Coldplay!

I will continue my blog where I left of last time: Kelly’s best friend, Jennifer, was here for her last day, but we had classes, so she decided to join us. Not that she really liked to get up a 7 a.m., but she had no other choice or she would be in our apartment all alone. Our teacher did not even look up when we were sitting front row; he probably assumed that she was one of his students who never comes to class. Jennifer enjoyed the class so much that she fell asleep after a few minutes.

Kelly and myself also nearly fell asleep, because our fellow students’ presentations were quite boring.
We also had dinner at the school cafeteria, which is very good value for money. We ordered some tapas: alioli, tostado con tomate and bocadillo de tortilla. She enjoyed it as much as we did! Unfortunately, she had to leave in the end of the afternoon. Time flies when having fun!'


The rest of the week was actually not that interesting, apart from the fact that we had to study for 2 review tests, a Strategic Management case and the final project. Not that exciting if you ask me …
In the weekend however, something much more exciting was about to happen, at least for Kelly haha. Her parents would arrive on Saturday in Madrid. We already had to pick up the keys of their apartment at Embajadores, because we are Dutchies and that would save 50 euros. They arrived around 10 p.m. at the apartment and Kelly was so excited to see them; she really missed her parents. To give a warm welcome, we already bought some tapas and sangria. Her brother and us also went out to show him the nightlife of Madrid, but that was not a big success. We went to Sala Heineken, but none of us enjoyed to music, so at 1.30 a.m. we decided to go home.

The next day we would meet at Parque Retiro to have lunch. Unfortunately, the weather that week was not great, so the lunch was of short duration as it was not that warm. The walk through the park was still amazing as you discover some new places every time. If only we would have such a park in Tilburg ...

That evening we out for dinner in barrio Chueca, the gay district of Madrid. It is however one of the nicest places to have dinner as there is a great atmosphere. We ended up at a place where we had a menú del dia, as Kelly’s mother did not want to eat tapas, which I think is a shame because that is the way Spanish people have their dinner; menú del dia is something they eat as lunch.

That week we had our usual classes; in the afternoons we were free so we could join Kelly’s parents on their exploration of Madrid. Monday the weather was so terrible that we decided to go shopping at La Gavia, a shopping centre located in the middle of nowhere. It is located at the penultimate metro station from line 1. The highlight of that day was the animal store in that shopping centre, where you could buy puppies. They were so cute; we watched something like an hour to them. That night her parents came to our place to have a delicious meal.

It was not only fun that week, but also getting good results. I had 2 review tests, which turned out really good. I even got a 10 for one of them!

The rest of the week we explored the centre of Madrid. Kelly turned out to be a fantastic tour guide. She showed her parents Plaza de Cibiles, Banco de España, Gran Via, Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Mercado de San Miguel, Templo Debod and Palacio Real. Madrid does not have that much touristic attractions, but the ones it has are amazing. Especially Plaza de Cibiles, that is so beautiful. After this day of walking around the city, we ate tapas at their apartment.

On Wednesdays, there is free entrance for Palacio Real from 3 till 6 p.m., so as Dutch as we are we stood there at 2.15 p.m. in line for the free entrance. It was definitely worth it, because the inside of the palace is even more beautiful that the outside. The taste of the former kings and queens cannot be called modern haha; it is pure kitsch.
That evening something much more exciting was about to happen: I would visit Coldplay at Plaza de Toros de Ventas! You will hardly see a better venue for a concert like this. The concert would start at 10, but we read on the internet that the doors would open at 7. So we queued around 6 after we got ourselves some fast-food at my least favourite fast-food chain, Burger King. Later, our fellow concert-goers joined and we waited until finally the doors opened. At first, we had bad places somewhere behind a big screen, but suddenly everybody broke over the fences to a free area where we could see everything much better.

So we followed, as bad as we are. First there was a hour-during supporting program from Dutch DJ Fedde Le Grand. But when the band came on stage, the whole stadium went crazy. It was supposed to be a promotion concert for their new album Mylo Xyloto, but they also played their older hits like The Scientist, Yellow and Viva La Vida. There can only be one word that summarizes this: Awesome!

Later that week we went with Kelly’s parents again to Plaza de Toros de Ventas, this time to see the stadium from the outside. We had not seen it that well with the concert, but it is worth to see it. Furthermore we went shopping in the most expensive street of Madrid, really close to our house, Calle José Ortega y Gasset. You can find shops from Prada, Chanel, Gucci and Hermés there. It turned out that these we a bit too expensive for our student budget, so we did not buy anything.
Later that afternoon Kelly’s parents went back to the Netherlands. It is always hard to say goodbye to you parents. But fortunately Kelly will see them again with Christmas, when we will return to Holland.

The weekend can be summarized as follows: “Today I don’t feel like doing anything. I just wanna lay in my bed”.

Hasta luego!