Brie came to visit Madrid this week and I loved every minute of it! For being such a planner, she was so good at letting go of all her inhibitions and just going with the flow. I was so proud of her and she definitely made for one hell of a travel buddy.
Her first day, I took her to Real Madrid's stadium, Santiago Bernabeu. There's really no one else I would do that tour with. If it weren't for Brie, I wouldn't be as knowledgeable of football as I am now. Ok, I learned a lot from living in this football crazy country and with two football crazy roommates, but Brie definitely introduced the sport to me. We had so much fun checking out the championship trophies and the locker rooms while we imagined the hot naked players taking a shower (ha!). Traveling to San Sebastian was also fun, just how I imagined San Sebastian would be with Brie. Unfortunately we weren't able to eat at Arzak (the most renowned chef from Spain) like we wanted to...maybe in the future when we can afford the 150 Euro meal. Sunday, we went to a football match. It wasn't exactly Real Madrid (they were playing in another city), but it was still pretty fun seeing Atletico Madrid play Valencia. She finally got to experience the craziness of European football and heard a lot of "putas" being shouted. One of our favorites were "me cago en tu puta", which means I shit on your whore. Love it!
On her last day, Brie, the wonderful friend that she is, was so nice and offered to go on her own. Francisco was in town and she wanted to make sure I got to hang out with him. I don't think she'll ever know how much I appreciated that. I already felt guilty enough that I had to share my time with her with him. I always say never put guys before friends, but she made it a lot easier on me. At night, we celebrated her last night - and Harald's birthday, one of the Austrians we met this weekend - by having delicious paella. It was great! We were like a UN table, as Tess described it. When we sang happy birthday, we sang it in Spanish, English, Deutsch, and Italian. Too bad I couldn't remember it in Filipino...
Having Brie here just made me ridiculously happy. I don't exactly have rich friends and I know it's very hard for any of my friends to just come here and visit. I totally understand...I'm just as broke as everyone is. I know they would come if they could. But it also makes me sad at times. Of course when you love something, you want to be able to share it with the people you love. When my work friends came to visit last March, I think I may have done them a little disservice. I was enjoying Spain then, but I still didn't quite feel at home. I feel that I may not have been able to show them how much I really love Madrid (sorry, Lisa and Amanda). With Brie, I was able to share everything with her and I think she got to really understand why I love this place. And seeing her hanging out and getting along with my friends (nothing better than having a new friend and old friend singing old school Whitney with you!) , and enjoying this place that I love really made me happy. I feel that when I talk about it with people and even writing about it on this blog, I don't think I'm able to really fully express my feelings for this city and I don't think people ever fully understand me. I guess it's just something you have to see for yourself...
So Brie, muchas gracias mi amiga! I seriously love you! And p.s. I still think you should move here...
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2 comments:
Fran,
I could not have had a better time. Everything was perfect. I had a really hard time returning to my normal life, and I was only gone a week. I miss it and you a lot.
oh franny!! hopefully things will be changing soon for me and we can all come over! i understand how you feel about madrid...because on these gorgeous chicago summer days it's how i feel about this crappy midwestern city :) i pray for you to find a job there so you can stay longer and enjoy life while you're young to enjoy it! happy 28th my lovely.
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