Pool-side in a Madrid Chalet (house)

Friends of ours, Jorge and Agueda, came to visit us in Madrid from Oviedo on their vacation. We enjoyed a busy Sunday together, shopping at high-end outlets in the morning and enjoying the pool in the afternoon. Jorge's mom has a cousin that lives north of Madrid in a house. Jorge's parents decided to visit and invited us to come too, to play in the pool and eat fabada- a typical asturian white bean soup with chorizo, morcilla (blood sausage) and panchetta. It tastes like bean with bacon soup.

Fabada is usally a winter meal as it is very hearty and we were a little concerned about eating it in 95+ degree weather, but it was delicious. The house was beautiful too. I don't think I've been to an actual free standing house in Madrid because there aren't many in the city and we don't know anyone rich enough to own one. Houses are very expensive and usually reserved for the very rich so it was a special treat to spend the day at one and one with a pool.

Pablo and Jorge spent the whole afternoon in the pool playing basketball and seeing how many different jumps they could do in the pool.

It was a very fun and relaxing day and a peak into the "high-life of Madrid society."

Outdoor gazebo where we had lunch

Fabada

pool-side

Back at home we were exhausted from a full day of shopping, sun, pool and a huge meal. Jorge was in charge of dinner and taught me how to make his famous tortilla using his secret technique and I have to say it was a great tortilla!

the Famous Tortilla

Beach and Semana Negra

It was nice weather during our time in Asturias so we headed to the beach. When we arrived the clouds parted and it turned into a really nice day. We set up our area and braved the wind. We put our umbrella up to help block the wind a bit and enjoyed some magazines and empanada. Then we headed to cool off in the waves. Because it was pretty windy the waves were pretty big. Pablo got me to go farther and farther out and we enjoyed the big waves and Pablo did a lot of jumping into them. After we returned to our area to dry off the wind picked up even more and got to the point it was not tolerable anymore. So we packed up and tried another beach but it was still wind, we were tired by this point so we headed home. It was sad to not be able to enjoy the nice weather at the beach but what can you do? That is the ocean!

Our beach bungalow

The second beach we tried- its windy look at my hair!

We also went to the week long celebration/carinval, Semana Negra, in Gijon. Pablo had taken me, Jill and Kristin there in 2003 when we came to visit so I thought it would be fun to go back. They have rides, food booths, games and bars. When we arrived we entered through the part where all the bars were and we were slammed by the loudest music ever pouring out of every bar tent- it was out of control. So we headed to the rides and the big Ferris Wheel. I thought it would be fun to ride the ferris wheel since I've never been in one so big and it would be romantic so we went for it. Well, this was not the ordinary ferris wheel, this one went fast and was quiet a ride, so it was very romantic but it was fun! After, we walked around checking out all the booths and then headed back to the bars for a drink. We realized we are now old people and couldn't handle the loud music and the massive amount of slutty looking teens. The bars even had half naked girl dancers. I don't remember this from 2003! We finished our drinks and headed home- we aren't cut out for this scene anymore!

view from the top of the ferris wheel

Paella BBQ

We had our yearly Paella BBQ with the family last week during our trip to Asturias. We went to the same park/bar area along the river in the pueblo Llanos. This year Pablo's aunt, Carmen, uncle, Javi and cousin, Diana came with us to enjoy the great paella, that Mari Carmen made over a fire, and lots of sidra. I made two apple pies to bring some American into the very traditional spanish day. We enjoy the sun for the first part of the day and then it clouded up but the area had some games- foosball and the frog game that you toss metal coins into- that we enjoyed after lunch. Then we played some cincillo (cards) had dinner- empanada and more sidra. We left around 10pm and had a very good family day.

Day before I made the apple pies. Pablo put it in the window and said it is just like the movies. (apparently everyone puts the apple pies in the windows)

Our spot, pouring sidra

Start of the paella- fry up the seafood

Next add the rice and stock

Final product

The family

Cutting the apple pie

Playing the frog game

Try to toss the coins in these holes- each one has different points

Foosball

Spain's Quarterfinal Game & 4th of July

We decided to have a little fiesta Saturday and started it off by going out and watching the Spain game at our neighborhood bar. They put a big screen outside so people could watch it from the patio, which was really nice considering its July in Madrid and that means HOT!

Pablo and I realized we don't have any Spain apperal but I made Pablo coordinate with me and we looked like the Spanish flag- red and yellow and our black shorts. We are so cute!

We enjoyed Tinto de Verano (red wine mixed with seltzer type stuff). The major problem was we never once got a tapa with our drinks and in Madrid that is a big no-no. I was very pissed and vowed never to go back to the bar again. The waiters were strange and only gave tapas to this one couple and two girls. Why? No idea but if you don't give Kelly a tapa bad things will happen.

Bugs taking over Pablo's shirt (click on it to see it bigger)

The game was pretty exciting in the second half and luckily Spain won! So we continued the fiesta at another bar where we knew we'd get tapas. Then we headed to another two bars after that. We found where the party is at on a Saturday night in Las Tablas and we were pretty surprised how many people were out. We live in the suburbs where everyone has two kids and a dog so finding a night life around here is pretty entertaining.

Pablo got a to-go cup from the bar- nice!

So after drinking a lot and not getting hardly any tapas we needed food. We didn't have dinner. They just announced that during the summer McDonalds is going to be open Friday and Saturdays 24 hours and so our next stop was McDonalds for cheese burgers!

We get there and notice that only the drive-thru is open and so Pablo walks up to the intercom and asks can we order from here and the guy says yes! We order cheeseburgers, fries and a diet coke and proceed to the next window. There was a car ahead of us and a car behind. We thought it was so hilarious (drinks). We sat down on the curb and enjoyed our feast.

After, we walked home and got there around 3am. I decided I should put my apple pie in the oven for the 4th of July so the apples wouldn't brown, we downloaded songs on itunes and made a music video. We are a bit strange but we have fun together!

Uncovered man hole- Las Tables is dangerous, watch where you step

The next morning we woke up bright and early to clean the house for our 4th of July BBQ. We had 6 guests- all police- over for a pool party and hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, pea salad and apple pie. It was fun and I'm glad we can make the Spanish celebrate some of our holidays!