me & mama in madrid!

since my mama arrived in madrid on thursday, i thought id take a weekend hiatus to visit her this weekend & we had sooo much fun! :)

at first i was a little nervous because she just told me to stay in the bus station & she'd "find me" which, after waiting for 30 mins in the bus station, started to get me a wee bit nervous cuz i was still alone in a crowded bus station. but anyone who knows a rabadan knows we're always late but más vale tarde que nunca! (better late, than never!)

for lunch we stopped at a really authentic hole-in-the-wall type spanish restaurant where we both got the menu del día (salads, fish w/ 'salsa verde' & dessert!) mama got this ice cream roll thing but i opted for the chocolate cake w/ dulce de leche. yummmmmmmy it was delish!

then we went over to the palacio real, took some extremely corny pictures, and wandered around the parque de retiro for a little while because it was soo beautiful outside. on our way out of the palacio real we had a really creepy man walk up to us and say an obscene thing that i will not restate on here but basically it was disgusting and my mama was not a happy lady so we went and told the policia about it who then proceeded to run the guy outta the plaza. nice.

we had to grab a quick dinner because we were going to a flamenco show that night so we stopped at a place by our hotel. my mom loves these peppers that they only have in spain (i think?) called 'pimientos de padrón' so she ordered a big plate of those. they basically look like little jalapeño peppers but they're not spicy...well most of them aren't. ya see it's always a toss-up with these little guys cuz u think you're gonna bite into a salty, (temperature) hot yummy pepper, and most of the time you do. BUT sometimes u bite into one that makes smoke come out of your ears and sends you shoveling bread down your throat. that happened.

anyways after we burned our throats enough we ran over to the flamenco place (because obvi we were late....and lost) and grabbed our seats just in time! it was three ladies dancing that we're amazzzzingggg. flamenco is such a cool dance because it has gypsy origins so everytime i watch i feel like im back in the olden days sitting around a campfire and watching the gypsies dance (complete with whiny, guitar-strumming singers too). i tried to take a vid but i got yelled at (sorry guys) haha. the finale was a guy. picture this: 40-year old, slightly-over weight, dressed in a thick, vomit-colored (sorry but its the only way to describe the color) suit. hair is very thin, down to the shoulders, but balding on the head. he has a stache. and tight pants. very tight pants on. i thought he was gonna dance with a lady but he busted out in a solo and basically was going nuts. i mean he was good but i felt bad for the poor guy sweating through his suit and frantically trying to swipe his sweat in between moves. my mama was officially grossed out hahah. wish i got a pic of this dude! 

the show ended at 12:30 and by the time we got back to our hotel and showered, i conked out.

the next morning we arose bright and early, headed out for a quick breakfast and then spent the entire day at the prado. literally, the entire day. it was my dream come true!!!! my must-go-to activity before i left europe was to go to madrid and see las meninas (by velazquez) because i loove this painting. sidenote: my mama always said when i was a little girl i was obsessed with the Goya painting "el gitasol". she said i would cry and insist that we see it everytime we went. i really dont remember this! weird. but back to meninas. so despite having been previously obsessed with goya, i now have been obsessed w/ meninas. and really anything/everything velazquez. we went around to literally every room and saw every painting which was really neat after having a semester of spanish arte class! i knew so much info to tell my mom i felt really cool. eliz would be proud of my art history skills!! 

after our long day at the museo, we were pooped (why is it that museos do that to you!?) so we stopped for some early dins at another really authentic spanish place called "la zapatería" and it had shoes everywhere (very fitting for me, i suppose ;) ). having been famished my mama's eyes were bulging out of her head when she saw all the spanish food and literally wanted to order everything on the menu! haha but since it was just us two, we settled on splitting garlic shrimps (a rabadan fave), more pimientos de padrón, paella, and a salad. as always, it was delicious

after dinner i really was craving something sweet (weird huh) so i made my mama walk around with me until we found a bakery. i thought the plaza mayor was destined to have some bakeries open then but after walking through every side street going off it and not finding one (what the heck?!) we settled on the place next door to our hotel for a late-night sweet. we split this lemony, creamy pastry topped with lots of whip cream and toasted sliced almonds. it was divine even though i don't normally go for lemony desserts.

my train left madrid on sunday at 12 so we woke up early to grab some cafe con leche and tostada con mermelada but had trouble getting prompt service because there was a marathon in the middle of the streets and a billion ppl outside. later on i found out it was actually the largest marathon in spain that morning and there are approximately 35000 runners that particpate. fancy that! luckily i made it to the bus station amidst the craziness and made it home to mi falsa madre safe & sound.

the pictures are being finicky on the site so ill try posting them later. also apparently were having senior skip day with our program on wednesday hahaha and on thursday i meet up with my mama and tia linda for spring break!!!! we have an amazing line up of places and activities so stay tuned! :)

also side note, in case i dont update before then, this Friday April 22nd is Earth Day and in honor of it, starbucks is giving away FREEEEEE coffee or tea if you bring in ur reuseable mug!! (plus 20% off their mugs!) so go and get some free coffee with that reusable mug and conserve some energy while you're at it (aka unplug appliances). thats my starbucks plug for the day! i'm outtie

OH and the next day April 23rd is HANNAH SHATZEN'S 21ST BIRTHDAY !!!!!!!! so happy birthday hannie!!!!!!!!!!! make sure if you see her you give her a big hug and kiss from me because i wish i could be celebrating with her on her big day!!! and please, somebody look out for her ;)

¡hasta luego!