My Week with Brian

U of I just had their spring break, and so Brian, my boyfriend – not my brother, came out to visit for the week. I couldn’t be happier. I was actually just starting to really miss people from home and greatly appreciated seeing a familiar face and getting to show off my new city.

Brian got into Madrid on Sunday morning at 5:45 am, and since the metro doesn’t open until 6:00 am and it takes just under an hour to make it all the way to the airport, I realized I couldn’t take the metro first thing in the morning and get there in time to pick him up. So, since a cab is some 30 euro (44 dollars!) one way, I decided to take the last metro at night and get there around 2:00 am and just sleep at the airport. I’ve done it twice before for when I myself and traveling, and this time was the best. I figured since I’m going to do this, I might as well do it right. I brought a blanket and used my coat as a pillow. I actually slept pretty well for 4 hours and then picked up my first visitor and took him home!!

While he was here in Madrid, my life was completely different. First of all, I myself don’t prioritize food, so I tend to eat pasta with marinara sauce or sandwiches every day. I’m quite lazy and don’t want to put in any more effort. BUT, Brian actually really likes cooking, especially for me, so we had some great meals while he was here. And don’t worry, he didn’t cook them all by himself, I helped and learned a lot! I am still so proud of what we made, so I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to tell you about it (cause I honestly never cook.)

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1) I learned how to neatly make an omelet. I knew the concept, its scrambled eggs with veggies inside. But, I never knew how people make it so neatly! When I make scrambled eggs, they are a million pieces and that’s not because I cut them up after cooking. So I learned the trick of how to make it just fold in half (apparently I was flipping too early and just poking around the stove too much). I also learned the beauty of ketchup on omelets. I never got it before, but it’s actually quite good! 

2) We made egg sandwiches. Those are my favorite. Toasted bread (we don’t have a toaster so we made it on the stove with olive oil – I highly recommend), eggs, cheese, and grilled onions. So yummy.

3) Seafood pasta. The seafood here is so cheap; it’s great. We got shrimp and mussels and made it with marinara sauce and pasta. It was excellent and there was so much there was enough for my roommate and still we had leftovers. We want to try to learn how to cook it with a white cream sauce, but that’ll come later. Probably when we’re out in LA.

4) We made morcilla and rice, my favorite! All of the translations say that morcilla is black pudding, but since I don’t actually know what black pudding is, I’m not sure of its right. But it is amazing! One of my friends has described it as a burrito, without the veggies and wrap lol. It is a sausage stuffed with meat and rice! It is from Burgos, (a city I visited back in February), and soo good. I want to find it back in America, because I am going to miss it greatly.

5) Meatball subs and steak fries! This is my pride and joy. We made meatballs from scratch. Neither of us had any idea how to do it, but thanks to Rachael Ray, we rocked it. It was messy with the eggs and breadcrumbs. You got to mix it all up by hand, very fun when all you have is time and no need to rush through cooking and eating. The steak fries were also awesome! We just bought potatoes and cut them up with some salt and pepper. The hardest part was that my kitchen at school doesn’t have an oven, but we just cooked both things on the stove on low and covered them and it worked surprisingly well. And then when it was time to eat, we put the meatballs and sauce and cheese on a fresh sourdough bread baguette. Let me tell you, best meal (partially because I made it) that I’ve had in a while.

Also while Brian was here, I showed him around to all the sights. He theoretically knew everything from my blog and my pictures, but seeing it himself was completely different. And of course, I made him take a picture with me everywhere we went. He quickly jumped on board and sometimes was more excited about it than I was! The best part was also that he doesn’t mind asking strangers to take our pictures. I hate doing that, mostly because my dad and brothers despise pictures and I just figure that everyone must… But my Brian is happy to ask strangers so we got plenty of good and bad pictures. It’s always funniest when you ask someone to get a picture of you with the building behind you and they decide that the foundation of the building must be what you meant, not the tower of the beautiful cathedral behind you. Oh well, there are plenty more strangers to ask for a second photo!

We also went to Segovia. I hadn’t been before, so it was new for the both of us. Segovia is a town about an hour and a half Northwest of Madrid by bus. It is home to the Roman aqueduct, a 2,000 year old piece of architecture! It is so impressive and takes the water from 17 km away and filters it and transports it at a 1 percent grade to the city. Let me tell you, Madrid loves it. Whenever you talk to them about traveling they mention the cathedral of Toledo, and the aqueduct of Segovia. They are very proud of their neighboring cities, as they should be!

Segovia also has a castle (alcazar) that is the highest point in the city. When at the top, you can see everything, including a picturesque view of the cathedral. We stood up there for a while, just hanging out and enjoying the scenery. It was truly beautiful.

Segovia is very much like Toledo, in that it has many small winding roads that aren’t meant for cars. It has a city wall, just like Toledo, and is not a large city. We walked around it and saw the many small, old churches, as well as the main square. Everything was quaint and a bit less touristy than Toledo. After seeing Segovia, am in quite the quandary trying to decide if I should take my family to Toledo or Segovia when they visit. We were going to do one daytrip, and now I love them both!

Also, while Brian was here, my school organized a ‘bull fighting’ trip. It is called Capea, and was a day of open-bar, BBQ, and the opportunity for each of us to fight a steer. Let me first explain, before going, I had seen a friend of mine did this last year when he studied here. He had a photo of him with the minibull and it looked great! Almost posed it was so perfect! So I figured that this would be quite tame, and I could go in, get my picture, and get out.

I was wrong. The first guy went in, and the bull charged, and the bull charged hard. He had horns, also something I wasn’t expecting, and the strategy at first was to outrun the bull. This was a bad strategy. One of the first guys to go, who was quite cocky mind you, outran the bull the first 2 times, but the 3^rd wasn’t so lucky. He was knocked to the ground. I will try to find the video online, because I know my description doesn’t do it justice. Check back in a day or two for the link.

 Of all the things we did while Brian was here, my favorite was the wine nights. We would get a bottle of wine, a fresh baguette, and a wedge of cheese – usually brie – and eat and drink while watching a movie or hanging with my friends. It was so much fun and so relaxing, the perfect way to end a night. I loved introducing all of the different wines to Brian, and showing him that if you buy a crappy wine, you can make it taste better by mixing it with carbonated water.

Overall, it was an amazing week, my favorite here by far. I got to enjoy my city and have never felt more proud of it, while getting to spend an entire week with Brian. Taking him to the airport on Monday morning was not ideal, but knowing that we had such a great week definitely helped. Not to mention, my family is coming 2 weeks later, so now I just have something else to look forward to and plan!

I might be going to Burgos next weekend with Anna and Mel, so we’ll see what stories I have to share with you then!

Hasta luego!