Long Awaited Madrid Photos

Hello, Hello!! Well, here by popular request are photos of my apartment. It's still in the process o being decorated, so please excuse any clutter, etc. I did my best. We're on the 7th floor, right next to the Ministry of Agriculture, Retiro Park, and the Atocha train station. It's a pretty great location, actually. Not as much of the quaint European cobblestone neighborhood one so yearns for when living here, but the proximity to the 350 acre Retiro and the abundance of sunlight make up for that (in my humble opinion). 

And you walk into the building....

You walk up seven flights of stairs (or you take the elevator) and finally, you arrive to the living room, complete with Roomie and Friend:

 

Yay! Aren't they wonderful?

 And our view out the window: You can't really tell in this photo, but basically we look right at the Madrid Observatory. You can see it on the hill, it's the silver roofed rounded building.

...And the view out over the train station and general urban sprawl that is modern Madrid:

 Kitchen!

Cabinets!

 Bathroom!

Now here's what you've all been waiting for... my Bedroom!! I'm sleeping on a lofted double bed. It's really quite cozy, actually.

And here is my under the bed nook, complete with twin mattress/ convenient sofa. SO, if anyone comes to visit,  my room can comfortably sleep three people. Just putting that out there. 

Door and bookshelf

And here is something that's quite unusual for this city -- A window that has a view. I look out over rooftops and can see the mountains on a clear day. I also have a plant.

 So, say you then decide to go on a walk... So, walk up the street, and arrive in my back yard. (Complete with yard service and a full-time maintenance staff. Ahhhh what a life) Here a few pictures. I took these while on a run with the roommates, so they're quite limited. What they lack are pictures of the hoards of people and street performers. On the weekends, Retiro is full of Jugglers, musicians, people on stilts, artisans selling things, candy stands, the like. It's great. I'll get more photos soon, I promise.

Oh! And this is the statue of the Fallen Angel (El Monumento del Ángel Caído). Apparently it's the only statue in the world dedicated to Lucifer. It was made in Rome in 1877 by Ricardo Bellver, and brought to Spain a few years later. 

Running into the sunset...

 Ta-da!

 Rather than create a separate post, I'm just going to keep building on this one. Yesterday, I wandered around the areas of Tribunal and Malasaña with Kate, where we indulged in a light lunch followed by a chocolate and banana crepe, as we were still hungry. The area is wonderful. It's full of unique shops, trendy off-beat designers, and kitchy cafés.

 

I couldn't resist this photo. Jamón is ham in Spanish. Either this is a joke, or a bad translation. Either way, it's pretty wonderful.

 

More lovely streets

All right, so for those of you who don't know, I have what I might call a "thing," to be perfectly technical. It's this weird obsession I have with imitating statues. No matter where I am, if I find a statue of a person, that's somewhat normal, I have to take a photo of myself as said statue. It must be an actor thing. So I hope you enjoy this one.

 This is perhaps the most wonderful bakery ever to exist.  Typical Americana, complete with cupcakes, pancake mix, Campbell's soup, and so many other wonderful things.  A box of Cheerios was marked at 12 Euros, and Lucky Charms were 7.50. I kid not. But, they do have bagels for 3.50, and hot dogs for 2 Euro!

 More beautiful cobblestone. Notice the lamp post. 

Oh, yea. So, in a rather eventful part of the morning, we found ourselves in the midst of a Paparazzi mob. (Obviously they were there for us.) There's this other lovely (albeit expensive) little Americana café that we stopped into to get smoothies, and someone famous came it, and decided to have a photo shoot outside. Didn't recognize either of the people, but I felt pretty cool frequenting the place by virtue of it being a "celebrity spot."  So, here's the diner. Oh, and by the way, the soundtrack here included "Johnny Be Good," Elvis, and the Supremes.

 

...and the mob of photographers! I just can't go anywhere in public.

We tired of the media, and took to the streets again.

For lunch!

...And this is the creperie we went to after lunch.  We were so good and healthy at lunch, but a salad split between two people sometimes just doesn't suffice in the same way a crepe does. This café was the same level of "typical" Parisian as the previous bakery was typically American. Beautiful nonetheless.

 So, that evening, I decided to walk home from music class. (Basically crossing the city center from the north to the southern part.  I was inspired to take a few photos so I could share my walk home.  I realized that it's not too shabby.

 And last but not least, the camp in solidarity of the Syrian rebellion.

 Bien! Ya está. Hasta la próxima semana!