Exploration and assorted scribbles part 2: Spanish curry and a foray into the park

Last week I went out after work on a school night for the first time since I got here.  An English colleague in transit in the opposite direction to me was in town, so after my weekly Spanish lesson (in this session we consolidated the past perfect tense and worked on food vocabulary) I headed out for an evening speaking entirely in English and ultimately a curry.  Integration?  What's that then??

The curry isn't the same though.  Even in what is apparently one of the better Indian restaurants in the city, the food was suspiciously orange in hue, the poppadoms were more like crackers and 'spicy' was just, well, not.  I think I may have to manage my expectations of such things... and continue eating tapas instead.

On the plus side, heading back to the metro I saw the bright lights of the Metropolis building by night at the end of Gran Via (it's a insurance company office building, from 1910 - that's all I know so look it up on Wikipedia like I just did).

Speaking of food (it will keep coming up), I feel it's about time I talk about (second) breakfast.  My brother informed me on arrival that my colleagues would all leave the office at around 11am, to head down to a local bar to drink coffee and eat baritos con tomate, which is essentially bread smeared with tomatoes and olive oil.  I found this unlikely - after all, the working culture to which I am accustomed dictates that you leave the office only if going out on business or to go to lunch.  I was wrong.  It's just not always baritos - the normal mid-morning snack is actually pincho de tortilla, normally accompanied by a substantial piece of bread.  The small of appetite (and non-Spanish) might call such a thing 'lunch'.


So, to the weekend.  I finally ventured into the huge park that has lingered so tantalisingly on the edge of my daily commute, and ran a little loop in the corner of it.  3.5km and I have not even scratched the surface.  It's also an undulating, densely wooded place with lots of secluded corners and little by way of vistas, so I couldn't even see further across it to appreciate its size. 

Great for getting some quiet time away from it all along with your exercise, not so good to wander in by night.  Pretty though, and it's wildness makes a great contrast with the managed prettiness of the Retiro park in the centre.

I look forward to my next run. It's flatter than home too.