Days fifty-four and fifty five

Saturday

Our supervisor and office-mate Eric invited the political section to his house for dinner, so Romina, Zahra and I went together as did Elaine, the political counselor (which means the section head). Eric now lives in the suburbs several miles from the embassy, and passed the range of the metro, so he graciously offered to drive us to his house from the embassy as he was already working there all day anyway (on a Saturday no less!).

Eric's house was amazing, decked out in all the accoutrements he had acquired through his years of travel, as well as some lovely furniture he acquired in Nicaragua (?).

And the meal was quite possibly the best I've had in Spain thus far. Eric's wife, who happens to be from Luxembourg, is a fantastic cook, and made the following, all delectable:

• Ham, tomato and cheese skewers
• chicken-stuffed pastry pockets
• cheese-stuffed fried peppers
• spicy-tomatoey chicken stuff
• beef and prunes
• mashed potatoes
• chocolate cake
• apple pie

And the apple pie was some of the best I've ever had - very tart and very appley.

Sunday

Sunday led me to the nearby park of Casa de Campo. Madrid has a lot of nice parks, and while Retiro was huge (see my first week of posts), Casa de Campo puts it to shame, stretching nearly the full north-south length of the city, and encompassing a zoo, an amusement park, and a lake - all within its southernmost quarter. See for yourselves:



There were also these annoying little blue-and-black-and-white birds that I have begun referring to in my head as anticamera birds, because they stand completely still - as long as I'm moving. Once I stop, to take a picture of one for instance, they fly away. I have, as a result, yet to take a good shot of a single one.