La Jota Cocina Restaurant... where we TRIED to eat dinner tonight. We arrived around 7:30 p.m. ordered water and were served a small appetizer (jamon bruschetta - crunchy bread with Spanish ham on it... wasn't big on the ham - it was as greasy as salami and not like our ham at home!). At 8:30 there was still no sign of anyone beginning to cook dinner, take orders, etc... so we paid our 2 euros and left. Went to the corner grocery and bought a baguette. Took the baguette on the double decker bus with us and had a feast. Third night in a row to eat really good fresh-baked bread for dinner. Those of you who know me well, understand that I am completely okay with this!
Setting up for the concert outside our hostal. There were concerts going on all over the city. We drove by many squares that had stages with live bands like this one. We decided it's how Spanish bands get their start.
At the concert tonight. We learned on this trip that only Americans take pictures of themselves with their cameras... we have lots of pictures like this one :) The concert was fun - it appeared to be lots of bands, each playing a couple of songs. We arrived at the end of one group, stayed through the intermission (emceed by a Spanish drag queen - hilarious!), and through most of the next set. There were booths everywhere selling lots of different kinds of alcohol and not much else. Everyone appeared to be having a great time. All of these concerts are free - wouldn't that be a great way to spend summer evenings? The music finally wound down around midnight.
At dinner... or trying to get dinner anyway.
Well, I thought my next post would be from Kenya, but that was before I knew we would be insomniacs once again. We stayed up late tonight - thinking we would be sleepy and able to get a few hours of rest before flying to Kenya. Unfortunately, it's 1 a.m. and we're both wide awake. My alarm is set for 2:30 so I think our plans to sleep are out the window.
We thoroughly enjoyed our night on the town... when plans to finally eat dinner at a Spanish restaurant fell through (see photo caption above), we went to plan B and ate fresh bread on the double decker bus as we completed what is now a very familiar tour of Madrid one last time. We couldn't believe how crowded that Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor areas were at night - just packed with people. So many locals live in tiny apartments... I guess they all come outside at night to visit. We got off the bus a stop early (by mistake) but discovered a WONDERFUL gelato place (thank goodness we didn't find it until the end of the trip) and we enjoyed coffee and white chocolate gelato (ice cream) on our walk home. We ended up at the outdoor concert after that and had a great time listening to music and watching the hilarious drag queen who talked and did karaoke between acts. We were reminded of New Orleans when someone on one of the balconies took her top of to show the crowd. Not sure if she was born male or female, but she had great implants :)
It may be a couple of days before I'm able to post again... we're traveling all day tomorrow and arrive in Kenya close to bed time. I imagine Saturday we'll head to the orphanage and see all of our kids. Hopefully will have an update Saturday night or Sunday morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment