Granada: Do Not Fall!

Granada is either steep or slippery, or both. It's also very beautiful, as long as you have your footing! Neither of us fell, but it was because we were duly warned, and thus, extremely careful where we put our feet.

There were three main sections to our time in Granada: our AirBnB host, the Alhambra, and the Arab tea house. Every moment was distinctly different from the rest of our #SwagVil2Spain trip, and we may have started to fall in love.

Madrid: Our 8 Favorite Tastes

Disclaimer: don't read this if you're hungry!

This little entry is dedicated to the most delicious foods we enjoyed in Madrid. We spent about half of the time of our five days there eating out. Because we rented an apartment through AirBnB, we did do a significant amount of cooking and picnic packing to save some money and take breaks from heavy restaurant meals.
 

Chocolat Madrid

I will go back here every time.

Sometimes a place is so good, I have to go twice...the first time, I went alone. I walked into the cafe, the three waiters said, "Hola," and waited for me to say something. I said, "Chocolate?" And it was all good. The "hot chocolate" is more like awesome warm pudding with very buttery (not cinnamon sugary) churros that matched perfectly with the dark-chocolate-sauce-in-a-cup. When I went back with Marc, I tried the porras, which tasted a lot like donuts. Yummmmmmm. The other great thing about this place? Extremely reasonably priced, especially when taking places like Parisian Angelina's into consideration.

D'Ch Churros

Who knew churros could be so exciting?

These were the teaser churros.

Churro creations at
the Christmas market.

The Americanized/Mexicanized version of churros is only with cinnamon sugar. To the Spaniards, that's just one idea for a churro. A normal churro is buttery. Special churros get toppings. Like every kind of chocolate, oreo cream, coconut, sprinkles, ham, cheese, you name it. I ordered mini churros with bacon and maple syrup. They gave me 6, I could have eaten 20. D'Ch was right by the Atocha train station, and a perfect pre-trip or post-trip snack!

Cafe Vait

Their menu had pictures!

This huge place had a very cozy feel to it, made possible by the specialized areas of the bakery, bar, and the upstairs and downstairs dining rooms. We only stopped in for coffee, but the pastry selection was incredible and the food we saw served looked amazing, too.
 

Federal Cafe

High table at the window, please.

Based off an Instagram recommendation by Kate at Oh hello, Spain, I ventured here solo on our last morning in Madrid. I ordered the French toast. I want it to be my last meal before I die. Fresh grapefruit orange juice. Expertly grilled thick bacon. Chocolate caramel drenched bananas. I see from the photo that syrup was included, but I don't remember needing it.... It may not look like a lot of food, but it was one of those meals that was so perfect because it was like the main dish and the dessert combined.

La Musa Latina

Here's another place that was so good, we went twice! Fried calamari with wasabi mayo was our favorite. I hate mayonnaise, but the wasabi flavor was incredible! We also tried fried snap peas with syrup, caprese sandwich, pastrami snack plate, bread rolled teriyaki sushi, fried potato bombas, and I had a fun red wine called "Bicycle." No pictures of this place, but for a guaranteed creative tapas tasting experience in a cool ambiance, go to La Musa.

Toro Tapas
While this may clearly be a tourist trap on the way to the Palacio Real, they still had good prices and very tasty tapas. The three tostas you see on the right were salmon, shrimp, and ham with brie cheese. The sangrias were full of fruit, and it was open on Christmas! It made for a completely satisfying Christmas lunch.

SwagVil-Style Tapas Crawl

On our last night in Madrid, we totally winged it. From Plaza Mayor to Cava Baja, it will totally work in your favor. We only lasted through three restaurants (three wines/sangrias...), but I'm sure the more determined can last through five or six! Here are notes from the best two places we passed through.

Mesón Don Carnal 
The service was a bit confusing (the waitress tried to force a more expensive item on us when we had really ordered the half-serving), but aside from that, we really liked the tapas we chose here. The chorizo and burgos really tasted well together. 

Diaz y Larrouy

Cheesy applesauce and honey sobrasada!

This place was my favorite of the evening. There was just one guy who acted as host, bartender, waiter, busboy, server, and cook! He did a great job, and their menu had two of the best tosta tastes ever: sobrasada (pork sausage) over honey and melted cheese over applesauce. The tastes were unbelievably delicious and interesting with the perfect harmony of sweet and savory on perfectly toasted bread. These are the tapas I will try to replicate in the future.

We know all too well from living in France that Paris is the "moveable feast." However, we found Madrid to be much cheaper and just as competitive in their tastes. Does that make Madrid better? For us, yes. It all comes down to the kind of food you like...and if you prefer to enjoy it under the sunshine or the rain.

Madrid to Granada: When It Pays To Carry-On

Let's do some math.

We planned a bunch of open jaw flights on low-budget airlines. If we even had thought about checking bags, we would have been out +200€ more immediately.

Instead, we fit 10 days of our lives into our backpacks. Packing light pays off in a lot of ways: less weight to carry, less things to lose/get stolen, no checked bag fees. Today it paid off in the best way possible: euros.

This second leg of our journey from Madrid to Málaga with Iberia Airlines hit quite the snag when we tried to check-in this afternoon.

No. More. Seats.

Madrid: I'm Dreaming of a Bright Christmas

This city is alive on Christmas!

The tree in the Plaza de Colón.

Madrid: A Warm First Impression

This is what our Navidad en Madrid started like...

Tree of gold at Puerta del Sol.

Barcelona: Plaças i Passeigs

My final day in Barcelona (this time) was devoted to visiting the main squares, hitting some good eats, and lounging on the beach again.

I had to find thick hot chocolate and churros. Google led me to La Pallaresa, just off La Rambla. It is no Angelina's, but the churros are cool because they are looped at the ends to be better for dipping. I recommend getting the drink without the whipped cream; the cream kind of overwhelms the chocolate, and not in a good way. Ask for the cream on the side.

Plaça de Catalunya has two large fountains, tons of cars chugging about, and some interesting looking buildings to admire. Show up, look around, move on. Yawn.

Plaça d'Espanya, on the other hand, wins my award for the most beautifully impressive square in Barcelona. The roundabout itself is okay, but go through the two tall brick towers and come face to face with a gorgeous museum palace of Catalonian art that rises gracefully above a chorus of fountains. La Font Màgica claims the sound stage and can mesmerize you for the better part of an hour. Make sure you go to see the fountains during the scheduled "show times" for the most complete experience. Here I felt like I was wrapped up in an entire world of a true European Balboa Park.