Madrid... again in one day and a half!! :) - Part 1

Hello there!! :)

Well, well, well... So a couple of weeks ago I went to Madrid! It was a lot of fun, and I got to meet a bunch of really sweet people. I'm still going over all the pics I took, so I'll have to divide them in a couple or three posts... otherwise, they would have a really unreasonable length! :D

The beautiful hills surrounding La Caja Mágica

The excuse for my going was that we had to attend a charity event at La Caja Mágica preceding the tennis tournament. My mom and stepdad are dermatologists, and one of their patients being Félix Mantilla, an important spanish tennis player, my stepdad was co-founder of the 'Félix Mantilla Foundation' against Melanoma, which is a skin cancer from which Félix suffered (and thankfully recovered) a while ago. So to raise funds for the foundation, they organized this sort of event with the presence of other players like Rafael Nadal, Carlos Moyá, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Caroline Wozniaki and Ana Ivanovic, among many others. It was actually pretty cool, we got to be in the VIP area (my brother was really thrilled, he plays tennis!), and I got to meet the incredible Martina Klein, a very famous (and beautiful) model from Barcelona (to each his own, right? :D). Here you have the [embarrassing] proof:

Of couse, I look horrible. But what else is there to be expected from a pic where I am next to a MODEL, with my knees shaking?

Anyway! We went out for dinner to a place called Le Garage (don't have pics, sorry! it was too dark). The food (kind of like asian fusion of some sort... ;) ) was really good, the service not so much, but then again we were 8, so maybe that's why it took them longer to bring everything. What was really cool there was the whole atmosphere: if you check the website, you'll see that the decoration is amazing, if to that you add that they were playing a Charlie Chaplin movie on one of the walls, and that the background music was ranging from Sinatra to Moon River... *-* you get bliss! :)

We stayed at a hotel really close to the city center, which was great, because I got to walk everywhere I wanted... :) And the old buildings were beautiful!!

Saturday morning, I dragged the whole group to have breakfast at Cosmen & Keiless, a wondeful bakery I discovered in the net. And oh my! See for yourselves:

Mmm... I get hungry just by looking at the pictures!! :) So anyway, after breakfast, while my family was doing more touristy stuff, I honoured my role as a blogger and went towards the neighbourhood of Chueca, where all of the cool & coolest places are... ;)

I love how so many stores keep the old signs: here, for instance, the sign says that they sell seeds, legumes, flour... when in fact, if you look closely, it's an optician's shop (with extremely cool glasses).

At first, many of the places I saw were closed (those poor lonely Repettos...), too early, I guess! But then little by little, all the little stores started to wake up... :)

Ok, so the first boutique I visited was called Vallmai, and I loved their super cute selection of light and flowy garments in the most beautiful colours... Really, the clothes were breathtaking! 

Almudena was really friendly and helpful, and with her help I rummaged a bit through the racks and got out a couple of pieces for you to see:

Isn't it wonderful? I still can't believe I behaved so well during the whole trip... I didn't buy a-ny-thing!! :D But then again, I was really busy taking pictures and writing down addresses for you guys, so there you go... blogging can cure compulsive shopping! ;)

Anyway, I think I'm gonna leave it here for today. I'll try and post the rest of the pics soon, along with some info about some really REALLY cool events for this summer... *-* A big kiss to you all! Be safe! ;)

[All photos are by me unless specified otherwise. I'm happy if you decide to copy and keep them in your computer as reference, or post them in your blog or anywhere you want. But you MUST put my name or a link to the blog somewhere, saying where you took them from. Not putting anything is in my opinion almost as bad as saying you took them yourself.]