Living it up: The Spanish Summer Story

Rose Garden in Retiro

Summer is here! The Spanish summer really reminds me of summer back home. It's very hot every single day. Since summer officially started, its been over 30 degrees day after day. I don't even remember what 25 degrees feels like. So it's sweating day in day out. Luckily I have air con here and a swimming pool, which have both been AMAZING! Don't think I could go back to an Australian summer. One thing is that the sun here isn't as strong as the Australian sun which is good. I've only been slightly burnt once. And I have an epic tan. Gonna go back to Melbourne a nice gooolden brown haha...anyway

Things have been great here in Madrid. I had one Mr. Paul come and visit me which was super fun! I went and picked him up from the airport after work, after which we went straight to the Pool to relax and enjoy the Spanish sun and a swim. Perfect. We went swimming pretty much everyday he was here. Got I love this apartment! Then we met up with my friends Daniel and Kate and we went and had some drinks and some tapas at my fave restaurant Lateral, in Plaza Santa Ana. Win!

The following day we went to Toledo. Toledo was SUCH a lovely place. We visited the cathedral and walked the streets and got lost. The only downside was that it was SUPER hot that day, and damn Paul made us walk up some mega stairs. I'm so unfit. I was huffing and puffing the whole way up! We had a super epic lunch at a little restaurant. The food portions were insane. We were SO full! But it was great! After getting back from Toledo we headed pool side again for another afternoon! Amazing!

The rest of Paul's trip here then involved things such as llaollao frozen yoghurt (AMAZING), tinto de verano at 100 montaditos and more tapas and general eating! He also came to work with me and helped me out with taking down stuff off the walls. ha!

After Paul's visit I had Amanda and Joe visit along with Joe's friends Romain and Olivier. I went and picked 3 of them up at Barajas T4 (which just BTW is super far away!!!!) and we headed into the city. We had montaditos (win), the picked up Olivier from the metro and we all went out. Dinner was of course at Lateral again. Friday was my last day at Valdebernardo so I went to school and said goodbye to the kids. It was super sad! I can't believe it has come to an end! On Wednesday I said goodbye to the people at Leon Felipe. Sad times =(...Then we went to my pool for the afternoon. We all just hung out and worked on our tans, raced each other and just had fun. After that we headed to El Tigre for some delicious snacks and of course to Mercado de San Miguel for EPIC food and alcohol times! Pretty much the entire time they were all here involved eating and drinking and shopping. That's the Spanish life!

I had my final singing lesson with Paloma on Saturday. I'm really going to miss lessons. I hope that I can return to Spain soon and have some more lessons with her. I really enjoyed my time and learnt a lot! Before I left she gave me a CD of her group La Reverencia. I can't wait to listen to it! I'm also going to miss having lessons with the Harpsichord!

This evening I said goodbye to Isabel and Maria, who I have been living with here in Madrid. When I get back to Madrid from France they won't be here, so today was the last time I was going to see them. I'm really going to miss them. It's been super fantastic living with such lovely people here! I should have been a little less shy, but that's how I am sometimes. But yeah. I'm going to miss them a lot. I got very emotional. I hope to see them again really soon =)

So anyway, soon I head off to Belgium to see the amazing Gwennily and then off to Paris and the south of france. A nice round up of my European tour! Then back to Madrid for a couple of days and back to Melbourne (boo). I really feel like Madrid is my home, and I can't wait to return here again!

Will update you all on Belgium and France!

Besos!