October 31 - Happy Halloween

This morning before school, I "carved" about a dozen mandarin oranges to share with my classmates and the teachers at my school to celebrate Halloween.  They seemed to really enjoy them - lots of photos.  One photo made it on to the school twitter and facebook pages.

After school, I met Albert and our guests back at home.  They had spent the morning at the Royal Palace.  Sadly, it started raining again this afternoon.  So, we ate soup and bread for lunch and then made a quick trip to the porcelain shop to buy a souvenir before retreating back into the house to get dry and warm.

Yesterday, I made dinner reservations at a place pretty near to our house for tonight's dinner.  It is not your standard Tapas restaurant - a little more gourmet.  They had Halloween music playing, but it was pretty low key - no costumes or skeleton decorations.  I had some amazing tuna that they seared at the table with a blow torch, Shelley had octopus (I stole a bite - mmm delicious), Scott and Albert had curry and Scott also had a prawn taco.  The place was fun and the service and food were awesome.  It was definitely a little fancier than our usual fare, but we all enjoyed it. 

My Tuna

After dinner, we took advantage of the dry weather and walked a bit around the city.  Saw quite a few people in costumes - lots of private parties in the city tonight.  Since tomorrow is a holiday and everything is closed - tonight is a good night for people to go out.

On our way home at around 11:30, things had started to close up, but we did stop off at the churro place and have chocolate and churros at the end of the bridge.  Originally, we planned to stop for gelato, but our favorite gelato place is closed by 11:30 - and it was still a little cold - so the warm dessert was perfect.

Tomorrow, the forecast calls for sunshine and slightly warmer temperatures - FINALLY.  The plan is to get out and walk around during the day and then we have a tapas and flamenco tour in the evening.