Danni & Abi Visit

Rather than sitting in my bed melting in the summer heat, I thought I’d instead decided to sit in bed and melt in the summer heat whilst typing up a blog post whilst the red-hot underside of my MacBook burns my thighs. All this is worth the sacrifice though, as I am excited to report that two of my favourite people, Danni and Abi, came to visit me here in the sunny Spanish capital for a good few days just this past weekend!

After snatching them from the airport and heading through the city, I had to nip back to work for the afternoon, but in the evening we were sure to grab some delicious tacos and margaritas and wander the night away in the evening heat. Once we’d had enough, we all headed back to the hostel together, as I lived with them for the five days to make it easier and cheaper for us all.

The next day I headed back to work once more, leaving the troublesome twosome alone to explore the city and shop to their hearts’ content, but sooner or later they arrived at the studio to pay a visit – and naturally everyone had to stop working to have an aperitivo on the ping pong table…

During the weekend we spent time wandering round some of the picturesque areas of the city, binging on some lovely food and generally sitting around sipping drinks and having a catch up about what’s been going down back in Burnley and Leeds.

Sooner or later it was Sunday, and of course we walked out of our hostal right into the throws of a big Catholic parade making it’s way down the street, a little like every day of Semana Santa. We followed the smell of incense and the huge effigy being paraded down the high street for a short while, but then we jumped on the Metro and headed towards Casa de Campo for a food market I’d discovered on Instagram…

The food market in question was Madreat, and consisted of a huge area of food trucks and bars in the middle of the greenery of the Casa de Campo in the west of the city. I grabbed some Peruvian food, Abi and Danni grabbed hotdogs, and we sat down to soak in the rays and have a good old relax…

After finishing off our food, we grabbed some ice cream as the heat of the day wore stronger, and sat in the shade of a tree to chatter away and take a selfie (naturally), all before heading back towards the Metro to visit the Matadero down in the south and have a tinto de verano by the river.

Just like that however, it was their last night here in the city, so we all got packed up and headed down to Ópera and Royal Madrid to soak up the last of the sun and enjoy the calm ambience of this laid back city.

The two of them are now back on home turf, and I have managed to get to my new flat after an evening of carrying my ever-heavier suitcase right across the city. I am now living right next to my work in a shared flat with three lovely Spanish girls, and we’ve already had a good couple of evenings laughing and chatting away in both languages – which can get quite confusing!

I leave you now as I have to get showered for an impromptu picnic by the temple, but I shall pop this photo of the spire of the Royal Palace which I can see peeping out over the trees from my window. What a lovely view!