Diarios de Madrid

While Paris was (and still is) burning, last week my girlfriend came over for the first time since I got here. I had booked her into the Hostal Adriano for the week although we had to spend the first night somewhere else because the Hostal was fully booked that first night.
Natalia's boyfriend Patricio snoars so loud I can hear him through the 2 rooms that separate us and doing the tourist thing is a lot easier with a nice downtown hostal as your base of operations, if you know what I mean.
Ann (my girlfriend that is) spends a good deal of her time living and eating healthy, although she can't cook to save her life. Of course, all that goes out the window once you immerse yourself in some spanish cuisine.
We ended up in an Asturian restaurant the second night, and after already having eaten several tapas in another bar, tackled a huge plate of jamon, followed by "arroz con bogavantes", a massive portion of rice in a sort of sea-food soup topped of with a whole lobster.
Not used to a culinary onslaught of this magnitude the results were already noticeable an hour later with Ann censored

By the time the weekend came 'round she had sufficiently recovered to brave the nightlife in Madrid. There are a few cinemas in Madrid who show movies in their original versions and one of them was near our hostal so we checked out Broken Flowers, the latest film by Jim Jarmusch, starring a superb Bill Murray.
I can highly recommend this film, it's one of the best I've seen this year. The story focuses on Don, an aging don juan-type bachelor who recieves a note that he has a son with one of his former girlfriends. This forces him to revisit the possible girlfriends, most of which he hasn't seen for over 20 years.
The film is a very funny, yet deeply tragic meditation on the passing of time, the search for love and meaning and the fleeting nature of happiness.
The film also has a great soundtrack to boot.
The other film we saw was the new Woody Allen Match Point and while not up to par with Broken Flowers still a worthwile movie, the Spanish audience broke into a spontaneous applause at the end of the film so there you go...

We also made it into Casa Patas, one of Madrid's best flamenco bars. Patricio had already recommended this place to me and we got there just in time to join the crowd for the midnight "spectaculo".
It's still a very touristy place but the singers, dancers, and guitar players were certainly up to par.
Worth a visit if you ever make it to Madrid

P.S. on a blog-related note, one of my favourite professors here, Jonathan Holland (Modern Literary Discourse), also has a blog about life in Madrid and related topics: Puerta del Sol blog, well worth a visit if you have a moment to spare...