Living in Madrid or London?

As I've had a chance to explore more of Madrid, I've found quite a few comforts that I enjoy and that make the transition here a bit easier. Many of you know that I have a bit of a love affair with tea. I can't exactly pinpoint when this love started, but for many years now I've enjoyed hot tea as if I were in fact British and not American.

As Charlotte and I were roaming around last week, we stumbled upon a cute shop called Living in London. It was full of decorative items, knick-knacks, and such. Then I saw that a couple of doors down was another Living in London shop. I went inside and found....a tea room! Oh, I was excited! But I was also apprehensive. My Spanish is pretty much non-existent, and what I do know I'm nervous about using. So I shy away from any activities that would require me to be on my own using Spanish. I decided to wait until the weekend for Brendan to join me at the tea room.

We went on Sunday afternoon and sadly it was packed. Being a small space anyways, it was going to be impossible to get the stroller/buggy/carriage (whatever you care to call it) in with so many people. I was sad, but the good news was that we found a pastry shop after leaving the tea room and tried Spanish hot chocolate and some wonderful sweets. :)

I finally got up the courage to go to the tea room on my own (with Charlotte) earlier this week. I went during a time of day when I knew it would be pretty empty - 12pm/Noon. That is not lunchtime here...the Spainards don't eat lunch until later in the afternoon (probably because they don't eat dinner until 10pm). Below you can see some pictures of mine and Charlotte's first tea party. You can see she wasn't very interested, but I'll give her time to be as excited as I am about tea - I guess she should probably at least be able to sit up on her own to get much out of it.

It was wonderful for me! The tea was great, as was the Tarta de manzana Louise (I used my Spanish dictionary to figure out what this was - I deciphered words like "biscuit", "butter", and "apple" and decided I'd try it out). I also built some confidence in using my limited Spanish on my own.

{Living in London Tea Room}

{Charlotte enjoying the tea party}

{My tea spread = Happiness}