The Beginning of the End...MADRID!!!

We had a very eventful trip back to the states with two great weddings that brought Drew and I back to California.  We almost missed the first wedding (our friends Nicole Moon and Eric Deyke which Drew was a part of the wedding party) due to a torrential rain in Buenos Aires that shut down the city, killed numerous people and made us a day late to our destination.  We enjoyed every minute back home and were excited to see all of those we got to see and hope to see those we didn't get a chance to see next time.

A few days after my best friends wedding we embarked on our final few months abroad which by the time we are done will have reached one full year gone.  We arrived in Madrid a few days ago and have been enjoying the perfect weather and sightseeing.  We are saving the majority of the tourist attractions for when our friends arrive here in Madrid who have never been to Spain.  Each day we get up and just wonder the streets and are amazed at how clean and well preserved Madrid is as well as how vibrant.  There are always millions of people out in the streets at all hours of the day.  So here is what we have been doing:

This is us flying over Madrid!  Madrid has a great airport and great public transportation and it is so easy to maneuver around:

This is inside our apartment building and it doesn't look like much but it is part of the old city wall that went around Madrid and is from the 1100s.

This is Plaza Mayor which seems to be the main focal point of the city and is only two short blocks up from our apartment that we are renting on Cava Baja.

More pictures of Plaza Mayor:

This is the Palace in Madrid which is also just about a ten minute walk from where we are staying.

This is a view at sunset from our apartment window!  Not a bad view!

This is one of the main walking streets in the city but I think all of the streets are this busy at all hours.

The Madrid Open happened to be in town while we are here (it just ended today with Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal taking the titles).  We were jet lagged and woke up early one morning and out of boredom checked the line up and found out that if we got there by 1030 in the morning we could watch Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer all play on the same court.  We watched about 8 hours of tennis including a doubles match with the Bryan Brothers (number one team in the world who played two other Americans Isner and Querrey).  I couldn't have asked for a better day of tennis and don't think seeing that line up will ever happen again!  Here are some pictures below.

This is us out at a restaurant.  We ate at a good tapas place called Lateral that was recommended to us.  Tons of great tapas and cheap sangria and a line out the door.

Sites like this below are around every corner!

Drew went in this church which was packed and people were making so much noise I thought maybe the pope was inside.

Mercado San Miguel.  We haven't gone in yet but will for sure be stopping in several times in the next week.

This is the street we live on.  It is called Cava Baja and is famous for its tapas.  I have said it before and I will say it again it is literally this crowded at all hours.  The shocking thing is that as I write this blog I cannot hear a single noise.  Its shocking to me how crowded the street is yet how quiet and peaceful it is in our apartment.  I never hear so much as a peep!

We love to sit out in the plazas with locals and drink Cañas of beer.  They are usually around 1 Euro and usually come with a little snack like peanuts or something.  We are also fans of the tinto de verano which is summer wine and is pretty similar to a sangria.

Today, Sunday, was beautiful so we walked over to Parque de Retiro which is a giant park near the Prado Museum and just spent several hours walking around and people watching.

On Sundays they also have the El Rastro which is a flea market.  I am sure its cool but I was getting Claustrophobic with all the people around so we had to leave.

Picture of the Cathedral from our window at night.

Boats in the parque de retiro!  We are renting one of these when our friends arrive and paddling around (weather permitting).

So far we are off to a great start in Europe.  Our friends arrive on Wednesday and we will post more pictures.  After that we had to Barcelona for a few days.  We are both so excited to be here and just wish we were better at jet lag.  Last night I stayed up all day!  Went to bed at 2 in the morning and woke up an hour later and was up the rest of the day.  I can barely keep my eyes open as I type this and I hope to sleep a few more hours tonight!  With that being said, Happy Mother's day to all of you mothers out there especially ours and goodnight.

Guest Blog by Melissa (pronounced May-LEE-za)

Greetings from Buenos Aires!!  I’m fulfilling my mandatory guest blog obligation – I have a lot to tell you about from the past 2 weeks!

First of all – Buenos Aires is AMAZING.  Easily one of the best places I have ever visited.  It has a very European feel to it and is very heavily Italian-influenced.  I love saying ‘Ciao!’ to everyone – feels so fancy.

The biggest difference I’ve noticed here is how LATE everything happens – people eat dinner at 10pm, don’t go to the bars until 2am (at the earliest!) and when I wanted to go home at 4am I was the party pooper who wanted to “leave early”.  It’s definitely a big adjustment, especially since I’m working while I’m here and trying my best to maintain my usual East Coast hours.  Drew and Aaron also refuse to go to bed before 4 or 5am even when we aren’t doing anything – lucky for me, I’ve figured out a solution to this problem – don’t I look sexy??

Since Drew and Aaron have an apartment here, we’ve basically been living like locals, which is really nice – our days typically consist of me getting up to start my work day, Drew and Aaron sleeping in for a bit and then they head to the park to lay in the sun, have lunch, play cards, read and listen to music.  I usually head over there for about an hour or two in the late afternoon to have lunch and hang out with them.  It’s gorgeous nearly every day here (minus a torrential downpour we got my first night and last nights here) since it’s the end of summer.

Here are some of the highlights of our travels & experiences:

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise upon arriving to Buenos Aires.

Aaron and I in Plaza Mayo the day I arrived

beautiful cathedral near Eva Perron's house

Cathedral with live guards.  No idea who/what they are guarding.

The pictures really don't do it justice!  My favorite memory of the cathedral was that Aaron had to pee so bad that he was actually considering peeing somewhere inside the church (not in a bathroom).  I'm glad we were able to get him to an actual restroom before that happened!  Not-so-holy-water.

Drew and I at La Boca - the birthplace of Tango dancing

Florida Street - this is where all of the 'black market' currency exchanges take place.  Everyone is trying to get you to convert your US Dollars there for Argentinian peso - very shady.  Especially all of the cabs out front of these places waiting to take you "home" afterwards...no thanks.

Obelisk

Obelisk by day

Obelisk by night

Another distinct thing about Buenos Aires (BsAs) is that EVERYONE has a dog.  These dogs are out and about at all hours of the day and night - it's not uncommon to see a professional dog-walker walking 8+ dogs at a time.  BsAs is obviously a big city with a lot of cars, yet these dogs just follow their owners around without a leash on - they never cross the street when they aren't supposed to, it's pretty impressive!  I can't even get my dog to sit.

As Drew and Aaron have mentioned, the Argentinians love their parks!  People of all ages and walks of life congregate here to hang out with friends, eat lunch, have a beer, sunbathe, etc.  It's also common to see some more interesting activities such as slacklinging (above - these were actually Gibbon slacklines which is the company Drew worked for before leaving for his travels!!), juggling and trapezes from the trees.

There was also this bizarre fad over there - they are similar to ski boots, with a football-shaped flexible thing on the bottom.  They are some sort of exercise for your legs.  And we thought Sketchers Shape-Ups were ugly!

Oh the famous homeless man on the corner.  He's just made himself right at home with artwork on his wall, a working television set, and 2 dogs.  He has a weimaraner that is about the size of a pony.

 We really wanted tacos, so we went to one of the few Mexican food restaurants in the city - it wasn't anything to write home about (even though that's kind of what I'm doing).

'Fiesta Dorothy' - I've never seen anything like it.  This party happens once every 3 months or so and was pretty ridiculous.  There were just levels and levels of thousands of people with music, laser/light shows, etc.  This is where we met Elton John's makeup artist and his flight attendant (have you ever heard a gayer sentence??) and they offered to let us come to the concert a few nights later in Uruguay...it didn't work out, but it was nice to be invited!

Stained glass at the venue where Fiesta Dorothy was held

 Beers in Plaza Serrano where we (Drew) ate too many peanuts

Shopping in Plaza Serrano weekend market.  This was pretty late on a Sunday night - people are ALWAYS out in this city, it's so vibrant and full of life!

Fred, our pub crawl host.  This was really fun and gave us a chance to meet other people traveling who spoke English - we had a blast!

Rosé in the park

This is how we spent a good number of our evenings together.  Dinner, a few drinks and a whole lot of Skip-Bo!

Dancing on my first night in BsAs - so much fun!  Sorry I had to pull the plug so early at 4:30am.

Don Julio - one of the top steak restaurants in the city.  Easily one of the best steaks I have ever had and I think it was less than $15 for a steak.

Don Julio

D & A in the park

Las Cabras parilla - SO good.  We went back a 2nd time and ordered a huge grill with at least 8 types of meat - Aaron was so adventurous!!  I waited until we got home to tell him what I think he was eating - he was a good sport :)  I stuck to the chorizo, steak and chicken.

One of our favorite things to do - have a kiki!!  A kiki is basically a small house party - it comes from some silly song that is all the rage in BsAs.  The 2nd on the right is our friend Lucas who we met there and lives just outside of the city.