Costa del not so much sol

This past weekend has been one of the better in Spain. Why, you ask? Because this weekend was a long weekend, a so called 'puente' which means bridge in Spanish in case you didn't know ;) I guess it does make sense in some way.
Anywaysss.. I spent it down at la costa del sol where my grandmother lives with her male companion a couple of months a year to avoid the horrible, freezing cold winter of Northern Europe. Not bad I must say. I would like to join the retirement paradise down there after a 45-something-year faithful service and dedication to work.
The weather wasn't as great as hoped but slowly got better toward the end of the weekend. The view from their apartment, however, is impeccable. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves! Hope you had a great weekend too :)

Snow. Flamenco. Dinner. Movie.

So Madrid. Apparently it is still winter down here which means that a few weeks ago it decided to snow!! Venga ya!
There is picture proof below. I am still in shock, especially since Spain sounds like a country of warmth, sun and blue skies. Be warned - it's all a trick to make you buy the flights. Boo.

Anywho... I can finally tick off the box of having gone to a Flamenco show in the city of Madrid. Two weeks ago in a small bar in C/ Barco 15. It was a very intimate show, nothing big, few people, one guy playing guitar and singing for a while. And I absolutely must have a dress like that someday.
Now for some real news!! This year's Danish Oscar-nominated movie, A Royal Affair, finally came out in Spain a year after the premiere in Denmark = last Friday. Thanks to the work the embassy had done in connection with getting the movie to Spain, we were of course offered free tickets for the premiere! Nice! However, due to some confusion about the time for picking up the tickets we had one and half hour to kill before the movie so we went for delicious sushi on the cinema "pedestrian" street near Plaza España - not bad, not bad at all.. Definitely will be going out (or staying in) for sushi again soon.
This all leads me to my recent revelation about the Spanish culture: the cultural time difference of 3 hours probably makes it quite hard to do the typical dinner & movie combination. Dinner just doesn't happen before 22.00 - but the movies do!
Conclusion: movie & dinner is now on my to do list!

On a final note, a close friend of mine came down on a visit for the weekend which basically means a lot of shopping, a lot of great food, and all in all a great weekend! xoxo.