Spain Day 9 – Last full day in Spain

*Please note I wrote this while traveling a few weeks ago on February 23rd, 2013

I woke up to my last full day here in Spain at my cousin’s apartment in Madrid. I enjoyed a nice breakfast of fruit and toast and played a memory tile game with my cousins daughter. After breakfast we went to see Belen’s store. It’s named “Belur” and is beautiful! The decor had a wonderful vintage but high end unique vibe and the jewellery and clothing were all very nice. I wish they had a shop back home in Toronto, I’m sure it would be very popular. Here is the website for anyone traveling to Madrid or any Madrileños who what to check it out: http://www.estilobelur.es/

After some time browsing at the shop I left Belen and her daughter and took the metro to meet my Canadian friend Romina at Principle Pio stn. It was so nice to see her! We walked, talked and she asked me many questions about my Vaughan Town experience, after all if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t have found myself here in Spain in the first place. She told me a bit of what she does with her teaching at Vaughan Town and it doesn’t sound very different from the experience I just had although instead of skits and plays in the evenings she teaches written English. And instead of a resort she lives on school campus for 5-6 days while says teaches. Overall it sounds like an appealing lifestyle.

We wandered through the lovely streets of Madrid and dropped into the always interesting Lomography shop, which is bigger than the one in Toronto. It’s so tempting to buy one of their colourful plastic film cameras, but it’s just to expensive for the camera and to develop the film properly. It is a really neat novelty if you can afford it.

From there we walked to a stylish restaurant that blended a mix of vintage and modern with a touch of French into the decor. We had a wonderful tapas style lunch which consisted of ham and cheese croquettes, spinach and mushroom quesadillas, fois (duck liver which was surprisingly good) and Jamón serrano (ham) with caramelized onions on bread. The restaurant was called Lateral.

After lunch we walked a few blocks to grab a drink at a local bar and hangout of Ro’s called El Hecho. I had a delicious mojito, she had a margarita and they gave us jujubes to go with the drinks! We sat there for a few hours chatting and catching up on where our life paths have taken us over the last few years. It was so wonderful to see how happy she is living her dream in Spain.

Afterwards we wandered around Madrid and went to a few shops so I could pick up some required souvenirs and we saw a peaceful but large protest taking place at Peurta del Sol. There were a lot of people and they were chanting “the people! the people!”. Its been interesting learning about the “crisis” here in Spain and how many people are unemployed, how the government is loosing money and how incredibly hard it is to get or keep a job. I hope the government makes some changes so that life in Spain isn’t so stressful for all the wonderful Spaniards I’ve met on my trip.

After shopping we got on the metro and made our way to Romina’s neighbourhood. She lives in what I would consider to be High Park in relation to downtown Toronto. On our way to her apartment we walked along the river and stopped at a little cafe for some churros and hot chocolate. The churros are a deep fried batter that we dipped into our hot chocolate which was more of a thick warm chocolate pudding. It was delicious but greasy.

At this point I was thoroughly full and couldn’t eat another thing. This has definitely been a great “foodie” day. We walked the rest of the way to her apartment where we met with her boyfriend and a friend of hers from Russia. We had a few good laughs and then I had to leave to return to my cousins apartment so I could pack for my very early flight tomorrow morning. I had such a wonderful time with Romina and it was really difficult to leave her so soon.

When I returned to my cousin’s they surprised me with a present from Belur to take home as a keepsake from Madrid, there was also one for Crystal (my lovely twin sister). It was very nice of them and not necessary at all. I am just so thankful for their hospitality and the fact that I was able to stay with them while exploring Madrid. It was such a special chance to get to catch up with my cousin. I loved getting to know Belen better and I feel lucky to have spent time with their adorable little girl. For dinner we had delicious home made lasagne with spinach and ham. Belen is a wonderful cook :)

After dinner I packed my things and got my clothes ready for tomorrow because I have an early flight and need to be up at 4:30am. That only gives me about 3.5 hours sleep so I’d better go. Goodnight Madrid, I’m going to miss you.