La Latina

Being a lazy student, it has taken me three weeks to actually take a trip down to La Latina, an area literally a seconds walk from my flat! In England I can happily waste a day pottering about the house but as I'm now living in Madrid, home to some of the most beautiful streets ever and, more importantly, regular host to the sunshine, it seems a shame to waste the days sitting inside. Me and Megan were starting to get a bit of cabin fever so we decided we'd venture down to La Latina for a little wander and a cheeky cerveza!

Being that it was only 6pm and the evening doesn't really begin until about 10 here we were expecting it to be pretty quiet but La Latina was packed! Friends were relaxing round the square or sitting enjoying the cool evening air with a drink, 

as ever it was a totally laidback relaxed atmosphere. People had even brought speakers down and were listening to Spanish music. Others were sitting on the steps having brought their own alcohol, again, I wish this happened in England!

We strolled around looking for a table, which was unsurprisingly a near impossible task! We settled at a small bar on the corner only to be pounced upon by two Spanish men. Having realised we were English one of them began to pull his ears out saying 'Principe Carlos' whilst the other continued to stare. Realising we weren't going to be able to have a quiet drink here and, on my part anyway, feeling rather offended (I may have mistaken his impression of Prince Charles for an insult to my lovely little ears) we decided to leave before the waiter even had a chance to serve us, much to their dismay. 

In our haste to escape we walked in the wrong direction and realised we were leaving La Latina but, too embarassed/scared to have to walk past our Spanish admirers again, we continued towards Tirso de Molina. I thought the buildings were so lovely!

Fed up of searching and ready for our cerveza we chose the nearest free table in a small square filled with market stalls host to impressive displays of flowers and also this lovely yellow building...

I wish I lived there!

Unfortunately for us, having escaped the awkward situation at the first bar we had walked right into another one with our chirpy waiter who claimed he couldn't believe we were from England and insisted we must be from heaven, I guess some things never change!

Lessons learned: get to La Latina early on a Saturday evening and know you can never enjoy a drink in peace if you're an English girl in Spain!

Donjuan x