Hello, hello sweet friends and family! I hope this post finds you happy and well. This weekend was the first in 7 weekends that I’ve spent in Madrid….It turns out that’s exactly what I needed. It was so good to come home to my bed each night in a city in which I feel at home.
Friday started off with a trip to Primark to buy my friend Lisa some tights. If you haven’t heard of Primark, it’s this absolutely ginormous clothing store with super low prices. It makes Forever 21 look like a small, boutique-clothing store. When we first walked in, we took the elevator up to the second floor to one of the women’s sections….I think it took my friend Dafni and I a total of 30 seconds to realize we were overwhelmed and needed to get out of there for fear of having panic attacks. However, we had to venture up to the 3rd floor to get to the tights section. Here is where Dafni and I decided to have a little fun with it. We gathered all the most ridiculous clothing we could find, including a sparkly bodysuit, a studded leather crop top, a hot pink fur scarf, and a ridiculous pantsuit that looked like it had been made out of your grandma’s tablecloth. Then, we proceeded to have a fashion show! I have been given permission by Dafni to post said picture of her in the pantsuit and studded leather croptop….What lucky readers you all are!

After Primark we went to the lovely café Pan Adoré in the neighborhood of La Latina. It was an adorable space with homemade desserts and quiches. All in all, a lovely afternoon. That night, I went to dinner at Sumo with my mentor group. Paula, my Spanish mentor, had told us that it was a buffet-style restaurant, but we were not prepared for what was about to come….We found out that there were 3 rounds of food, each round consisting of 5 different plates. So, in total, 15 plates of food. For a plate, you could select from 70+ items, including nigiri, dumplings, ramen, seaweed salad, edamame, sushi rolls, etc. Each plate of nigiri came with two pieces, so we’re talking a total of 30 pieces of nigiri for dinner if that’s the only thing you ordered….I only made it through plate 10. Paula and I were very disappointed in myself. But it was a good night nonetheless, and I definitely consumed more food than I had my previous 6 meals altogether ☺.

Pan Adoré

Now for Saturday, some of my amazing friends and I took a day trip to Toledo, a town about 47 miles south of Madrid. We were all amazed at the quaintness of the city. The streets were extremely narrow and windy and enclosed by stone walls or old, beautiful shops and restaurants. The streets were so narrow that when a car came through, we all had to cling onto the walls and make ourselves as small as possible so as to not be run over. It was a fun little game? Another cool feature: the city is so small that walking from end to end is extremely feasible! So, that’s exactly what we did: walk and walk and walk, frequently in circles ☺. But I adored the city and found it an amazing get-away for the day. We went to the Alcázar, which so few people were in that Dafni and I were even able to perform one of our dance routines on the second floor of the palace. It was…quite regal.