It is hot and it is polluted

We have been suffering in the 100 degree weather as of late. We don't have air conditioning and I ride my bike to class during the hottest part of the day. Not the best thing. And to top it off we watch the sun set every evening into black haze of pollution. Currently our mountain views are blurry because the pollution cloud is in the way. It is really disgusting and I really try not to think why every evening the sun is blurry and the sky is a bright pink color.

Market Day

Another Wednesday another trip to the market. Today we bought a bunch of goodies and because I was so proud of myself, I took another picture to show off my treasures.

1 head of romaine lettuce
1 kilo of golden apples (for the apple pies on 4th of July)
1 bunch of bananas
2 red peppers
1 kilo of cucumbers (1 euro)
1 head of garlic
1 kilo of avacados (1.50 euro)
3 kilos of tomatoes
2 kilos of onions
Free bunch of parsley
Free 3 green onions on steroids
Free 2 apricots

Grand Total: 12.25 euros

Wedding

This weekend we went to the wedding of our friends Fabio and Minerva. Pablo was in the police academy with Fabio. The bride and groom are both from Asturias and their wedding in Fabio's home town so we had an excuse to go to up to Asturias for the weekend. The wedding and reception were at very pretty place and lucky for all of us it was a beautiful day but VERY hot. They had a short ceremony and then we started the party by drinking and stuffing our faces. Typical Asturian wedding!

The bride and groom

Bag pipes are a must for an Asturian wedding

Cocktail hour site

The Police crew

Cream of puerros (like onions) and foie soup

Lobster salad

Pineapple sorbet

Steak Wellington

Dessert

San Xuan

We were in Mieres to celebrate their town's patron- San Juan. We had a family dinner of lamb and then headed out on the town to see the big bonfire and drink sidra. 

Dinner at home

Bonfire in the city hall

Out on the town

Our Gecko Hunter

Here is our "child" going crazy over a gecko. It is funnier in person but because we love him so much we post little videos like this. Note his tail and how much it moves- that normally is not how it goes!

Buitrago del Lozoya

We took a trip and went to visit the cute town of Buitrago del Lozoya, only 45 minutes north of our house. It is a medieval town with Arab influences and has buildings dating back to around 1000! The old part of town is on a little peninsula that is surrounded by a river. To protect the city from invaders there is a very large wall that surrounds the outside along the river. The town is tiny but very well preserved with a ton of history. 

We arrived around noon and set out on our walking tour to check out the castle that was converted into a bullring. We walked around the top of the wall checking out the views of the river and the town. And then made it over to the church and hiked up to another part of the wall to check out the bell tower and clock and more views of the town. 

Outside the castle

Inside the castle, the original above and the seats for the bullring below

Pablo in the castle

Walking on top of the wall

View of the wall and the church

Cute church

On top of the wall looking at the top of the church (& storks!)

Views!

Eclipse

We were lucky here in Europe to see the lunar eclipse that happened this week. I don´t remember the last eclipse I saw so once I found out we were going to have one I was determined to watch it. And lucky for us the moon passes right over our terrace so we could sit outside, comfortably, and watch it. Well the days before the eclipse we remembered seeing the moon because it was so big and so bright and could have sworn that it was up while we were eating dinner around 10 pm. Well the day of the eclipse we waited forever to see it and thought it would never come up! Then finally around 11 pm Pablo spotted it, black in the dark sky. At this point it looked competley covered even though, the scientist said it wasn´t. Pablo started taking pictures and it looked really cool.

ANAA Fundraiser Event

Last Sunday Pablo volunteered at the ANAA Animal Shelter's annual fundraiser/dog show. It was his first time at the event and as a volunteer. Saturday he signed me up to volunteer and help him and others prepare for the event by setting up tents, tables, coolers, signs, preparing gift bags ect. Sunday Pablo woke up bright and early and head off for a day of dogs and sun. He was in charge of parking.

Pablo's organized parking lot

The event had many activities for families and their dogs. There was a dog show and a cat photo competition. There was also a bar where they sold food and beverages and there was a mini-flea market.

Dog show

Summer is here!

This week finally feels like summer in Madrid (even though the worse is yet to come). Highs 85-90!  Here is how we are defending ourselves!

Sun tea with lemon and mint

Cherry tomato boom

Our 4.95 euro swimming pool

Sidra poured by my hottie husband in the tight shorts

The Bike Ride that started out good....

Us and my cheese smile- the cathedral in the background

I finally pulled my bike out after a long winter and headed out for the first ride of the year. We decided to go to the river Manzanares because they have completely re-vamped it and we wanted to check it out.
My first three months living in Madrid was in an apartment right by this river. Back then there was a walking path but it didn't go very far and there wasn't much to look at plus there was hardly in water in the river. Today it is a whole different story- it looks amazing. There are parks, bike paths, toys for kids, benches and people everywhere riding bikes, rollerblading, walking, jogging, it looks great.

Me riding my bike

We were having a great ride, stopping to take pictures and enjoy the sun that finally decided to come out. We rode all the way to our old apartment and then decided to take a break for a snack before heading back home. At the time we finally started to head home it was around 7:45 pm, my buns hurt and I wasn't really looking forward to riding all the way back but it had to be done. We were about 1/3 of the way home when Pablo was going up a little hill and pop! chain broken! Not good. We pull over to the side of the path and Pablo tried to fix his chain. He doesn't have any of the contraptions needed to fix the chain but he is pretty thrifty and finds ways to make things work. So he puts it together and gets the chain back on and we try again but the first pedal and pop! chain breaks again. So what do you do? WALK. Yep, we walked, who knows how far back to our house. It pretty much sucked and kind of put a damper on such a nice ride. We finally arrived home at 10 pm.

Market Day

Wednesday is market day and you would think after living in this neighborhood for 2 months and being on the list of one of my favorite things, I would love to go to the market. Well I have a confession to make- I'm nervous every Wednesday to go to the market. As I walk home from my 8:30 am class I give myself a pep talk about going to the market saying to myself that I can do it. I practice in my head what I have to say, what stall I'll go to ect. I'm really pathetic. But luckily after I am done buying everything I always realize it wasn't so bad. No one has been mean to me even if I fumble and say words really bad even though I know how to say them but when people look at me I get all nervous and it comes out wrong. I'm a sad story but it is my life.
Anyway above is a picture of my day's purchase and since I'm always so proud of myself as I am walking home I thought today I would share it with you!

Purchased for 5 euros
4.4 lbs tomatoes**
6 green peppers
2 cucumbers*
1 bunch of bananas
and for free I received a bunch of parsely and the really huge green onion (it has a different name but I don't know what it is)

** I now buy Raf tomatoes because they actually have flavor and I love them. Here is a decription of what they are:
Raf has creases or wrinkles in the skin and color varies between green and red. It has a sweet taste and is grown in autumn, winter or spring. The Raf is is produced in the province of Almería (Spain).

* If you have heard about the E.Coli outbreak in Germany then you may know that the Germans first blamed it on cucumbers from Spain. Now they are finding it came from sprouts from Germany. So now the Spanish hate all things German. Spanish farmers lost a lot of money when the Germans threw out all the cucumbers from Spain and initiated a smear campaign against all the Spanish produce. So now buying cucumbers is very popular and I realized I like cucumbers and never buy them so I thought today was a good day to start!

Pablo´s Birthday in Asturias with 2 Americans

We went to Asturias to pick up Ryan after his tour around Spain. There we showed him the main tourists sights, visited with the family and celebrated Pablo´s 33rd birthday. It was a very quick trip trying to squeeze everything in but we had fun. Then we all drove back to Madrid so Ryan could catch his plane back to Seattle.

Caves



Cathedral in Oviedo



Us and Oviedo

Jesus

Cangas de Onis

Naranco