Just Another Madrid Monday #4

After more than a brief hiatus, I'm back for the 4th installment of Madrid Monday, and this time, believe it or not, we're actually in Madrid! After a few luggage mishaps (i.e. the trunk wasn't closed and my carry on including passports and visas for both fell out into the middle of an intersection), lunch with Shelby and Coleman at Chick-fil-A and a tearful "See you soon" with my mom and dad at the airport, we departed DFW around 6 p.m. on Monday, June 18. (Although Luke's parents couldn't see us off, we got to seem them just the weekend before, and though it's never really "Good-bye," tears were shed there as well.)

 After more than 5,000 miles (or 8,300 km for those of you who that actually means something to), we landed in Madrid at approximately 10 am....9 hours later and 7 hours ahead of US Central Standard time. We found our way to our temporary apartment hotel with a kitchen smaller than the size of a normal closet in the states.  For about the first month, we're staying right in the city center in Plaza de Espana. Although we wouldn't want to live this smack dab in the center of things, it's a good temporary location, and we even have a view of the Palace. 

We spent the majority of our first 2 weeks in Madrid searching for a piso (Spanish for apartment) and covering the whole city multiple times on foot.  (My refusal to wear tennis shoes has left me in dire need of a pedicure. Now I just have to get up the nerve to walk in and tell them, "Me gustaria una pedicura por favor.") Luckily, though, we found a piso and put a deposit on it at the end of last week.  We should sign the contract sometime this week and plan to move in on July 12. Once we get all moved in and set up, I'll take some pics and post about it. But for now, here are a couple from the listing that show my favorite things about it.  

Open floorplan, which is not typical of a Spanish apartment.

Original tile floors. Major swoon!

Two big windows with tons of sunlight. Hopefully, this will keep my seasonal affective disorder under control :)

Two updated bathrooms.

Old green shutters used as doors for the guest bedroom. 

So far, the city of Madrid has been very friendly.  From strangers who are more than willing to help us with directions and chase us down when they realize they've sent us in the wrong way to several of Luke's co-workers inviting us out for dinner and drinks and offering to help us with anything that we might need, we've felt nothing but welcome and are looking forward to experiencing all this city (and Europe!) have to offer.   

Dinner with Luke's co-workers.

"Houston, we have a bucket." At La Surena, where there are buckets of 5 beers for 3 euros.

Enjoying a cerveza on the terraza.

In honor of Luke's mom. :)

Drinks with Julie and Miguel. Julie is from Kentucky and speaks awesome English!

Enjoying the tinto de verano that I ordered all by myself. (Note: Ordering is hard. Not because I don't know how to say what I want (because I do), but because it is quite difficult to understand what they say back.) Luckily, I have 18 months to practice.

Nicholas, Jose Carlos, Luke and Miguel being silly with beer caps on their foreheads.

Dinner at Mercado San Anton, which is really cool and super close to our new piso. Can't wait to show all of our visitors!

After finding our piso, we rented a car and set off for the North of Spain last Thursday in order to have a little vacation before Luke's first day. I'll be back soon with posts and pics from that trip, but for now, I'll leave you with Luke's first day of work picture. What a professional!