Palacio Cibeles, Retiro, and the Gran Via at Night

Night Sounds on Calle Ballesta

3:00am on my street--totally packed, people sitting in doorways with their beers and cigs, having a grand old time while I try to sleep!  This was about as quiet as it's been tonight and it's still...well...rowdy.

Lunch and Moving In

Grabbed a quick lunch at a cute cafe with some friends then met our landlord to pick up the keys to our apartment.  Everything that's in the apartment right now is what he left there--he hadn't been planning on having anyone move in until October 1st so he ended up still having a lot of things in the apartment when we got there, which is fine: pots and pans, dishes, some random towels and sheets, and a lot of shelves.  We're hoping we can take a few of them apart and store them somewhere, because it's a bit cluttered with all those empty shelves all over the place.

Naif, where we had lamb burgers

Living room

Kitchen, obviously

Bathroom complete with window straight into another person's apartment

Rania's room

Also Rania's room

Living room looking into the dining area, my room's in the far back

Huge dining table

Front door with reflections from the mirrors on the wall

Stairwell--9 flights of stairs to our apartment

My bedroom door

Looking from the door to the window

Far more storage than I need

Windows

View out of my bedroom window

The tall building in the background is on the Gran Via, a huge shopping/commercial street in downtown Madrid

View north out of my window

Looking south out my window--no shortage of prostitutes on our street, FYI

The Plaza Mayor and Mercado de San Miguel

Mercado de San Miguel--a gourmet market in the middle of Madrid

Mercado de San Miguel

Inside the Mercado de San Miguel

Cute restaurants in Madrid's old center

Cute restaurants in Madrid's old center

Near the Arco de Cuchilleros

The Arco de Cuchilleros--an entrance to the Plaza Mayor

View down one of the streets leading out of the Plaza Mayor

The Plaza Mayor

The Plaza Mayor