Estoy enamorada de un lugar llamado Madrid

Madrid.

The most beautiful city I've seen outside of Italy. My weekend there (despite sickness and credit card problems and missing uncles) was perfect. Matt and I spent most of our time simply wandering the streets, happily lost, soaking up the glory of the city and its heartbeat.

The first night it rained for a few minutes, soaking the city in a glorious shimmering magic. We wander through lit plazas, stopped for a glass of wine and then met up with about 15 fellow nomads at Cat Hostel for a pub crawl. The crawl itself was junk. Wish I could tell you where we went, but none of us remembered check names, we just blindly followed the intimidating man with sign on the back of his t-shirt that said "Pub Crawl FOLLOW ME." The people on the crawl, however, were amazing! All in their early 20s, full to the brim with life and excitement, they made the night a ridiculous mash-up of blush-worthy, impossible ecstasy. Matt and I stumbled home to Mad Hostel (great place) at 6:30am. Bienvenida Espana.

The next day was filled with a breakfast of croissants, orange juice and coffee, wanderings, a stop by the Reina Sofia for some Picasso and Dali (DO NOT eat at the cafe right outside the museum! Biggest tourist trap of your life!!!), then home for a siesta.

(Matt, shooting pics from our breakfast table in a plaza a few blocks from our apartment. Some awesome pics will be posted on his blog: http://jekowsky.tumblr.com/ soon enough I'm sure!)

(The courtyard inside la Reina Sofia)

That night we went to a fantastic flamenco show housed in the back room of a restaurant called Casa Patas. Amazing dancing - the guy did the entire routine in a three piece suit! The music and the woman dancer were mind-blowing too and, of course, there was yummy sangria. It IS Espana after all... We then grabbed sandwiches and wandered til we found the best local bar in Madrid: El Tigre. Full of singing Spaniards, pints of mojitos, and giant piles of tapas. Heaven.

From there we wandered around the post-1AM streets until we stumbled into a fantastic garden full of fountains and monuments (no idea where we were; totally and completely lost and loving it) and then we wanted to hit up Joy and Kapital (two clubs we'd heard were must-sees) but I got really sick and at 2am we had to call it a night.

Sunday morning was more wandering, breakfast at el Museo de Jamon in la Plaza Mayor (a big, beautiful plaza that reminded me of St. Marks in Venice when we ran into it at night lit up after the rain), and more wandering.

(As spectacular as the plaza is, the sky seemed to upstage it in almost every shot.)

We noticed that there were a lot of people in Madrid wearing what we termed "Aladdin pants." Loose, pajama like pants that cinch at the ankle - Marc Jacobs introduced them a few seasons ago, and though they certainly aren't popular in the States, they seemed to be all the rage in Madrid. So, we had to get ourselves some Spanish pants. Obviously. Within 20 minutes we'd found two streetside shops that sold them. I bought a gray short pair that was actually very tame for Madrid and then a bright green pair which, now back in London, I'm a little worried about actually pulling off. Matt got black. I think we should try matching back at school just to freak everyone out.

(I think officially these would be called "harem pants" but as you can see from the picture below, these kind of take that to an extreme...I'll probably take them in just a little bit once I get back to my sewing machine...)

I had to leave at 1:30 to catch my flight back to London via Frankfurt (random, I know but it was cheaper) and on our way to the metro we ran into a giant protest put on by government workers right by the Sol station. Policia, sirens, shouting. The Madrid weekend experience was complete.

(The protest)

There's so much we didn't get around to seeing that I desperately want to go back, but for now, I can safely say that Madrid is an absolutely incredible city and I will never never forget my first 46 hour exposure to its charms.

More Madrid pics :)

(I want to live in a yellow apartment!)

(Perfection)
(Awesome church we just happened to turn a corner and see)

(Three blocks from our hostel!)


(Hall of Agriculture...I think. Awesome horse statues.)

(More Madrid streets...)


(Matt checking his camera. We walked around like awesome nerdy tourists and took pictures of just about everything!)

Pineapples! ..and salt and lemon and sleep and curry and homeopathy...

Spain posts will be coming, I promise!

Today I learned what I truly believe in. God. And homeopathy. Obviously something God works through. And I don't believe in doctors in the general sense.

I woke up this morning with a conundrum: it was day 6 and I still so sick I couldn't talk. FREAKING OUT.

I have responses in my email inbox from the hysterical messages I sent EUSA last night about feeling stranded in a foreign country and aren't they supposed to help with that??? I got the calm, logical, dude this sucks so let me give you a step 1, 2, 3, which was exactly what I needed. Not that I followed the advice, but it calmed me down.

They're like, dude, GO SEE A DOCTOR. They even called around and got a recommendation for me of a doctor in walking distance from my apartment which was totally sweet of them.

I'm like, ummm, I don't even know what to do with a doctor? I've been, what, like 3 times since I was born? What is normal medicine? I don't even know what to ask for at a pharmacy...plus, how much is this doctor going to charge me???

So...I made my own executive decision (because the decision to stay home today was made by my body, not me) to trust instead to self medication.

Homeopathy first. I have a giant bag of every remedy I could need, provided by my hippie-medicine mother. I've been taking some, but I hadn't realized quite what my cold was yet...Pulsatilla. This was totally a pulsatilla cold. Done. Sleep. Got another 14 hours. Water. Hot tea. Hot soup. Check, check. Total relaxation - reruns of Gossip Girl make that a check too.

Gargle with salt water...hmmm....I don't have salt. The Spanish dude who came to clean my room suggested that I gargle with salt and lemon which I didn't have either. (Speaking Spanish saves my life yet again!) Maybe curry would work?

So I'm sitting here googling what gargling curry will do to you (cure kidney pains?) and I discover that PINEAPPLE is my new miracle drug. Yes, pineapple can cure a really sore throat. Now, when people say doctor I think hmmm...ummm...I dunnnnoooo....but when they say pineapple? YES. RIGHT NOW. GET ME SOME PINEAPPLE.

So throw on my Spanish pants (to be covered in a later blog post) and immediately dash up to this fantastic drug store a block away and buy a pineapple, a lemon, salt and a zucchini...because I like zucchini and vegetables are good too, right? It comes to 2 pounds. I LOVE THIS PLACE.

I practically skip back down to my apartment, the clocktower of the British Library/King's Cross rising in the clear London sky ahead of me. Bliss. Pineapples are my new best friends. (and salt and lemon if the pineapple doesn't work.)

(Basically, the cure for everything can be found in this picture)

Lace, Liberty Prints, and Lorarty

I head off to Madrid tomorrow morning for the weekend so I'm going to be MIA for a bit - caught up in tapas and the Prado and all the splendor of Espana! I will certainly post about it when I get back!

For now though, my tour of London markets continues...

If Borough Market is foodie heaven, then Camden Market is the haven of the fashion hungry. Sure, there's plenty of touristy, I Heart London tank tops, but in amongst the mad clutter (that goes on for block after block, sidestreet after sidestreet, floor after floor) there are some genuinely awesome fashion discoveries. I spent about three hours wandering around there last Sunday, spent way too much money and barely dented the pile of fantasies displayed for shoppers to paw through.

I was especially surprised to note that lace designs and liberty prints were HUGE trends. I tend to shy away from both as a rule, going for more bold tribal prints and solids, but the array of tantalizing choices made me determined to return to the States with at least one of each in tow.

Here is what I came home that day with:

(There's an Aldo surplus store on Camden High Street and they were having a HUGE sale and I fell in love with these instantly. About as close as I'll ever let myself get to clogs.)

(I dug through probably a hundred little lace dresses until I found this one. The tulle inserts in the lace are what sold me - I can't wait to wear it!)

This ring (and the one below) are from Lorarty, a designer specializing in wire jewelry. His pieces are MIND-BLOWING. As of now, he has two shops in London and one in Spain, but nothing in the US and his e-commerce site (www.lorarty.com) needs a lot of work. Once he gets it up and running though, all he needs is some publicity and I'm sure his sales will take off - I wanted to buy up half of his stock just that day! We got to chatting, and he told me that he's been designing for about 10 years now, that he uses only the best copper wire (with very few pieces in silver) from a supplier in Istanbul so that no one can replicate his work, and he even gave me a little demonstration on how he creates the jewelry. I told him I wanted to send some pictures to a few American magazines so he let me take a few but the lighting was so bad that none of them came out! I was SO disappointed when I got home! Maybe I'll go back and try again...

(For more information on Lorarty jewelry, email: info@lorarty.com)

Oh, and there's food here too:

Foodie Heaven and Dining Alfresco

Last weekend I ventured forth to explore a few of London's famous markets. From my experiences with markets in California, I expected a few locals with carts hawking their wares - little did I know what a giant, swarming PARTY markets can be! At Borough Market (located just south of London Bridge), I spotted girls walking around shopping for exotic condiments with glasses of champagne in their hands! Not to mention the live bands and (at Camden Market - to be covered in a later post) an actual DJ!

I visited Borough Market midmorning on Saturday. My goal was to pick up some bread and cheese and maybe a peach to take and eat out in St. James's park for lunch. This I accomplished, but it took all of my will power not to spend my entire day and budget wandering around and trying everything! Definitely coming back.

(assortment of sugars...I want to try cooking with these!)

(Cheeeeeeese!)

(Yes, these are ALL olives. I sampled a few and they were so delicious I wanted to try them all but I don't think the vendor would have been thrilled with that...)

(Nuts and dried fruit)

(Turkish delight. Since reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I've been dying to try Turkish delight so I practically jumped at the vendor when he started offering samples. I had an almond flavored one and, while it was good, if I were Edmund I would have asked for something chocolate instead.)

(Raw fish. Un-sushified raw fish. Apparently it looks tasty to this guy.)

(Buns, baps, loaves, muffins, croissants, chocolate pastries...have I proved this is heaven yet?)

(In addition to ingredients, there's also a ton of vendors selling already prepared yummies. Stands like this one with giant bubbling vats of chicken curry are all over the place.)

And if the food wasn't enough, the Southwark Cathedral towers in the background to give the place even more character.



(My lunch: peach, wholegrain bap, soft cheese - I couldn't for the life of me understand what the lady said this cheese was called, but it was on sale...not my favorite, but I usually prefer hard cheeses or blues anyway.)

(It was the first sunny day since I'd arrived in London and the parks were packed with families, young couples, old couples, singles, backpackers...really a very cool vibe, something I wish California did.)

A sound track including Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap and Orange Sky by Alexi Murdoch completed the perfection of my afternoon. (Totally random side note, Drive it like you stole it by The Glitch Mob is another amazing song though more appropriate for walking down Regent Street to my internship than relaxing in the park - thanks Maddie!)

FIFA WORLD CUP!!!

I hate to admit it, but I really knew absolutely nothing about football (American speak: soccer) before I came to the UK this summer - I knew you're not supposed to touch the ball with your hands, and that's about it. However, the frenzy over the World Cup is infectious, and I've found myself swept up and the shouting and jumping and excitement, just like everyone else.

My friends and I were lucky enough to find ourselves in Trafalgar Square at 14:45 GMT on June 11. There was a HUGE screen set up in front of the National Gallery with piles of flags and noisemakers (and security) and hundreds of people crowded together to watch the opening game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.


There was a giant football for people to sign and root for their home teams - so of course we had to get in on the fun.

(That's me - signing my support for the good old US of A)

Even Mini Cooper was getting into the World Cup spirit!!!

For the US vs UK game, the boys and I found an old British pub called the Globe and trotted up rickety stairs to join a pile of Brits crowded around a "telly." True to the American rebel spirit, we cheered on the US, something we certainly wouldn't have been bold enough to do in a larger establishment, but the 1 - 1 tie game left us a bit flat. Still, quite the British experience.

Next American game though, we're going to go to an American venue like Hard Rock Cafe or the Sports Cafe and just get rowdy. :)

On a side note, not EVERYONE in London is obsessed with football. I spotted this sign in front of a pub by Borough Market:

Her Majesty's Official Birthday

Saturday, June 12th was the Queen's official birthday (her real birthday is earlier in the year, but due to the probability of rain they celebrate it in summer) and the Tube was PACKED with tourists and Londoners alike heading to Buckingham Palace to catch a glimpse of the iconic ruler. Crammed up against the fence in a mass of people seven rows thick for probably a quarter mile, I managed to snap a few pictures of the pomp and circumstance. Unfortunately, there was an adorable little boy sitting on the fence in front of me that blocked most of my shots by enthusiastically waving his flag in front of my camera.

(The lavender spot in the carriage is the Queen!)

(Buckingham Palace Mall, after the festivities)

(Buckingham Palace, tourist-free)