Carnival 2016 @ SEK
On Friday, 5th February we celebrated Carnival at work. The students were allowed to dress up as whatever they wanted ready for the exciting weekend ahead. I didn't know that Spain had their own Carnival but I guess it isn't as big as the infamous Rio Carnival. As per usual, my students came to school in stunning costumes! I really love how enthusiastic they are with celebrations...
 |
| So many beautiful princesses ~ |
 |
| Which costume do you like the best?! |
Chinese New Year in Madrid
This year was my first time not celebrating the New Year with my family. At home, we sometimes go to a restaurant for a big family dinner or we go to a family member's house. This year, my family went to my grandmas house for a scrumptious dinner! I was so gutted to be missing out on this family gathering but it was also cool to experience celebrating in another country other than England and Hong Kong.
My roommate and I decided to go to a Chinese restaurant to celebrate and have a nice relaxing day afterwards. The restaurant we chose was called Restaurante Mulán. We went there with high expectations (we haven't had authentic Chinese food once in Madrid) to only be somewhat disappointed ^^'. The restaurant is a westernised Chinese restaurant that caters for Spanish people. The food we ordered sounded nice but when we got it, it was completely different to what I thought it would be. Nevertheless, we still finished all of it and had some really nice green tea to go with it!
After lunch, we headed back to central Madrid to go to our favourite (and only) tea house. Tekoe sells all sorts of teas; from English breakfast to Chai Lattes! Their green tea leaves are specially imported from Switzerland and it is very good.
After spending a good hour or two at Tekoe, we went back to Opera to do some window shopping... aka killing time! We had so much time to kill before we could go for dinner. Thankfully, there were loads of shops around the area for us to walk in ...and straight out of ^^'. Because we had a disappointing lunch, we decided to cheer ourselves up a bit by going to a NEW Korean restaurant in Sol. The restaurant is called Gayagum and potentially is the only authentic Korean restaurant in Madrid. I found this little gem back in December but haven't had the chance to check it out with Esther until now. The food was really good and we could tell the taste was different to all the other Korean restaurants we have tried in Madrid!
Long Weekend - 05.02 - 08.02
Chinese New Year coincidentally fell on our long weekend - we had the 8th off. My weekend consisted of lots of walking, drinking (tea), desserts, laughs. On Sunday, 7th February, the trio went to Tandoori Station - supposedly the best Indian restaurant in Madrid. It is located in Manuel Becerra and is just a short 6 minute walk away from the station. I absolutely love Indian food so going here was a bonus for me! The restaurant is always fully booked so we had to book a week in advance...and when we arrived, they couldn't find our booking... The lady eventually sorted it out and we were given a table in a matter of minutes.
I don't know if it's because I haven't had Indian food in a long time or whatnot, but I found the food pretty good. We've been to a few Indian restaurants in Madrid and they haven't been great. This was definitely the closest to home comfort food!
We also went back to Retiro Park after 6 months of neglecting it to try and catch the sunset. We failed but it was still really nice to go back and walk through the park! :)
So, that's what I've been up to recently! I've been busy with work so I haven't had the chance to blog everything that I've been doing. I'm also now blogging for my University so I'm managing two blogs at once, so please forgive me!
Wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year ~ May the year of the Monkey bring good health, wealth and happiness to each and every one of you.
- Tiffany
