varied but my god it is damn good…

Studio life at Erretres continues to be productive and lots of fun, and I’m relishing the opportunity to get involved in design work for the amazing projects on which the team work on a day-to-day basis. Naturally I can’t really reveal much more than that, but the one thing I would love to (re)share is the amazing view which I enjoy every day. I don’t honestly think I could ever have a bad day with such a bella vista there to greet me every time I glance to the right…

Just yesterday, though, it was Luis’ birthday, and so we all abandoned our desks at 2:30pm and headed to the kitchen where he’d put out an marvellous spread of typical Spanish finger-food, including jamón (cured ham), lomo (cured pork), bread, olives, manchego (goat’s cheese) and a healthy round of red wine. We all grabbed a plate, everyone made a beeline for the delicious jamón, and we all stood and had a natter and a good old laugh for an hour or so.

I am sure you can imagine that as the days go by I am becoming more and more reluctant to ever leave this city…

Then during one of the other nights this week, I got so wrapped up in preparing a Tumblr blog for Erretres that I completely lost track of time and ended up staying in the studio until gone 7:30pm – but it was worth it, as when I left I was greeted by one of the most beautiful skies I have seen this year…

I mentioned just then a Tumblr blog, which has now launched as a photographic record of Erretres’ big move into our huge new studio space! Please do check it out here! We are scheduled to move (at the time of writing) in less than five days, and the removal men have already begun to strip the bookshelves of the studio bare, making us all pretty excited to move into our massive new studio, which occupies the entirety of a building and includes three floors with two terraces. Onwards and upwards!

With my weekdays being filled mostly with work until half six and then having some tea and heading out to the city to take in the atmosphere and have a drink and a chat, it’s the weekends when I actually have the chance to do some proper exploring, and so today I grabbed my camera, hopped on the tube, and headed south to the Puente de Toledo, an old bridge over the city’s river.

Whilst meandering around and taking some photos, I wandered by an old man feeding the pigeons, and headed down to the waterside to get a better view through the arches of the structure. Suddenly, however, the old guy had joined me, and greeted me with an enthusiastic «¡Bienvenidos a Madrid!», “Welcome to Madrid!”, and then asked where I was from. I told him I was from England and we got chatting for a while in Spanish, and he said he was happy to meet a British person who could speak his language. After probing to see which football team I supported, I told him that futbol wasn’t really my thing, but he insisted that I take a look at some photos of him in the Madrid Atletico stadium which was just behind us.

After further discussion about what I was doing here in Spain, he said he needed to get going, and so we parted ways – but I then saw him wandering off from a vantage point I’d found for a photo, and he gestured to the stadium and then raised his hands in rejoice. Needless to say this quick 10 minute chat really made my day – the people here are some of the nicest I have ever met.

Anyway, heartwarming stories about the locals over, here’s a few photos taken during my hour of wandering around the riverside…

I soon ended up wandering further down the rivers edge, but then as the sky began to threaten to rain, so I half-ran along the river towards a more modern crossing. The cool swirling metal bridge was empty when I got there, as the cold and the grey had scared all the Spanish away, but the lack of people made for an awesome photo opportunity – here’s my favourite.

But with that I am afraid I must leave you, as I have eaten way too much fresh bread from El Corte Inglés and am now ready to clamber into bed and enjoy what promises to be a very exaggerated lie-in tomorrow morning.

Remember you can always contact me via email with feedback by clicking here or on the envelope at the top right of my site – I won’t be creeped out! Just be aware that I won’t be reading any of it until at least tomorrow afternoon… ¡Buenas noches!