Metro Alonso Martínez

Día de Todos los Santos y Huesitos

Last night I was out and about in the city center with one of my language exchange partners.  She enjoys photography, and I do as well, so we occasionally hunt down various exhibitions and go check them out together.  Telefónica (the largest telecommunications company in Spain) has a four floor exhibition area in their building on Grand Via, so we headed down there to see what they had for photography.  We enjoyed browsing around, but after getting kicked out due to closing time, decided to visit a nearby bakery for a snack and to escape from the brisk-ish weather.  And that is where we discovered these little guys :).

Huesitos (little bones) - each one is as long as two quarters laid side-by-side.

Now, Halloween is a relatively new thing for Spain, but All Saints Day (Día de Todos los Santos) is on November 1 and is a national holiday.  The huesitos (also known as hueso de santo - saint's bones) are a typical pastry for this holiday.  They're made of marzipan, stuffed with various flavorings (creme, egg yolk, raspberry, hazelnut, etc.), and covered with glaze.  I ended up buying a small box of them to share with my roommates, but my language exchange partner and I had to try a couple first :).  They're a little too sweet for me on their own, but are really good when enjoyed with a cup of tea or coffee :).

Plaza de Cibeles

Yesterday I was out wandering around Madrid with a language exchange partner.  We were near Plaza de Cibeles when I remembered that I had heard you can go inside the Palacio de Comunicaciones and get some pretty neat views from above.  Turns out there are also various floors of different exhibitions, so we spent some time checking those out.  Gotta love it when you can discover new things about a city with someone who has lived in it their whole life :).

No Hot Water = Difference in Perspective

Last Saturday the water heater broke in our apartment.  If you've ever experienced something like that, you know quite well how not fun it is.  The technician came and fixed it on Tuesday, but I was ready for a hot shower prior to that :).

As such, I decided to turn lemons into lemonade and tracked down an inexpensive hostel with a private bathroom.  It also had the bonus of a terraza facing northwest. So, I enjoyed watching the sun set over the city and thought I'd share a little bit of the view with you.

Some teenagers have taken over the rooftop of an abandoned building
near Plaza de España, so they were watching the sun set also.

Those are actually clouds, I didn't notice until later that it kind of looks like smoke
coming from that building.

The Royal Palace at Sunset

Cuisine

As someone who loves to cook and try new foods, I find Spain to be incredibly captivating.  A couple of weeks ago, I ran into these postcards which list some classic Spanish foods.  So, I bought them as a little bit of a personal challenge since I haven't tried all of them yet :).

There's quite a list here, so I'm going to decline the opportunity to explain them all at this time.  If there are a few that you're really interested in, mention them in the comments and I'll explain them in a future blog post.  Ok?  Neat.

Back in Madrid, Part II

After arriving in Madrid at midnight-ish last Thursday (the plane left Frankfurt late), waiting for my luggage to appear on the belt of the baggage claim, a 45 minute-ish ride on the Metro, I got back to the apartment at 1:30-ish AM.  I immediately threw the windows open (no a/c), watered the plants, and checked my email.  I mean, what else would I be doing at 1:30, closer to 2:00, in the morning? :)

One of our neighbors had been taking care of the plants while we were gone, and I found an email from him in my inbox.  He was warning me about the "ola de calooooooor" (heat wave) coming last weekend (which we're still experiencing), and wondering when I would be back in town.  I told him that I was back and that I could take care of the plants again.

It's interesting to think that, around the world, one of the first conversation items you get is the weather. I follow a Spanish blog (caminandopormadrid.blogspot.com) occasionally and one of the entries from earlier in the summer mentioned that there's a saying about the weather in Madrid:  "Madrid, nueve meses de invierno y tres de infierno."  Nine months of winter and three of hell.  Hahaha!  It cracks me up - winter isn't that bad here - c'mon I'm from Nebraska!  But I'll agree that it's pretty warm in the summer :).

Anyways, back to discussions about the weather - with Europeans, temperature discussions are in degrees Celsius.  It's initially pretty funny to hear someone complaining about how hot it is at 40°.  I'm still trying to learn this, so here's a handy chart for all of us.

• 0° C     =   32° F (that one's pretty easy, right?  I think I learned it in kindergarten.)
• 10° C   =   50° F
• 20° C   =   68° F
• 30° C   =   86° F
• 40° C   =   104° F (May not need to go much higher...  Well, one more.)
• 176.666666666666667° C   =   350° F  (typical temperature to bake something, figured it would be interesting to share!)

Well, it's about dinner time, so I'll leave you with a few pictures from Germany.  Until later!