With this post I’m back in Spain after two weeks of absence, as mentioned in my last post – and all this means that I’ve to bring you all up to speed with what’s been going on over the past crazy fortnight! After returning from Murcia and working my final week at work before my summer holidays, I was joined in the city by Luisa and Woody, who’d come over principally for the MadCool festival.
The night they arrived, though, I was sure to grab hold of them to watch England get kicked out of the World Cup and take them to one of my favourite spots for a drink and some croquettes. We had a lovely catch up as I introduced them to cañas, and the not-so-sophisticated Madrid tradition of mixing beer with lemon Fanta…
The two of them then spent the next few days in and out of the festival, but I was sure to meet up with them after work a couple of times when possible in order to show them some cool areas of the city. We checked out Malasaña, Lavapiés, La Latina, and plenty of the centre, all whist stopping for beers and tapas along the way of course – there’s no other way of doing it here!
The weekend also signalled one of the last opportunities to hang out with Heidi, the last member of Cake Club to abandon me in Madrid after Megan and Loredana left a few weeks back. On Saturday night we headed out for drinks at Sala Equis, a converted adult cinema, and then found a lovely Asturian restaurant to stuff ourselves on chorizo cooked in cider and other northern delights!
Sala Equis
Around the Prado Museum
The day after, exactly two weeks ago today, the festival was all over and so I met up with Luisa, Woody and Heidi for some drinks down in Lavapiés, before we headed out to Chueca to spend their last evening together.
The next day, Woody had to leave back to Manchester, but Lu had planned to stay a few extra days at mine. Once we’d waved Woody off on the metro, we dropped Luisa’s stuff off at mine and spent a couple of days wandering, exploring, and eating plenty!
During those mere 48 hours we got up to all sorts of nonsense, just wandering around and eating and drinking and taking photos of whatever we felt like, and so I can’t honestly really remember exactly what we did. What I do remember is that come Wednesday morning it was time to wave Luisa off on the metro too, just hours before I had to leave my flat myself!
Where I went next though will have to wait for the next blog post, as I’m having a day of rest and there’s so much to report back on from my road trip of the north and week in England that I’ll have to break the whole trip down into sections and post them as and when I get the time. Prepare yourselves for plenty of photos!
As mentioned in my previous two blogposts (which were all about catching up), I spent last weekend down in the south of Spain, meeting up with my mum and sister in Murcia for 48 hours of sun, pool and relaxation in my auntie’s flat. It promised to be a rather different trip to the last time I visited back in February, with the temperatures soaring and a lack of car meaning we’d be confined to the pool – but having come down from the heat of Madrid, I definitely wasn’t going to complain about that…
I arrived late on Friday night, having gotten a train from Madrid Atocha at about 5pm, and with a plan in place and a generous dose of luck, my mum and sister landed perfectly on time and we were able to coordinate the taxi to pick me up from the station just after it had picked them up from the airport. I do love it when a plan comes together!
That night we took it pretty easy, cracking open some beers that my mum had left in the fridge just 24 hours before – which I shall now have to explain! Literally less than 24 hours before flying out to Murcia, my mum had been at my auntie’s place with my auntie, uncle, and dad. When she’d found some cheap flights and a hole in her work schedule to return with my sister the day after flying back to England, she jumped on the chance, and I also hopped on board with the plans as I had a free weekend too.
After I laid out an aperitif and we’d had a good catch up, we all headed to bed, rising relatively early to make the most of my only full day with them. After a trip to the shop with Ellie for some fresh bread to make pan con tomate, a typical Spanish breakfast, we slathered ourselves in suncream and headed out into the Murcian heat.
After splashing around, sunbathing, and getting through quite a lot of a book I’d brought along, it was eventually time to head indoors to rest from the sun – and what better excuse for some indoor time than an England match! I was tasked with the job of cooking up a late lunch whilst Ellie had the game on in the next room, but I managed to catch the end once my courgette carbonara was finally ready.
My favourite part of the match has to have been when my dad, all on his own at home in England, sent us a photo of his dinner which he had decorated in support of England. I treasure the photo because everything about it is so English – from the decoration to the food cooked and even down to the fact that we put tomato ketchup on mashed potatoes. It had to be the most British photo I have ever seen in my life:
Once the game was over, and we’d lounged around the resort some more, it was time to put our glad rags on and head to the resort’s lovely restaurant for dinner. Me and Ellie decided that we’d stick to tradition in having a photo shoot under a lovely floral pagoda, and this year we were in luck as the bright pink flowers were in full bloom.
Once up at the restaurant we enjoyed a lovely meal, although we didn’t go too overboard on the food after our rather late lunch. As we ate we had a good catch up and indulged in plenty of cheeky gossiping, all whilst enjoying the ambience of a Latin band who were playing quite a few songs that I knew.
The next day we continued our relaxation marathon, with plenty more lounging, chatting, and a few intense games of Uno along the way. With my train back to Madrid departing at 6:30pm, however, it was soon time for me to repack my backpack and grab a taxi to the nearby town to catch the Renfe. I had planned to arrive an hour before the train was scheduled to leave just in case the taxi was a bit late, but in the end it was bang on time, and so I grabbed a drink in a bar and then meandered around the small town for a short while, taking photos of the lovely pastel aesthetic that it had going on.
I quite enjoyed just wandering around small-town Murcia for a moment.
Once I’d arrived at the train station, I got chatting to a family from Madrid who were heading back home from their holidays, but eventually the train arrived and we had to part ways to board our respective carriages. The journey back was used to finish up my blog post on my time spent in Asturias a few weeks ago, but it was quite a late and tiring journey, made worse by a half-hour delay which we suffered just as we were reaching the southernmost outskirts of Madrid.
I eventually rocked back up in Madrid at about half past midnight, with the only saving grace being that the walk home was relatively rapid and mostly downhill. Once I’d starfished on my bed and pretty much fell straight asleep, I woke up to the sound of my alarm believing that it was way too soon and must be a nightmare – but no, there it was blaring, and off to work I had to drag myself.
Work this week has been as much fun as ever, however, and so I honestly can’t complain – I just really dislike early mornings! It’s been busy too, with a lovely little party to celebrate Erretres launching a Master in UX Design alongside the Universidad Europea. It’s bittersweet, then, that yesterday was my last day for a few weeks, as I’ll miss the vibrant atmosphere of the office, even if a couple of weeks of lie-ins are most desperately needed.
My holidays start today then, with the most exciting thing being that my friends Luisa and Woody are here in Madrid for the MadCool festival! We’ve managed to meet a couple of times for a quick drink and small wanders through the city, but tonight is the last night of the festival, so tomorrow we’ll be sure to have a good snoop around and I’ll be back with updates on what we get up to very soon!
The plans for the rest of my summer holidays after that include a meal to celebrate Heidi’s graduation with her mum next week, then a train straight up to Oviedo to meet Kevin and head on a little road trip of the northern coast, all before heading back to England from Bilbao to spend a week with friends and family. In England, naturally, I have plenty more little day trips lined up too, but I’ll leave the details of all those until after my return to Madrid.
As you can probably tell, it promises to be a crazy couple of weeks from now onwards, so today I’m going to take the opportunity to catch a few rays in the park and spend some alone time. I’d like to tell you when I’ll be back with more photos and updates, but it seems like I’m going to be AWOL for a short while – but on my return there’ll be plenty to share.
So here we go with part two of a series of blogs which attempt to catch up with what’s been going on over these past few crazy weeks, but I begin with the good news that the technical problem with my blog has been resolved, and so I should now be back to the usual programme of annoyingly frequent updates on all my everyday shenanigans.
I’m afraid that I have to start the blog on a rather sad note, as the arrival of summer has also hailed the end of a few of my friends’ stays in Madrid. We all knew the day of their departure was coming as they were working on finite contracts here in the city, but it hit us quite hard nonetheless. As optimistic as ever though, we resolved to spend their last weeks and days doing as much fun stuff together as possible.
Our friend Kitty, who I rather unfortunately only met for the first time very recently, was the first to leave one Thursday morning, and we could think of no better send off than a special farewell edition of our traditional Taco Wednesdays. As per usual we spent the evening munching our way through multiple orders of tacos, getting gradually tipsier on frozen margaritas, and laughing our way through all the week’s anecdotes.
The only thing different that week was an emotional farewell as I headed home, wishing Kitty the best of luck as she heads back to the USA to study medicine – quite the change from the relaxed pace of life here in Spain!
The next day me and Megan arranged to meet up for dinner at a spot I’d been told about but had never tried, Nap Pizza. This place sits in the heart of one of my favourite of the city’s districts, Lavapiés (check out an ode to it a few blog posts back), and served us up probably the best pizza I’ve had since I moved out to Spain. I would up feeling a little bit sentimental, as it reminded me of the many days spent at Belgrave in Leeds, eating delicious half-price pizza and drowning our sorrows in student-price pints.
Side note: Holy hell, I can’t believe the linked blog post about one of Belgrave’s many Street Feasts is well over four years old. Am I getting old?
That Friday, and to start Loredana and Megan’s final weekend off with a bang, we’d planned to go for a big night out in a club in Chueca. With all of us being old and tired, however, those plans were soon scrapped in favour of a more tranquil evening, as we decided to have a picnic in the park to make the most of the weather. Such a laid back evening would also allow us to pursue our plans for Saturday, as we’d agreed that we wanted to go for another mini hike up into the Madrid mountains.
As I returned home on the Friday I immediately set about making things for the picnic, with a special inclusion that I had been thinking about making for quite some time. The picnic setting provided the perfect opportunity for me to try my hand at making one of my favourite British savoury snacks which I have been missing like crazy, and which just so happen to be a picnic staple: sausage rolls!
I don’t want to call myself Greggs or anything, but I was quite pleased with the results, even after it seemed that the whole thing would end as a soggy puff pastry disaster when the Madrid heat had the dough sticking to everything literally minutes after I’d taken it out of the fridge.
Once I had them rustled up, and I’d thrown together a pesto pasta salad and a huge box of fruit salad, I traipsed the lot in my trusty backpack and fold-up grocery bag up to the park. Once I eventually managed to find the three of them – I was late as usual – we pooled together all our food and the outdoor feast began.
It would seem that Loredana is a big fan of Nutella on the right there.
Once we’d worked our way through as much as the grub as possible, and collectively eaten 3/4 of a jar of Nutella pretty much straight off a spoon, the sun began to set and it was time to call it a night. We arrived home relatively early to get rested for an early start the next day, as we were scheduled to convene at the northern bus station in order to catch a bus up to the mountains.
We had decided to once again pay a visit to Manzanares el Real, after last time we had such a lovely time relaxing up by its cool river and clambering over its rocky terrain. This time we’d decided only to spend half the day there, as indeed we hadn’t forgotten to schedule in a good night out – and I really wanted to get some kip in before having to face a late night on the town!
This time we followed the path in reverse, opting to head upstream rather than downstream, but regardless we didn’t actually make it very far. We decided instead to set up camp on a flat rock plateau on the shore of the river, where we cracked out some picnic leftovers and proceeded to relax in the sun for gosh knows how long. After dipping my toes in the (very cold) water for a while, and after a quick yoga session led by Heidi from which I bailed rather early on, we eventually decided to head further up the river a little bit more.
In the end we didn’t make it much further, as once we sat down in a little outpost for a drink and a pincho, we all gave each other that glance which said that we all knew that when we next moved it’d be in order to head back in the direction of Madrid. After finishing off our pincho de tortilla (Spanish omelette), we meandered our way back into the town centre and hopped on the bus back to civilisation.
Just a few hours after departing ways once we arrived in Madrid, we were once again reunited on the roof terrace of Heidi and Loredana’s flat, dancing around as we had a few drinks before we headed to the club. The location for the farewell night out was an old favourite, a cheesy karaoke bar, but we had a fabulous time there – probably me more than most as, thanks to the team at Erretres’ efforts, I knew pretty much all of the Spanish classics that came up. I was even invited onto the stage to sing along with a group of locals who were out on some kind of hen do – it was quite the experience!
That Sunday, and after having waved Loredana off to the airport in the early hours of the morning, we were all surprisingly fresh, and so I headed into the city centre for a last minute extra present for Megan and for an ice cream in the rising heat. It might not be diet approved, but I feel that ice cream is a human right in a concrete jungle in the middle of nowhere which is just slowly baking in the sun…
As the evening approached, I was joined by Megan and Heidi to head into the city centre for a farewell dinner for Megan, who was catching a flight the day after. We eventually found a quaint Cuban restaurant along the way and headed in, enjoying a delicious meal of tamales, spiced meats and all the trimmings; all accompanied with, of course, a mojito.
Another farewell ensued, as I had to say my hasta luegos to Megan, but the loss of yet another member of Cake Club was offset slightly by a surprise from Kevin – he was coming to stay in the city for a couple of evenings!
Okay, so, admittedly this had been planned a few weeks ago when Kevin called to organise a stay at mine for one night, but as any of you who know me will know, I am hopeless at remembering literally anything. As I’d neglected to mark the date in my calendar directly after, I had totally forgotten which day I had agreed to host Kevin down here in Madrid, but thankfully neither had I planned anything else for the 36 hours he was in the city!
After meeting Kevin directly from work, we headed back to mine for him to drop his stuff off, before heading out to have some lunch at an unassuming little bar just down the road from my flat. There we had a slap-up menú del día, as I feasted on lentils, seafood soup and the world’s most decadent orange and white chocolate cake – for a small bar which I’d never been to, we were both surprised at how tasty the whole thing was!
Kevin arrived and the two of us immediately set about eating.
After stuffing ourselves and then making a quick dash around Mercadona for a few supplies, we headed back to mine for a quick break, and then headed back into the city to spend the evening having a few drinks in Chueca.
With the city in the opening days of its pride celebrations, the atmosphere in Chueca was buzzing, and after exploring the many streets of the kooky district, we settled down in the central plaza and ordered a big jarra of beer to keep us going for the night.
After watching the world go by and having one of our usual deep chats, we decided to make our way home on foot in order to take in some of the evening atmosphere, stopping for another drink in Lavapiés before we turned in for the night.
The next morning I had to inflict a 7am start on poor Kevin, as at work we are now on our summer timetable which means my working hours are reduced to 8am – 3pm. He had to head into the city himself anyway, as the whole reason he was here was to head to an induction for the exchange programme which is sending him to the USA later this year! We parted ways as I descended into the Metro, but at 7pm we were both reunited in the city and ready to make the most of another evening before Kevin had to catch his bus back northwards at 11:30pm.
That evening we were also joined by Heidi, the last remaining member of Cake Club, and we headed out for tacos – but not to our usual place. Instead we headed to the tiny taco bar which I have been obsessed with ever since I first moved out to live in Madrid, and which I’ve dragged manymany visitors to. Kevin was no exception last time he was here, and he asked that we go again: a request I had absolutely no qualms in fulfilling.
After we’d cleaned off a couple of rounds of these delicious tacos, we headed into the city for dessert by the royal palace, a lovely spot if any to spend half an hour or so. We picked up some ice cream along the way, watching the tourist bustle around the gorgeous Oriental Gardens and Royal Opera.
The Oriental Gardens
Madrid showing its pride
As 8 o’clock neared though, we decided that we’d like to go and see how England would perform in their World Cup match against Colombia, and so we found a bar which was showing it (i.e. pretty much every single one) and prepared for the game. Some of you may wonder what I was doing watching football as it’s not usually my cup of tea, but in case you have forgotten I have attended two(!) matches in the past – one in Burnley and the other Atlético de Madrid.
Just our luck then that the moment the match actually became pretty serious, i.e. the penalties, me and Kevin realised we had actually stayed in the bar a little too long (there seems to be a running theme with the two of us and running late). A semi-sprint out of the bar and to the Metro ensued, but we arrived at the bus station with plenty of time to spare, and I had to get the results from Heidi who’d stayed behind to watch until the end. Needless to say that I was pretty much the only one buzzing on the Metro back home, as I was surrounded by the unmistakable yellow jerseys of a lot of glum Colombian fans…
And now for the last little update, taking the form of a night out with friends in the city for pride! As you’ve already seen above, Madrid is once again (after I attended back in 2016) bathed in rainbows as the pride celebrations kick off, and naturally I wanted to get stuck right in. The only issue I had was the badly timed trip down to Murcia, which I’d managed to book right over the two main nights of the pride parades and celebrations – damnit!
I didn’t completely miss out on the festivities, however, as I was invited along to meet a group of my friend’s friends on the Thursday evening for a night of watching the live music, chattering away and downing mojitos which came at 5€ a pop and were served in huge cups – my kind of night out! I had a wonderful time and met some crazy fun people, and three of us eventually wound up sat in a bar, tipsily talking nonsense and inhaling some huge sandwiches which we’d bought ourselves.
It was a lovely reminder of just how inclusive my adopted city is, and although I did miss out on the bulk of the party, I have just retuned from a fabulous weekend down with my mum and sister in Murcia. I have mentioned this trip twice now, and I promise that I’ll be back with photos from it soon, but I feel that for now I have bombarded you all with enough updates for one post!
First things first with this blog post, and that’s that I have to apologise for how late I am in bringing it to you. I tried to upload the photos so that I could get it written a week ago, but I’ve been having some ongoing problems with my website and I couldn’t get anything uploaded – and a blog post without photos isn’t really worth your time – especially this one!
Anyway, let’s get on with things, for once again I write to you all whilst sat on yet another train. This time I’m headed southward with my mum and sister; the only difference being that they’re flying in at hundreds of miles per hour in a plane over my head somewhere! That’s right, the three of us are set to meet in Murcia in less than an hour, but those updates are to come later – for now I must focus on catching up on the antics from my trip to Oviedo two weeks ago.
Upon arrival in Asturias I was once again greeted by Kevin, an event so familiar that I now feel like Oviedo has become a second home – indeed, when we got to his house I didn’t even have to ask to do a single thing, it’s all become second nature! We weren’t at his flat for long though, as it was fiesta time – las fiestas de San Juan, to be exact. This involved us meeting up with a friend and heading down into Kevin’s neighbourhood to see what was going on.
Well didn’t I get a shock when, pizza in hand, we rocked up to a full blown festival right in the middle of what’s usually a sleepy plaza! An array of fairground rides and stalls selling all kinds of food and drinks were gathered around the huge crowds gathered at the centre, everyone focussed on the main stage where a local band were performing a medley of all the local hits.
As you can see, it didn’t take us long to grab ourselves a couple of bottles of the local speciality, natural cider; and as you can also see, I still haven’t quite got the hang of it since I first tried it back in summer last year! We were soon quite happily and tipsily away, dancing and singing along to everything from La Bamba to the unofficial anthem of Asturias.
We were all having a ball of a time singing and dancing in the street, but suddenly the main stage was hit with a series of power cuts, and eventually the poor guys had to call it a night and cut their set short. Not to worry for the rest of us, however, as a big marquee which was earlier just a bar had been converted into a huge dance floor, playing all of the modern Spanish hits!
After arriving in Oviedo at 9pm and complaining that I was too tired and didn’t want to go out, I wound up having an absolute blast with Kevin and Nerea, with one of my personal highlights being singing along at the top of my voice to “Fiesta Pagana”, one of my favourite party songs which I discovered last time we went out up in Oviedo. It was a phenomenal evening, and one which I very much hope to repeat next year, but as we headed home in the early hours I think we were both more concerned about how our heads would be the next day…
It was quite a shock when we woke up rather quite fresh, albeit slightly late, but that was to be expected as I was already tired before I was (rather willingly, as you probably noticed) talked into staying out until 5am. By two in the afternoon, me and Kevin had waved Nerea back off home and boarded a bus to another mystery location – Kevin always has a plan under wraps, and after the last trip to gorgeous Cudillero I was more than happy for him to continue making them!
It turned out that this time Kevin had brought me to yet another beautiful seaside town, Ribadesella. Once we’d hopped off the bus, we headed straight for the restaurant area, as we’d not really eaten much in the morning besides a few magdalenas (mini muffins). We found a lovely looking place which offered a menú del día for 14€, and then commenced to wine and dine our way through an absolute feast of a meal.
I was too preoccupied with my wine, croquettes, seafood soup, roast cabrito (goat meat), and then a huge bowl of homemade natillas (a bit like custard) to even think about taking any photos of the food, but take mine and Kevin’s word for it that it was delicious. For a few weeks now I’ve been trying to eat healthier and cut down on portion sizes, but it’s apparent that Asturias does not allow any such nonsense – even the soup came out in a huge mixing bowl and I was told to say when!
Stuffed full of gorgeous homemade grub, we paid the bill and headed back into Ribadesella, heading first through the beautifully quaint town centre. As usual when me and Kevin are reunited, we spent a good time snooping around, taking photos, and engaging in deep debates in which we put the world to rights.
I’m sure I don’t need to wax lyrical about how breathtakingly beautiful the little town was, as you can get a decent idea from the photos above, but I was caught off guard as we approached the estuary on which the town sits.
The place was just like a picture on a postcard, and I made sure to take it all in as we strolled town the waterfront. It was proving to be a lovely relaxing day, which was just as well as I was tired from the fiestas and full from the meal, but then Kevin went and dropped the bombshell that he wanted us to scale a large jut of land which shielded the estuary from the full force of the sea beyond.
As per usual, Kevin managed to talk my grouchy self into heading upwards, and so we began the ascent up some steps which had been mounted along the side of the incline – it was like Cudillero all over again! No complaints though – that place too was gorgeous and well worth every ounce of energy spent.
After an initial struggle, things began to level out as we ascended and, most importantly, the breathtaking views began to come into focus. Naturally it a time to stop for a selfie break as we discussed the complicated caveats of the English and Spanish languages – just an everyday conversation for the two of us frikis.
As we headed even higher up the jetty, we could really begin to properly appreciate the dramatic landscape which framed the idyllic town, with mountains in the background and the estuary stretching out in front, bordered by sandy shores. It really was like looking down on a fairytale!
Once we reached the summit of the cape, we were presented with a 360° view over the town, mountains, estuary and the sea into which it fed. Up here we spent a while taking in the scene which lay before us, discussing memories of primary school whilst overlooking the sea and natural pools which had formed in the rocks below.
After this we descended back to ground level, walking back towards the beach as Kevin recounted the Celtic folklore which dominates Asturian tradition. I was in a what I’m sure came across as an irritating touristy mood, nagging that I wanted to go to the beach across the way to feel my toes in the sand and have a cheeky dip in the sea. Kevin wanted to take me to see one last thing though, and so we circumnavigated the meandering estuary in order to cross the bridge to the other side.
Once we’d crossed the rather expansive bridge, Kev led me down a path towards the entrance to a cave. This cave is home to what, if I remember correctly, is some of Europe’s earliest cave paintings, but as per our luck it turned out to have closed a couple hours prior to our arrival. I wasn’t too upset though, as I was fascinated by some shipwrecks which, stained green by algae, had been exposed by the low tide.
Upon discovering that there’d be no caves for us that Saturday afternoon, we retreated back to the beach, which by this point was all but empty. Throwing my tote bag to the ground, I was soon wading out into the cool shallows, and had the ever-suffering Kevin taking photos of me – the fruits of which can be seen below:
As we had a long way to walk back to the bus station ahead, involving crossing the bridge over the wide estuary, we began to head back on to dry land with a good 45 minutes to spare. Relaxedly patting the sand off our feet, I fumbled for my bus ticket in my tote bag, and to my horror discovered that the bus was scheduled to leave 20 minutes earlier than we had thought, leaving us just 10 minutes to make what would have been a 20 minute walk.
A moment of panic ensued, after which we made an executive decision to do our absolute best to run as fast as we could to the bus station – it was the last bus out of the isolated town after all! Looking back it must have been quite the dramatic, picturesque scene, with the two of us sprinting as best we could across the bridge as the sun set beyond the mountains in the background. It certainly didn’t feel at all romantic as we sped towards the station though, with neither of us accustomed to exercise of such intensity.
As we approached the station, running over a set of railway tracks as a shortcut, we managed to catch the bus just in the nick of time. We used the last ounces of energy we had to haul ourselves into our seats, and then settled down for the 45 minute journey back to Oviedo.
We had thought about going out to the fiestas once again, but once we’d arrived back at Kevin’s flat, we slumped into the sofa and a rest from which we knew we were not to reanimate. This early night was a good idea in the end, however, as the following morning I found myself with plenty of energy and the will to spend the Sunday in Gijón.
After a relatively early start for the two of us, and a fiasco when we arrived in Gijón and the ticket machine charged us without dispensing a ticket, we found ourselves in the centre of the coastal city. Here we sat ourselves down in a lovely little pincho café, having a drink or two and discussing the future as we waited for our friend Sara to join us.
Once Sara showed up we had a wonderful catch up, with the conversation switching to Spanish and my more dramatic Spanish language personality coming out – it’s true what they say about your personality changing when you speak in one language versus another! We’d all brought beach gear along with us, and so we were soon headed for one of the beaches that the lucky gijóneses have at their constant disposal.
After a good few hours sunbathing, swimming in the sea, and eventually grabbing ourselves an ice cream, it was finally time to round up the weekend and catch the train back to Madrid back from Gijón train station. I waved Kevin and Sara off for a few weeks, but it wasn’t so bitter as I knew I’ll be back up for a more substantial visit in just a few weeks time!
So since this journey only two weeks have passed, but despite that so much has happened, and I am now hopelessly behind with my blog posts. I’d like to blame it wholly on the technical issues I mentioned earlier, but a lot of the reason has just been that I haven’t had time to stop and pull a single post together!
I’m now on the train back from Murcia up to Madrid, after having started this blog post on the way down and having spent 48 hours in the south. I hope that this week I have time to bring you another post, possibly two, but with so much going on I can really make no promises. Until then I shall have to bid you all farewell and eat my bocadillo de chorizo that’s waiting for me in my bag. Let’s hope it’s not gone too limp in the heat…
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