Adios Lavapiés, Hola Chamberi

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New Apartment

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We moved to our permanent apartment the day after Halloween. I am so glad we had such a relaxed Halloween, because moving took a lot of time and energy. I was mostly packed the next day, but there were still little things here and there to put away. Plus we needed to leave the Airbnb in order. Thankfully our friend from home, Elana, was visiting us. Even though she was our guest and didn't need to do anything, she was so helpful and honestly such a blessing for us to have with us. She helped us lug bags downstairs and carry things across the city. The picture above is all of us, and our honorary 4th roommate Elana, on our new couch at our new apartment.

^checking out the new kitchen

I LOVE our new neighborhood and new apartment. We are now in Chamberi, which is a 12 minute walk to my bus stop. Now, I wake up at 7am instead of 6:45am. I am THRIVING with that extra 15 minutes. On my way home from work, I pass at least 3 fruit stands and an ALDI, so I can pick up any groceries on the way home from work. We also live on the ground floor, so no more stairs!! The 5 flights of stairs were really good for us in Lavapies I’m sure…but despite living there for a month, I never got used to them and, honestly, sometimes they discouraged me from leaving the apartment. I really like how our apartment is close to a huge university (Complutense University of Madrid). As Willa pointed out to me, because of that our neighborhood has diversity in languages and food. The most ADORABLE fluffy white dog lives next to us; her name is Callie. I am in love with her – dogs sometimes scare me when they bark, but this dog is just the cutest, most lovable ball of fluff. We casually mentioned that if they ever need a dog walker they know where to look – I hate picking up dog poop but I would totally push past that for this dog (sorry Rosie).

^the unpacking process

While Elana was here, we were able to explore and find some yummy spots in our neighborhood. Even though Lavapiés has the best pizza at NAP, right next to us is a pizza place that is reminiscent of Ashland's now-gone Giseppis pizza (not sure how to spell it). There's an amazing Empanada place right down the street called Keeyan's. The owner used to be an Auxiliar de Conversación like us! Up the street is a yummy crepe and gelato place. We've seen many different types of Asian restaurants around. Without internet, we got to explore the new cafe scene in the area. And of course, we've popped into various tapas places and bars to try the patatas bravas and tortilla. We've gone back down to Lavapiés to enjoy the Indian food, NAP and Greek food again. As I said though, I couldn't be happier with our neighborhood.

~ Issues ~

For the first 6 days at our new apartment we didn’t have a working hot water heater – which meant cold showers! Elana is an amazing houseguest and gave us a move in gift: a electric hot water kettle. So on Saturday we were able to take showers using a bowl and the hot water kettle. We would pour some of the boiling water into the bowl, cool it off with some cold water, and then use it to wash ourselves. I have to say…it was quite an experience that I would prefer not to repeat again. Thankfully our landlady was able to have her brother come and fix the water heater, however it will still take 5 HOURS for the water tank to heat the water so we have to plan accordingly if we want to shower.

On Wednesday, all the lights and power went out! Our landlady is so kind, but she talks so fast in Spanish and still doesn’t seem to understand that we need her to speak to us slower for us to understand her. As she rapidly spoke to me over the phone, I managed to tell her what happened and to make out that she would come over at 9:50pm after work (she’s an art professor) to help us. Thankfully she ended up texting Willa the same information she told me over the phone and we were able to translate the instructions and fix the power outage! Even though that phone conversation was beyond overwhelming for me, I was glad when I read the message to see that I had picked up on some things even though I didn’t get the overall message. Baby steps.

Our apartment is also rather cold because it is a bottom floor apartment and on the interior. We thankfully have heating, but we are trying not to really use the heating for the first month to see how much utilities will be, as our landlady approximated up to 200 euros a month for utilities which sounds crazy to us, but we are just being careful...just in case. We have lots of blankets and sweaters though, and it is warmer than outside especially with that windchill.

~ Lack of Wifi ~

^My favorite cafe in Lavapiés - set the bar very high for chai

At our Airbnb, we had a very strict wifi allowance of 5Gb which we were not told of ahead of time. Once we found that out, that meant we barely used any wifi in our apartment so that we wouldn’t run out. We would take trips to various coffee shops around Lavapiés, my favorite being Pum Pum Café, however I tried to limit my trips because I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on tea (since I don’t drink coffee. I could buy 20 tea bags for the price of one chai). Also, I have found that a lot of coffee shops don’t know how to make Chai Lattes. If you ask for a Chai Latte, they will ask you in return “con leche?” literally meaning “with milk?” Normally you say, “si”. However, if you say “si” here, often what they will do is substitute milk instead of water. So you will end up getting a cup of milk with a chai tea bag. Not quite the same as a chai latte…but it reminded me of the warm milk my dad would make for me instead of hot chocolate for Christmas Tree Hunting. At our new apartment, we had to set up wifi. Once we went around and compared prices, we went with Moviestar. However installation would take 2-7 days and knowing Spanish time, we knew we would definitely be without internet for longer rather than shorter. Because of this, we often went to the taco/burrito place next door, Jleos, where one of us would buy food or a glass of wine and then the rest of us would use their wifi. It’s amazing how you realize how reliant you are on wifi when you don’t have it. At the same time, it is nice being a little disconnected from the internet. The worst part about it was not being able to talk and communicate with people in Madrid and back at home, but we were just fine. And now, we are loyal customers to Jleos. We met the owner the first day and he said he started the business because he loved Chipotle so much when he visited the United States. It is similar to Chipotle in that you build your own burrito, bowl, or tacos, however the flavors are definitely different and delicious. I am a regular for their Taco Tuesday deal -- 1 euro tacos after 8pm.

^Jleo's Taco Tuesday