When my sister Ellie came over to visit towards the end of last year, she brought with her a film camera that she’d been using to document some of her holidays from last year. After exploring the city, meeting up with friends, and both cooking and consuming some good food, I was keen to see the snaps once she’d had them developed.
Just a month or so ago she finally got them developed and sent me a copy of them over. I loved them, and so asked if I could share them on here as a little look back over our autumnal shenanigans. So without further ado, here they are!
A night at the local Italian restaurant with Luis.A cheeky drink after a wander down the river.Me giving California vibes in the municipal greenhouse.Ellie ready to eat a delicious pizza at NAP.Some breakfast pancakes made by yours truly.Drinks down by the lake on our last day together.
I hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I did, they’re a fun and unfiltered look at a great few days we spent together in Madrid. To read all about it, be sure to check out the original post from October last year. For now, I leave you with this little look back and promise that normal programming with resume shortly!
Well, after some weeks of quiet I’m still here, I’m still in Madrid, and it’s still bitingly cold. After returning from Gijón, we had a week or so of milder weather, but just these last few days have seen temperatures plummet back into the minuses. It’s not as bad as when Storm Filomena passed through a couple of years, but it’s well enough to keep me indoors for the time being.
I did brave the cold one weekend, though, as I’d agreed to act as tour guide for some special visitors to the city. After I’d had an absolute blast at their wedding last summer, Jess and Adam came to visit Madrid for a few days! Before I could meet up with them, I’d arranged to visit La Casa Encendida with a few colleagues. I’d been meaning to drop by this cultural centre in my neighbourhood for years, so it was lovely to finally get a look around and enjoy the warmth of the sun on its rooftop.
From there, the four of us stopped by a terrace and enjoyed a couple of vermouths before I’d to head off and meet Jess and Adam, who’d just arrived in the centre and were waiting to be allocated a room in their hotel. Jess came out and found me waiting for them outside and we got chatting, but once they’d been given their room key I headed up to the hotel’s rooftop terrace and had year another glass of vermouth whilst looking over the city. Not a bad Sunday at all!
Jess and Adam then joined me for another drink before we headed back down to street level and began wandering around the city. I showed them some of my favourite areas to eat and drink, but the streets were thronging with people and all the bars were packed out. I later learned that this was due to a huge protest that had finished just as we were setting off on our tour of the centre.
In the end we wound up sampling some of the local dishes in my local neighbourhood, after which we headed to mine for another drink and so that the two of them could see Casa Briggs, my humble abode here in the city. We then headed back to the centre for a meal at a tapas restaurant I knew they’d enjoy, followed by a visit to a sherry bar which turned out to be closed for a private event. We took that as divine intervention and headed back to our respective abodes for the evening.
It was lovely to show the two of them around and I was even happier to later learn from Jess that they’d enjoyed their time here in the capital. I hope to have them back over soon!
The next week saw the beginning of some of my culinary adventures, from a lovely caprese salad that I threw together to an early batch of torrijas, a Spanish Easter tradition. I first made these sweet cinnamon delights back in 2017 when I first lived in Madrid as an intern, the story of which has been retold again and again by my colleagues and goes something like this: one day my colleague Luis brought a torrija to the office that he’d bought, I tried it and liked it, and that same weekend I set about investigating how they were made and threw together a batch myself. I then brought them into the office and various colleagues insisted that I had done a better job of them than their own mothers!
The secret to my recipe is to add as much sugar and cinnamon as you dare.
That weekend I had some other plans which involved cooking as little as possible while eating as much as possible. This began with a trip to Sara’s house, where we were joined by Rocío for a night in with some wine and homemade pizza. It didn’t quite go to plan as we wound up so deep in gossipy conversation that we forgot about the pizza and it turned out a bit crispier than perhaps we would have liked, but we had a fab time all the same!
The next day I met up with Luis and we headed into the centre to join Carmen and participate in her photography project. This began with an initial photo shoot on the street, after which me and Luis went for some breakfast. We were joined there by more friends, with whom we wound up visiting an amazing bakery (I grabbed a chocolate croissant and Luis some bread similar to the loaf me and Megan bought in Montreal) and then treated ourselves to some new plants in a florists next door.
Whilst we waited for Carmen to wrap up, the group of us wound up in a nearby bar for some vermouth (my tipple of choice, in case you hadn’t noticed) and some little bites of food. As often happens here, this then turned into hours of snacking and chatting once Carmen arrived.
After having had lunch without even realising, Luis, Carmen, and I hopped in a taxi and down to Carmen’s house to carry on our afternoon of merriment. We put on some old silent movies, poured ourselves a glass of wine, and spent the rest of the afternoon munching on some jamón, cheese, and homemade bread that Carmen had made. Bliss!
The next day I spent at home cooking and cleaning. I made a lovely (even if I say so myself) batch of lentejas a la riojana, a lentil dish made with pork and chorizo and garlic all things tasty. I also popped some chicken wings in the oven according to my colleagues recipe, and they came out rather tasty too: even if they were an absolute sticky mess to eat once in the office!
At work, I had a lovely morning one day thanks to a visit by a bunch of design students from Valencia. I always remember the giddy excitement of having talks by top designers from local studios whilst I was at university, so it was an honour to sit and share our work and my experience with them all as well as answer their questions. I can only hope they found it as interesting and nutritive as I found it enjoyable!
This weekend is being a quiet one so far after a rather busy week. I’ve been catching up with people back in the UK and all over the world, organising my life a little bit, and even re-grouting my shower. Adult life is a never-ending list of tasks! I was rather proud of my breakfast yesterday though, which for once tasted as good as it looks in the picture!
I’m now sat waiting for Sara to head over for an afternoon of tea, sandwiches, and perhaps a cheeky vermouth. I’ve made a batch of coronation chicken and some biscuits for the occasion, but I’m missing a bowl of cheese and onion crisps as the my local British shop has closed down. I only discovered this after a cold bike ride down there this morning – what a disappointing way to start one’s Sunday!
My last blog post saw me down for one last visit to my auntie and uncle’s place before they sell up and move back to the UK, but I’m already back with another little trip. This time I’m headed to the opposite side of the country, up north and to the coastal city of Gijón. I mentioned before Christmas that my friends Bogar and Javier were in the last throes of organising their move up to Gijón, so this trip was going to be my first chance to see them in their new home!
In order to reach the city I rushed out of work on Friday and sped up to Moncloa, a transport interchange just ten minutes walk from my office. There I was picked up by Juan, who was the driver for my car share up to Asturias. I got chatting to another passenger on the way up who told me how he’d worked in a theatre all his life, first as an actor and then in set design and production. It reminded me of my days back working at Burnley Youth Theatre, where we were always up to all sorts of stuff.
We arrived in Gijón much earlier than expected which caught Cami, my hostess with the mostess for the weekend, completely off guard. I unpacked the few bits I’d brought with me whilst she finished off organising, then the two of us grabbed a taxi up to the beach in order to meet Bogar and Javier for a meal.
After some drinks at the bar, the four of us were given a table and the shenanigans began. I’d had a very long day between work and the long journey up and I knew that Bogar and Javier had to run some errands the next day, so I’d naturally assumed that it’d be a quiet and early night. Boy, was I wrong!
Once tipsy off the natural sidra (cider) which is typical of the region, Javier mentioned that we should go out partying as the plans they had for the next day had been put on hold. We’d had some great food, drinks, and laughs, so it didn’t take much convincing for us to end up in a bar that Javier knew the owner of. There we enjoyed some delicious frozen raspberry daiquiris before heading out to boogie at a couple of clubs.
My favourite bit was the huge marshmallow on top.
Needless to say that I did not get the early night I had envisioned, but we had an absolute blast. There was some great music, great drinks, and it was so nice to have Cami meet Bogar and Javier now that the three of them live together in the same city. The downside of all this was that the next day me and Cami were absolutely exhausted, so we stayed around the house pretty much all day besides a quick trip out to grab some pet food for Luke, Cami’s dog.
On Sunday we were right as rain once more. We headed out in the afternoon to Bogar and Javier’s place, a gorgeous flat near the beach that the two of them moved into back in December. After a tour around, we wound up in a nearby bar for an afternoon tipple which soon turned into a long afternoon of bar hopping.
The next day was a Monday and so I found myself back at work, only remotely from Cami’s living room. I managed to snag an hour for lunch and Cami and I tried out a sidrería near her house. The word sidrería means somewhere that cider is served, but it’s common for the restaurants in the region to be named as such. After all, it is Asturias: cider is served everywhere!
After a delicious meal of chicken soup, barbecued meats, and rice pudding, we headed back home so that I could finish off my working day. Once I’d signed off, Cami accompanied me down to a nearby car park where I said my goodbyes as I hopped in the car share back to Madrid.
I must say I had an absolutely fabulous time up in Gijón with Cami, Bogar, Javier, and friends. We were quite spontaneous with our plans, which I think is always the best way to take on little trips like this. I have to thank Cami for graciously putting me up at her place once again and I look forward to crashing at Bogar and Javier’s place at some point just as soon as they have the guest room up and running!
Now back in the capital, I’ve been back to my familiar routine of work, swimming, and socialising. As I haven’t really stopped recently, I’ve decided to take a few weekends off from travelling or making big plans. This weekend all I seem to be doing is cleaning the house and organising myself a bit, which is fine by me for the time being!
Here’s a vanity selfie of me enjoying the sun whilst suffering the cold.
This means that things will probably be slow here on my blog, but do not fear, as I’ve a few other posts in mind that I’d like to put together to share some other photos and stories from the recent past. Stay tuned!
My first blog post about a trip to my auntie and uncle’s place in Murcia was back in 2015. I spent some days down there with my mum and auntie, then took a train up north for my first ever trip to Madrid. It wasn’t my first time in the southern Spanish region, as I first visited in 2009, a year after my auntie and uncle moved there. Since then, I’ve visited plenty of times and had lots of fun – you can check all this out on my travel page.
Fifteen years later, and they have decided that it’s time to sell up and move back to the UK, meaning I’d to make plans to visit my auntie and uncle in their house one last time. I organised this before heading back home for Christmas, and just last week headed from work straight to the train station to begin my journey.
This journey was somewhat chaotic: there’s never a dull moment when I travel. I arrived at Atocha train station to find that half the departures screen was broken. I thus waited a while for my train to appear on the other screen, eventually growing impatient and heading for security. It was there that upon scanning my ticket, one of the security guards let me know that I was at the wrong train station!
I was cursing myself as I ran down to the local train line and tried to find the next train headed to Chamartín, Madrid’s northern train station, in a blind panic. In a stroke of luck, I headed down the first escalator I saw and it led me straight to a train which was just about to depart for where I needed to be. This miraculously pulled up just ten minutes before my train to Murcia left, leaving me just enough time to fly through security and catch my breath.
I always seem to run into drama when I travel, but I’ve never actually missed any connections or been stranded anywhere. It’s a miracle!
This mix up had been caused by the new train service to Murcia which began this year. The city has been incorporated into Spain’s high speed rail network, so my journey was now broken down into two parts: a high speed train or AVE to the capital city of Murica (also called Murcia), then a slower local train Balsicas, a town near my auntie and uncle’s place.
The change of trains was the second part of the journey to go wrong, with the train I was supposed to catch on to Balsicas being cancelled as we were all stood on the platform waiting for it. After 45 minutes of standing around in the cold and without any information, we were finally ushered towards another platform where a train eventually showed up and took us on our merry way.
In between the stress of the mixup in Madrid and then the hour I stood around in the cold in Murcia, I wasn’t feeling great upon arriving in Balsicas. I was greeted by my auntie and the three of us headed to their apartment so I could get some well-needed rest.
The next day I worked from their place, connecting with my team and busily working on some business. I’d taken the next day off in order to attend happy hour at the resort’s bar-restaurant, but it soon became clear that I’d have to do some work the next day in order to wrap up some stuff before a meeting that couldn’t be moved.
Despite this inconvenience, I managed to clock off on time and shower in to head up for a night with my auntie, uncle, and their friends. We had drinks, food, chats, and some good laughs with everyone who’d also attended. We were all sat at a very long table, I said it felt like the last supper!
I enjoyed my wander up to El Casón in the dark, despite the cold.
The next day I worked and connected to my meeting from a handy coworking area just above the bar which we’d been drinking in the night before. I was then met by my auntie and uncle for a drink, after which we headed down to their apartment just to find that some potential buyers were looking around the place. I thus sat by the pool in the sun whilst they finished their viewing.
Once everyone had left, the three of us headed back inside and I put together a spread of sandwiches and other nibbles for lunch. We sat down and ate together, but I’d then to carry on working for a few more hours before I could fully disconnect and enjoy the weekend. That night we went for a meal at a lovely Venezuelan restaurant in another local town, where we shared a mix of dishes and I had the chance to introduce my auntie and uncle to some of the dishes I knew.
The next day I woke up feeling quite worn out after a rough night of sleep and a bunch of cold symptoms that were getting slowly worse. After some breakfast, I headed back to bed for a quick lie down which then turned into a whole afternoon of drifting in and out of naps. I definitely must have needed it!
By the evening I was feeling somewhat better, helped along by a (nearly lethally strong) dose of menthol fumes that my auntie prepared for me. Airways cleared, the three of us headed to a town a mere five minutes drive from their apartment, where I wound up ordering some Peruvian food whilst they enjoyed some burgers. It was a lovely little spot!
I should note that the skip isn’t where we ate. It was outside and for some reason I thought it looked cool.
The following day marked my last in Murcia, so I spent the morning packing and lazing around my auntie and uncle’s place, saying my final goodbyes to this little second home I’ve had in Spain for so long. We were then joined for lunch by a couple of my auntie’s friends at the local community centre before I hopped on the train back up to Madrid.
We had a lovely little lunch together and all wound up so relaxed that I nearly lost track of time. In the rush to pay and head out, I left my lip balm on the table, but it could have been a worse casualty so I will have to let it slide. I was at the train station with time to spare, where I eventually hugged my auntie and uncle off as I began my (this time perfectly smooth) journey back up to the capital.
As you can tell, it wound up being a rather quiet long weekend down in Murcia, but I think it was just what I needed after a busy few months. It was also odd to think that it would be my last time in that apartment, as it’s always been a little second home for me here on the Iberian Peninsula. I know that my auntie and uncle will be back, however, so it’s just a matter of waiting for them to rent some other place for a few months and then I can be back down to bother them once more!
Since I returned from the UK at the start of the month, it’s been a pretty quiet affair in Madrid thanks to the biting cold. This doesn’t mean that I’ve been staying too still though, with plenty of things to do before the official Christmas period ended!
Firstly, I wanted to head into the city centre and catch the festive lights before they were taken down. With twotrips to England in December alone, I hadn’t had chance to see them before Christmas, so I took myself into the city to admire the colourful spectacle one evening.
I also caught a showing of Cortylandia, a cheesy animatronic show set to light and music which is put on by El Corte Inglés, Spain’s one and only chain of department stores. This iconic Madrilian Christmas tradition is always set to the same catchy song and this year was no different, with everyone dancing in the street to the refrain of Cortylandia, Cortylandia, ¡vamos todos a cantar!
My first weekend back in the capital included a quick visit by my auntie and uncle, who came up from Murcia in order to drop off a suitcase after a mix-up in the baggage reclaim after their festive cruise. Despite the sudden and rapid nature of it all, we had a lovely time. I made some meals at home, we went for a wander and some lunch around the city, and even had the chance to celebrate Reyes together.
El día de los Reyes Magos is the Spanish name for the holiday we might call the Three Kings’ Day and is celebrated on from the night of the 5th of January to the day of the 6th. It’s the day that the locals here open up the bulk of their presents, but me, my auntie, and uncle stuck to just indulging in the traditional food in the form of a roscón. We enjoyed this big ring of sweet bread topped with sugar and caramelised fruit with a mug of thick hot chocolate: the perfect way to end a cold day!
Even the sun was putting on a colourful show of lights.
That same weekend, I also headed out for some rather fancy food in a lovely restaurant for Napo’s birthday. We celebrated with some delicious dishes including Italian burrata, cod, and steak. This was all accompanied with lashings of white wine, as any good meal should be!
Just a week later and I was back in the centre once again, this time to attend something that Sara and I had booked quite a few weeks prior. Naturaleza encendida is an anual event held in the Royal Botanical Gardens here in Madrid and which is always hard to get tickets for thanks to how popular it is. It involves the installation of a tonne of lights, speakers, and various other visual effects within the gardens, so you can imagine that I’ve been wanting to go for years!
We first met for a bite to eat and a quick drink before heading down to the Real Jardín Botánico. Once inside, the spectacle and the sheer size of the thing unfolded before our eyes. The two of us had visited the gardens together last summer, but seeing it lit up in shades of pink, purple, and blue was a whole other experience.
You can see it was pretty spectacular from the photos, but there’s nothing compared to actually being there, surrounded by all of these colour-changing lights, mysterious sounds, and trees which seem taller just because the different lighting made us look at them in a different way. It was awesome!
After nearly two whole hours, our tour of the illuminated nature came to an end, but not before I’d grabbed a hot chocolate and we’d had a good snoop around the second half of the exhibition. This took us up to where we’d caught a photography exposition last time we visited. As you can imagine, it was quite different in the dark!
The week after began with a spontaneous plan that me and Napo came up with on the Monday evening. We met in Chueca, just north of the city centre, and had a drink together before heading off for some Venezuelan food at a restaurant he was keen on trying out. I was keen to see what it’d be like after the lovely Venezuelan Christmas meal we’d had together back in December!
The food ended up being absolutely delicious, with a special mention to be made to the yuca balls in honey. Even the drink was different and tasty – even if I have since forgotten what it was! Hopefully Napo remembers for next time…
Just the next day I was packing my bag ready to head off on my first little trip of 2023, and this one was to be quite an interesting one! More on that in my next post, though, as I’m currently trying to keep moving around my house and thus stave off the biting cold which has descended upon Madrid. Brr!
