day 4, Madrid

Carlos took us to Retiro Park yesterday to check out the cool statues, but first we went for Tapas. Last night, his friends came over and we had dinner together. We´re so lucky that everyone speaks such fluent English! If you´re from del´s I´m sure you´ll recognize the primavera alio olio.. i was jonesen.. Also, (and forgive me for not having any photos,) two nights ago after the gym, we went to a bar called Casa Pepe which is where they serve Spanish beer in 1.60 €, 5oz glasses, and FREE chicken wings! As you can imagine, the place was packed. Sure.. some had feathers in them still, but they we pretty tastey. I wish I had a picture of the bones all over the floor, though.

week 1- Madrid, Spain

Hello from Europe!

We have been here for 31 hours and we´ve already eaten more food than a normal Canadian would eat in 3 days.. and wishing that we didnt buy our camping gear back in Canada, as camping accessories are SO inexpensive.

More importantly, the beer is also CHEAP- as you can see above, they pay less than a $1 Canadian for Heineken at the grocery store. 0.17€ for a beer, can you imagine! (this spanish keyboard doesnt have a question mark that I can find..) We bought a six-pack today for 3€!

Anyway.. Carlos´dad, (who is an civil engineer for the King of Spain,) took us for an authentic Spanish lunch today. I don´t think anyone understands how much these people eat, especially at lunch: for starters, they don´t eat until 3pm, as they have dinner at 10. Second, the primary meal of the day is lunch. And finally, all of this is because the bars are open from midnight until 7am. Wild. So lunch is about a million courses, served in a style that we would recognize as tapas, but they consider ¨´tapas´something completely different. We begin with two bottles of wine- for 5 people- and a glass of gaszpacho each; then comes Pan Tumaca with Serrano ham and lomo, then white asparagus with mayonaise, then croquettes with ham, then something they call Broken eggs, (which is really french fries with Paprika and blood sausage with a sunny-side -up egg on top;)THEN there was rabbit soup; more Pan Tumaca; another bottle of wine; and finally a steak with potatoes and red pepper. THEN dessert: cheesecake, honey dew, (which they swear isnt honey dew at all,) with walnuts; espresso; brandy; sweet wine AND cigars. Of course they thought it was hilarious when we had to take a break after the first Pan Tumaca.

On Sunday, we are going to Carlos´ house in the mountains to cook for 8 people. His dad is crazy about food, so pressures on and Lou has no idea what to cook for him.

Tonight we are watching the Barcelona- Manchester United game with some of Carlos´friends.. more on that later this week.

Sorry there isnt more to talk about. Madrid is a pretty flat, dry place so the photos arent the best either. It reminds me of Florida, sans ocean. Our hosts make up for the un interesting landscape though. Caleb, if you´re reading, I can´t wait for you to meet Carlos and Victoria!

Thanks for checking out the first post- they are bound to get better!

(here are some more pics from Madrid so far)

love!
Katelyn & Louie