Before leaving to Spain I decided that I wanted to focus on exploring and basically living in the moment rather than creating a list of specific places or things to do or an itinerary and schedule per day. Just cuz I’ve realized that matches better the way I like to live and I enjoy life more that way. 😁

Yesterday we started the day by going to our first Spanish market which was fun. The meat section was definitely not for me, but it was well organized and separate from everything else. They had a lot of options and a really solid bakery(Horno) section which was cool.

Later we just started walking and stumbled on a huge and really beautiful park, a zoo with a giant elephant statue out front, a bunch of graffiti art and our first Spanish cat! 😸

A few other photos from the morning walk. 👇

We found a nice lunch spot that I was nervous about but ended up being really good! The person serving us was really kind and friendly even when I was struggling through a bit of Spanish. We ended up staying for about 2 hours 😂 and they were just super chill and it seemed like we could stay all day if we wanted. Once we both realized it didn’t seem like they would be bringing us the check any time soon we asked and they brought it. It still took probably about 15 minutes after that to pay. It was funny, and we were confused (more later).

We took a break back at our cozy little nook (Airbnb) and then went to a mall that was just a short walk away to see what that was like. Seemed like basically every department store in the US except everything was in Spanish.

From there we wanted to visit a walking street area which we found and the supposed gayborhood. 🔥 We found out they have a cute place in that district called “La Casa de los Gatos”, which was a tiny little cat house. I don’t fully understand the story but I guess some cats used to live behind it. 🤷‍♂️

The walking streets were absolutely beautiful and everything we had been dreaming of since we got here!! 🤩🤩 The area is called “El Carmen”. Plus having a decent amount of hot Spanish men looking at us (and being able to look at them) was incredibly fun! 😜 I’m pretty sure that’s the spot I would move to when I come out here. It’s definitely my favorite part of the city so far and I really wanna come back. Although we’re still trying to figure out what gay stuff they have besides a few bars/clubs which isn’t really our scene. 🤔 Here’s a few photos I took while out there.

There’s SO many shops out there that we wanna explore, but we did stumble on one with some great postcards to lift the mood. 🤤

To end the night we found an absolutely delicious vegetarian/vegan restaurant. 😋 I definitely want to go back there before we leave. The space was really nice and the food was all so incredible!! It’s honestly probably one of my favorite restaurants of all time (out of anywhere in the world I’ve been). While there I decided to check if there was something in the Spanish culture around asking for your check. And apparently there is! 🤯 I guess they usually wait for you to ask for the check so that they don’t interrupt your meal or conversation. I think it’s super cool and I think I prefer it to the kinda helicopter approach that restaurants take in the US. It’s so much more chill and respectful and puts the control back in your hands. Now that we know about it I’m excited to keep experimenting with it as a way to keep building my self confidence and sufficiency. 🎉 Also, check out this guac! 😍 It was probs the best guac I’ve ever had.

That’s about it for the day, and we’re very excited for the next one.