By the way, I just watched the new Jonathan Ross show (love his show!) and Sarah Jessica Parker seems like she would be a great girlfriend. I hope I can be like that to my girlfriends too :)
Anyway, let's fly back to Spain...
This, I believe, is called Plaza de la Puerta del Sol. It's kinda like Dam Square in Amsterdam. Just like Plaza Mayor was like Piazza San Marco in Venice. With the Madrid versions being a little less impressive. Don't get me wrong, I still like Madrid :) They're just not very impressive with their plazas.
Haven't I seen this storm trooper in Dam Square? On another street, I thought I saw the same Eastern European beggar lady from Amsterdam as well.
Street performer getting ready for her act.
Baker Jo cannot resist a Desigual store anywhere, especially in Spain. I must admit that this Desigual store looked amazing. The photo doesn't show it, but it really looked like a museum to cool things. I almost bought a bag there. I was carrying it all around, checking myself out in all the mirrors I passed, but thank goodness Baker Jo took so long to try things on that I felt so guilty I eventually put the bag back.
Then we looked for a place to have dinner in the Chueca area. It's supposed to be very trendy, but as we only started looking for dinner at 10pm (typical Spanish dinnertime), there were only a handful of restaurant/bars open. We passed by this really cosy-looking restaurant and I decided to hop in and grab a menu and to check the interior, which was behind the back wall.
I was rewarded with a quiet, but very nice eating area. So we decided to stop by and eat here, since we didn't know when else we would find another place.
But look at the menu! It's already obvious we found a good place ;) I say it's fairly safe to judge a restaurant by how its menu looks and by how its bread is made.
When we sat down, there were only two tables taken, but towards the middle of our meal, there were people even coming in and being disappointed by the lack of tables. These Spanish sure do eat late!
The paintings on the walls were all for sale, but I didn't see anything I fancied enough to hang on my own walls. Shame.
The waiter was really friendly and helpful... and quite good-looking, though nothing to shout home for.
I told myself I wouldn't take photos of food and allow people around to say "typical Asian!", but this was just too amusing. Witness the plate of a salad shared by 3 Asians. No one dares to touch the remainder in the middle. I secretly wanted to though, cuz it was really delicious.
After dinner, we retraced our steps back towards our hotels and passed by the Desigual store again, this time, lit at night with coloured lights in its windows. It changes colour every few seconds and is just so amazing to look at.
I adore big screens on buildings, and especially big screens on old buildings. Those two saying Beefeater and Callao are really screens to show movie trailers on.
And this cinema has STAINED GLASS WINDOWS. How beautiful is that? I suppose it was an old, abandoned church. Ah, the state of the world today.
The next day and back at Plaza Mayor. It's actually in the opposite direction of the big museums, but I guess we were really into shopping.
Impressive old architecture.
Back to check trendy Chueca and its shops out. Um, even if the guy who stumbled into my picture doesn't look all that trendy...
Such a quiet street, but lined with amazing shops of all kinds.
Like this one, which, as its description on the window states, sells loads of cool stuff. This is where I bought my prized rabbit shadow thing. Those who came for my housewarming party will know what I mean. At least those who took the time to be shown around by me :P The guy manning the shop (in there with the green shirt on the right) was also really, really nice, even though he didn't speak much English.
I actually found that all the Madrid-ians I met were super friendly and helpful, guys and girls alike, even though we were speaking three different languages - including sign language - at the same time. That's really what makes me love Madrid.
Loving this bottle! Not a new concept, but always nice to see :)
Why am I wearing socks, you say? It's because I've been trained by living in this darned unpredictable country of The Netherlands to always be prepared for cold weather. I should have known that Spain would be awesomely stable and sunny.
Popped into another shop with a lovely interior.
It's so much like the Bangsar boutiques that I miss and love back home.
Bought two dresses here. Even though I didn't need them. And because of that, I forbade myself to buy a really special eel skin coin/card pouch in the next shop. I kinda regret not getting it actually.
A classic that Yelleh Belleh and I like to perform occasionally. Where's Wally?
I now leave you with a promise of more pictures tomorrow...
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