Mercado de San Miguel

Mercado de San Miguel is undoubtedly one of my favorite spots in Madrid. It's really no surprise, considering this place is foodie heaven. I could spend hours wandering around the various stalls and trying all of the different treats. Need a glass of wine? Craving paella? Just want to snack on some gourmet cheese and chorizo? Mercado de San Miguel has all of the delicious goods you could ever dream of. 

Not to mention: this place is absolutely gorgeous. It may not be as vast as the famed Boqueria in Barcelona, but it's certainly much more beautiful. This bustling market has done a fine job of winning over my heart (and my stomach). 

Un Petit Picnic Parisien

While I was in Paris, my friend Mila came to visit and we rented the cutest apartment in the 15th arrondissement through Airbnb. On Mila's first day in Paris, it was pouring down rain. (Okay, so, it pretty much rained the whole week, but this day was especially bad.) We spent a good half of our day drenched and spiteful of the Seattle-esque weather. 

As we settled into our apartment, it became increasingly evident that wine was much needed. And since it's Paris, you can't have wine without cheese. And if you're going to buy cheese, you might as well try three different kinds of delicious French cheese. And if you're going to get that much cheese, you should probably also get proscuitto, caprese and sun dried tomatoes...

You see where I'm going here? 

So, we had the most delightful, mouthwatering, perfect little picnic on the charming balcony of our darling French apartment. Living like locals really isn't so bad.

Not Homeless

I think it's fair to say that apartment hunting in Spain is one of the most difficult and stressful things that I've ever done. But all that anxiety can finally subside - because I finally found an awesome apartment in one of the cutest neighborhoods of Madrid!

The outside of the building is charming and quintessentially Spanish, but the inside is recently remodeled and sparkling clean. Although my room is quite small, the apartment has all of the amenities that I was looking for: furnished, central heating, wifi, a clean kitchen, an oven (strangely a luxury here in Spain), a washing machine, and a window with lots of light. And not to mention, my roommates are awesome.

The room came furnished with modern Ikea accents (in other words, I would have never chosen red lamps or a red bookcase for myself), but I figured - hey, I'm only here for a year, I might as well embrace it. Insert red + leopard print pillows from Zara Home and a few mod frames & decorative accessories, and boom! I just created a "look" for my room. Kind of. The hardest part about being in Spain for only one year is trying to restrain myself from excessively shopping for home goods. I mean, can you blame me? I used to work at Pottery Barn for goodness sakes. Sorry I'm not sorry that I'm obsessed with interior decorating. 

Being a minimalist is hard. 

Yes, my new red Longchamp bag that I bought in Paris coincidentally matches my room. I promise I didn't plan that.

My window looks out onto a pink building! How perfect.

I know. It's really small, and it's certainly no Pottery Barn, but for a darling space in my favorite neighborhood of Madrid, it'll do just fine.