Trouble Keeping Up

Yesterday was our first full day in Madrid. A co worker of mine recommended that we check out El Rasto Market which is a flea market only available on Sundays. We grabbed a quick breakfast at a bakery and then walked about 20 minutes to the outdoor market. I was not expecting there to be SO many people.

It was pretty much shoulder to shoulder, slowly shuffling through the street. You really couldn’t stop to enjoy any of the shops because the crowd would continue pushing you forward or you would hold other people back. We did our best to just get down the street and out to the next destination.

Next stop was El Plaza Mayor. We were thinking it would be kind of a historical place to see things but upon getting there, it was just some expensive cafes and guys dressed in random costumes taking pictures with tourists :/

Joanna had a few shops that she wanted to check out so today was a city shopping day where we kind of took it easy as we were adjusting to the 7 day time change. Calle Gran Via was the street that we mainly spent the afternoon going in and out of shops and of course, a sangria break in the late afternoon.

We randomly picked a restaurant for dinner along one of the smaller side streets called La Casa del Abuelo. Turns out this is a pretty famous place for seafood and tapas that’s been around since 1908. Immediately after we sat down the waiters were pressuring us to order specific things. I wanted to take my time and figure out what to get but they kept pushing. I got a little annoyed and realized this was kind of a common occurrence so far at sit down restaurants. I think it’s mainly because I’m not at all accustomed to Spain Spanish since everyone at home I’ll speak with is from Central or South America, the words are different, I’m not familiar with Spanish dishes, and they speak SO much faster here so I’m really struggling to keep up even though I ask them to repeat themselves. I told Joanna it’s like if you were to go to Scotland where you know they’re speaking English but your brain just can’t connect what they’re saying. I asked my cousin who grew up in Panama what his experience was in Spain and he said he had the same issue so I felt better that my Spanish isn’t that bad.

I managed to order a few things but they weren’t exactly what I had in mind? What came out were small grilled shrimp, fried shrimp, and mushroom croquettes. I didn’t have any complaints because they actually were all very good. Since I had a bit of breathing room I looked up google reviews and added an order of shrimp cooked in garlic butter which came with bread to dip in and grilled squid which was very tender.