Our First Weekend in the New Piso

Luke had to work both Saturday and Sunday (boo!) last weekend, but with the late nights that are typical of the Spanish lifestyle, we were still able to enjoy some time together.  Thursday night, we signed the contract for our new piso and the landlords showed us around our new neighborhood, pointing out some of their favorite spots, grocery store, etc.  It was so extremely nice and friendly! We are very lucky to have found this awesome place! After that, Luke and I celebrated with dinner at Boga Bar and an after dinner gin and tonic at a nearby piano bar. 

The remains of our arroz con bogavante, which is a rice and lobster dish. Messy but yummy!

Gin and tonic and live piano was a great night cap.

Spanish singer who dedicated a song to us. :)

On Friday, we finally started to move into our new piso! I brought a couple of bags over early on Friday and then hung around while the new couch and our first of two shipments from home were delivered.  When Luke got off on Friday evening, we met back at the hotel to grab the rest of our bags and head over to the new place together.  Although my sister, Meg, thinks I've had ample time :), our place is still a mess.  All of our furniture (except the couch that we bought over here) is coming in the second shipment sometime next week, and we have boxes and boxes of mostly clothes all over the place.

What were we thinking and where are we going to put all of this?!?!?

Looking out our balcony at Calle de Piamonte. 

Saturday morning, Luke headed to work, and I went to my new gym for the first time and ran a few errands.  For no particular reason, I had a kind of hard day on Saturday and was a little bit emotional, down in the dumps and frustrated by a few things. It's hard being in a new city that speaks a different language and does everything differently than you're used to! Anyway, we decided that what I needed was a laid back night at home.  So we made pizza and enjoyed it on the floor of our new dining room, started some laundry since we haven't done any since arriving nearly a month ago and made our first Spanish tortilla. It was just what the doctor ordered.

My new gym. Women only and extremely nice, including multiple hot tubs and sauna.

Pizza, olives and wine followed by dark chocolate. Perfection.

Our clothes line. So far so good. The worst part is going to be all the necessary ironing. :(

The amount of olive oil used in this was ridiculous. Luckily, it's super cheap over here.

On Sunday, we had breakfast together at a place called Mama Framboise before Luke headed to work, and I headed to El Rastro, which is a huge outdoor flea market that takes place every Sunday in Madrid.  There's a ton of junk and cheap clothing, and you have to be careful because it's known as a place for pick-pocketers to thrive.  But if you brave the crowds, hold tightly to your bag in front of your body and get past all the junky clothing and souvenirs, there are tons of antique shops and cool finds.  On Sunday, I found this awesome box, and I was quite proud of myself for negotiating the price in Spanish. Right now, I'm using it to store a few towels in the guest bathroom.

Love at first sight.

It doesn't hold all that many towels, but sometimes functionality has to be sacrificed.

I also had one more awesome find, but it's a surprise for Luke's birthday tonight so that will have to wait.  However, as I was carrying it around, several people tried to talk to me about it.  Although I couldn't understand half of what they said, I was able to try a little bit, and I had a really good experience.  One old lady nearly talked my ear off and was so friendly and endearing to me! It was exactly what I needed after a rough day on Saturday. When  Luke finished working on Sunday, we met at a nearby place for a drink before starting the week over again.  This floor of this bar was completely covered in sand!

Please ignore the crack in the upper right corner.

Once we get all settled in our new spot and everything, I hope to get on a regular blogging schedule.  There's so much that I want to share, and even though I'm not working, I'm running around like a crazy person all day trying to gather things for our new place, prepare for Luke's birthday, etc.  Everything takes so much longer over here. You can't just run to Wal-Mart, fill your cart and be done, and  I don't have a car so I can't buy too much at one time.  I'm trying to remind myself that it will take a little bit of time, but eventually, this place will feel like our home (at least if I have anything to do with it. :))

Now that I've gotten myself fully caffeinated, I'm off to finish a few more errands for Luke's birthday. Happy 28th to the sweetest husband, bestest friend, and forever my King of Spain. 

So handsome in his new suits, and I'm so proud of what a good, hard worker he is!