finde en madrid

I'm on my way back from Madrid right now. I adore traveling by train. The closer we get to Murcia the better because mountains and distant farms and Spanish pueblos begin to pop up in the quickly passing landscapes. I love going to the café on the train and sipping a coffee and watching the trees and mountains blur together as we zoom by.

I spent the weekend with my pal Meredith. We enjoyed a lot of tasty eats and treats at many of the places that Meredith frequents in Madrid. I had a veggie and quinoa burger at a sandwich bar, a guacamole and bean burrito, eggs and French toast at a cute American style breakfast joint, an orange infused cappuccino , red velvet cookie cream cakes, roasted red pepper humus made by Meredith and one of the best gin and tonics I've ever tasted! We also went shopping, listened to lots of good tunes and stayed up talking till the madrugada! A perfect girls weekend!

Her apartment is in malasaña which is a young and hip neighborhood in Madrid filled with unique shops, artsy boutiques, and lots of recommendable bars and restaurants. We spent most of our time in that area, but we did walk over to the retiro to go for a little boat ride with two of Meredith's friends from England!
I'll be back in Murcia in a few hours, back to work tomorrow morning and back to the states in only a month! ¡Cómo vuela el tiempo!

madrid

beach bums

we have been so busy lately with our weeks full of long work days and the weekends full of parties (weddings, baptisms, first communions). i haven't had time to blog, read for pleasure or study for my driver's license! :( it was nice to not have to go to any celebrations this weekend and we spent time with my friend erica who was visiting from jaen. we took advantage of the 98 degree weather and spent saturday at the beach. we brought a picnic and spent the day lounging in the sand under the sun and occasionally cooling off in the mediterranean sea.

the days are longer. summer is arriving and when wake in the morning the sun is already streaming across the sheets. we can now sleep with the window open and we are awoken by the chipper birds ruffling about in the trees. it's still light enough when we get off work to go for a run or sit on the porch with the dog for a bit. 

this week I've...

posted a few quotes on tumblr

tried this guacamole recipe 

and this one with the leftovers

downloaded this music mix 

picnic en la playa

we had a "puente" (bridge=long weekend) this weekend in murcia and we made the most of our time off work and the sunny warm weather. 

saturday we spent the day in albacete with roberto's family celebrating his cousin's wedding and on sunday we ran our first race! we only ran 6 kilometers (we normally run more than that at home) but it was harder than usual because we started off faster than what we're used to. what a great feeling when we crossed the finish line! 

last night we had dinner with two great friends, salva and begoña, and then today we spent the day at the beach with them. there were hardly any other people at the beach. we sat near the rocky coast with our picnic of empanadillas and pasteles while we watched our puppy ringo romp around in the water and try to eat the sand. after lunch everyone sprawled out in the sand for a siesta (even ringo) and we topped off the day with an ice cream before heading home. 

i've been reading sylvia plath's journal. i feel like we are long lost friends and in her daily writings she expresses so many feelings i have, but i am incapable of expressing in words. i've posted some of my favorite quotes on my tumblr site.