Mar 9th - Mar 14th

Coming to you from somewhere over Spain, between Madrid and Lisbon. Just had a great long weekend with Lorena, Tommy’s sister, and off to give a quick visit to Felicia (our nanny in Lisbon) who is down with Pneumonia(or something of the sorts) at the moment, sounds like she is doing better, but made the trip all the same to say hi and wish her well.

Last week at school went right on by, I don’t know what it is but they just keeping on going by faster and faster. The weather seems to be changing to spring; we had our first few days of consecutive sunshine which was really nice. Well, I was going to talk about school but not much is new, more work than I want to do. I am getting through it though, and making sure to have a good of time as I can while doing so…so far I think I am doing a pretty god job! Ok, now to the exciting, interesting stuff, the weekend.

On Thursday afternoon I went and picked Lorena up from the airport in the afternoon and in no time we had dropped the baggage off at the house and we were wandering the streets, seeing the sights. Thursday was pretty low key, we walked all over: Plaza de España, Plaza Mayor, Gran Via, Sol, el Palacio Real, and Lavapies. Not too sure how it worked out but it seemed that we would walk for about 40 minutes and then all of a sudden we would find ourselves in a bar having a Caña (little beer) and some tapas. We actually went to a tapas bar that was new to me (I had heard of though) and found a winner. After bar hoping and seeing the sights during the afternoon we watched a bit of a soccer match (Atletico de Madrid Vs. Sporting Lisboa) and in no time it was time to meet up with Marc for Indian dinner. Marc, Lorena, Amy and I all enjoyed a nice meal at Marc and my regular place. After dinner Marc headed home because he had to work so Lorena, Amy and I headed off to Ismael’s house to have a couple of cocktails before going to tear up the discotecha! We had a great night on the town, Amy had not been out to a disco in Madrid yet, and Lorena is usually into the live music scene not the disco scene but we all had a blast and made it until about 6:00 before calling it quits.

After a short little nap, as in some 5.5 hours of sleep it was up and at them, we had a day to take advantage of and things to do and see. I had to run down to school to turn in some work, so I showed Lorena how to get to the Reina Sofia museum and met her there a bit later. From the museum we went and toured Parque Retiro, and then made our way through the city to grab a Bocadillo de Calamare (calamari sandwich) at this little bar that I know of near Plaza Mayor. Beat after walking for miles and miles we made our way back home, but before getting there stopped off at the grocery store to put together a little Tapas like dinner at the house of some things that she liked, and some that she had not tried yet. I invited a few people but it ended up being just 5 of us: Ismael, Lorena, Amy, Catarina (my roommate) and me. We had: Gambas alajillo (wow, now I am doubting on how to spell that, but it is shrimp cooked in olive oil and garlic, LOTS of garlic!), olives stuffed with anchovies, goat cheese, manchego cheese, bocarones (little fish fillets marinated in olive oil and lemon), some fresh bread, a salad, and artichokes. It was quite the spread and was really good if I could say so myself. We were planning on going out to watch some live music, but after a long night the first night the energy level the second night was not as high as it might have been, so we went to a bar near the house had a beer and called it a night.

Saturday was the same as the rest of them, action packed. We woke up a bit late, trying to catch up from not getting to many ZZZ’s Thursday night, and then we enjoyed the sunny weather and walked across the city to the Prado Museum. It had been a few years since I had been to see the work at the Prado so it was nice to get back there and see it again. I don’t like it as much as the Reina Sofia (the modern arts museum), but all the same it has some interesting pieces. The pieces that I enjoyed the most were Goya’s black paintings, Bosco’s work on depicting heaven and hell, and Velazquez’s piece Las Meninas. Apart from those few it is more old historical paintings and portraits that are nice in their own respect but do not particularly peak my interest. Before we knew it, we had spent a good 2.5 making our way through the museum. After we grabbed a bite of lunch, and headed home to grab a nap. Around 9:00 we met up with Marc, Ismael and May again and went to another one of our favorite restaurants near the house, they have some great tapas. When we got there we were way too late to get a table, and the bar was packed so we ended up ordering the food to go, buying some beers, and taking it home. It wasn’t as good as eating it there, but it was nice to be at home where we could hang out, chat, jam to some music and enjoy each other’s company. (What we ate: Sepia a la plancha, pollo con pimientos, carne adobada, salchichas, y patatas bravas…Squid, chicken with peppers, pork adoboada style, sausages, and potatoes with spicy red sauce) Before long it was almost 1:30 in the morning, and Lorena had to be up 6:00 a.m. to be at the airport by 7:15. Made it just barely on time and now I am about to land.

As always I hope that this finds everyone doing very well, and be ready for an ultra post next week…lots going on in the next 8 days!

Much love,


Phil