Title brought to you by Luke. I am trying to get him to contribute and he just won't budge. So when he says something I write it. Let's say it is called the Bearnecessities as today's post is about some of the essential things in our day to day life... Sure. I told him that he has to guest write one of my posts and that he should slowly contribute, to which he proudly replied well I have 100 days still. Anyways things to look forward to.
Today was filled with many things yet nothing at all. We went back to the Royal Palace today and went inside. A pretty place with lots of rooms that seems like we're hardly used, or they needed a name for it and they decided to name it exactly the one important thing that occurred or happened in the room. Crazy place though made out of many different things. They also had a Royal Armoury, interesting to see all of the armour that they have used over the years, the jousters, the masks that they can hardly see out of, even what they put on the horses. The palace is still used today for Royal ceremonies and the occasional banquet which is pretty cool. Spain also has a Royal family, many European countries do as I have learned from documentaries I have seen over the years, but they have a portrait in one of the first rooms of the Spanish Royal family. THisis Luke in a guarding station in the main courtyard of the Palace.
Today was hot! And not a cloud in the sky all day long. Thus bringing us to our Bearnecessities. Eating, drinking, transportation, washrooms. Or at least these will be the essentials for the sake of this post, cause why not.
Luke found a COSTA here! For those who don't remember we located this gem of a place while in London. Apparently it is a chain, which is awesome as I love it, and that gives me hope it will be in other places. I am a little determined not to have Starbucks here, but I am also definitely okay with it if I need something to drink and it just so happens to be there when I need it. But we stopped at the costa before heading over to the Palace, here we learned that they have some gluten free treats as well which is awesome and will definitely be kept in mind. Another lovely step in our drinking essentials for the day is that because it was so hot we decided that it was necessary to have an afternoon beer in the park. Thus we stopped at a convenience store and picked up 2 drinks and a litre of cola for 4 euro (the price stil blows me away, then we headed to the large Retiro park where we found a bench and plunked ourselves down to enjoy a beverage. Lastly, our coffee after dinner. Espresso and baileys. A Bombon, as the Spanish call it. Apparently this drink it's it normal state would actually be condensed milk and Baileys, but the type we got was equal parts espresso to equal part baileys. Mmmmmmm was quite delicious I must say!
The disappointing part of our trip to the park today, was that we were in search of the oldest tree in Madrid. Used in the 1600's during a war time, and is supposed to have a trunk 52 metres wide. Well something must have got lost in translation from the actual site of the tree to the inter web because the trunk was maybe 3 metres wide. I think the Internet was supposed to say height, or including the leaves. I don't know, but we were expecting a massive tree and what we got was quite normal looking. Definitely nothing special. Especially having been to the redwood forest this tree was meh.
Now heading to the eating necessity. We finally maybe on their food schedule, as we ate breakfast at 12, lunch at 330, and dinner at 830. This is a successful day in itself. No surpirised looks from anyone cause the time table was normal. We ate at a local sandwich shop for lunch, that had many hot sandwiches for gluten freers such as myself. And for dinner we ate a Thai place which was real good with one exception on my part. My shrimp tasted like the smell of a fish market. Yes, that cringe you just had on your face was accurate as that description was as well. Ick. But I ate it there was enough sauce to quickly wipe that gross flavour away.
Washrooms. Ahhh a sacred place of privacy. Except the way that LUke is exploiting the washrooms of Europe. This is worth mentioning as we have only come across 1 washroom in Spain so far that you have to pay for. Otherwise there just aren't public washrooms. It is very easy to quite literally walk into any restaurants washroom as though you were a customer seated on their crazy packed patio. Unlike the UK in this way because there all the washrooms you had to pay for. And the ones that were in restaurants were usually super inaccessible to get to unless you were in their restaurants. Needless to say I am glad to not have to pay to relieve myself.
Quick side note, they hardly use leashes on the dogs here. That is all.
Transportation! Well this is a fun one as well we walk everywhere. We haven't hoped on a metro since London, although I am sure that will change soon enough. A lot of people drive mopeds or motorbikes, or smart cars, they seem to be all over, and it kinda makes sense here. They other vehicle we see periodically is the one man car. It is the strangest little contraption, as I feel it should be more like a motorbike, but it is a straight up combination of a bike and a car. Quite odd.
Thus I conclude the Bearnecessities part of the blog, as it looks much different over here then it does at home for us but that's what adventures are all about after all.
Here is a picture of the old people I mentioned yesterday. The were out in full force today. Even had police following them and blocking off roads while they did their dance. One song and then they continue walking for a bit. Nice people it seems as many would stop and ask for picture with them.
Here is our friend Mr. Bull. Walked past him and couldn't not take a picture. Could you imagine running so close to one of these things you can feel his breathe on you? NO THANK YOU!! I thought he was was to blink or huff at me just standing there taking a picture of him. Can't even begin to imagine what the running of the Bulls would be like. Yikes.
To finish today I end with a little note about Karma and how much it likes to bite me in the butt. I got pooped on today. Just once this time. Also instead of on my arm and hand and in a large amount, it was on the top of my foot and quite small... Did I get lucky? I doubt it. Funny feeling you have wen you get pooped on. The disappointment and fear that creeps into you is like nothing else. Stupid birds must have read my blogs, and finally caught on to the fact that my constant ducking out of their flight path was actually out of being horrified and not for fun.
And so the adventure continues...
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