Spain, Day Thirty-Five

We finally decided to have a touristy day today for the first time since my parents arrived. Our first stop on our list was to check out the royal palace of Spain. This was truly a beautiful place. It's actually fairly new. It was burned down in the late 18th century so, this place isn't quite as old as some other royal headquarters that we have seen across Europe. There were so many elegant rooms to walk through though with exquisite artwork and beautiful ceiling frescos, which my mom thought were very fresh, indeed.

The entrance to the palace from the courtyard.

The main staircase

Mom and me in the park area in front of the palace

After about an hour and a half of touring, we headed onto our next stop, which was actually in one of the subway stops. Madrid had a seemingly cool museum all about its ancient walls, that is in the underground Opera metro location. Seeing as this was the metro stop we were already taking home, we decided it might be a neat place to check out. Well it turns out it was all in Spanish, so my parents didn't get much out of it except maybe the word for wall, which is pared by the way (shouts out to your palabra del dia). We were actually thinking it would be a pretty big museum but it only had two of the really old walls on display and then a projector with a kid's film playing on a loop, again only in Spanish. So not the most educational of visits for us English-speakers but it was still interesting to see nonetheless.

One of the ancient walls of Madrid

Another ancient wall

We finished our touring a lot earlier than expected (something my dad was rather joyous about) so we headed back to the flat to finish packing our suitcases and eat some of the leftovers we had for lunch to clean out our fridge. I managed a pretty solid siesta, logging about three hours of sleep on the couch–whoops!

For our evening plans, we decided we would hit up one last shopping area: Calle Fuencarral. This is actually a really great shopping street and we are kicking ourselves for not checking out the area earlier. Pretty much every store you could ever imagine was on this street, including about six different Zara stores. We decided not to shop since we didn't want to bring our bags with us to dinner, but for any future Madrid travelers, go here first for shopping! We ended up on Gran Via which led us to the Circulo de Bellas Artes, which was a roof-top bar where we enjoyed a few drinks and a lovely view before dinner.

Our view of the city

We landed on an Italian restaurant for our last dinner in Madrid, ordering some chorizo and mushroom pizza for my mom and I to split and a steaming plate of lasagna for my dad. It was a great meal and a wonderful way to top of our adventures in Madrid. It felt weird thinking that it was my last night in Madrid. I am so grateful for the experiences I had here but I am very excited to move on and see what Barcelona has in store for me next week.

Spain, Day Thirty-Four

For the first time since I had gotten to Spain (which is over a month at this point), it rained. And I mean it poured with thunder and lightening and everything! So what do you do when it rains? Well the first thing you do is get caught up on your blogs. But then, you make a frozen pizza and have everyone crowd around your tiny laptop screen and watch Guardians of the Galaxy (this movie has actually become the theme of our trip now so that's pretty cool). But after we finished watching Starlord and the other guardians save the planet Xandar, the rain had finally come to a halt, so we headed out to do some more shopping, naturally. We actually came across a pretty cool luxury shopping mall, which only had about twelve stores in it. There was an upscale pet store inside where I almost bought the fluffiest dog I have ever seen in my life. Sadly, there was no way to get it home though and I think my cat, Bing, would not appreciate this addition to the family, so I had to walk away.

We saw this dude while we were out and thought it looked like a good photo op. This is right outside the Madrid Wax Museum.

After our brief shopping adventure in a very upscale part of Madrid, we headed home to get cleaned up for dinner. We were excited to find a British pub in our neighborhood that was owned by a real Brit! There was no language barrier at all when we tried to order our food; it was so great! I thoroughly enjoy the tapas life here, but I was so excited so have a meat-and-potatoes meal for the first time in over a month. This brings us to today's palabra del dia, which is Inglaterra. This is just how the Spanish refer to "England" in the same way that we call their country Spain, but they call it Espana. I still think its ridiculous that we can't just call countries and cities what they want to be called but I guess nobody asked me.

One of the best meals I've had in Madrid. Don't skip out on Bristolbar if you are ever in the Chueca neighborhood!

Yes, this is me wearing a Queen Elizabeth mask...

After a delicious meal and some good photos, we headed home to start getting packed up and prepare ourselves for our last day in Madrid.

Spain, Day Thirty-Three

After our wine-tasting adventure yesterday, we were pretty exhausted, so we just decided just to take it easy and sleep in a little, and then head over to Puerta del Sol to do some shopping. The best shopping in this area is on the south side, down one of the alleys that flank the giant clock. There are tons of fun boutiques in this area as well as the ever-popular Zara and Mango. I made out with a dress, three tank tops, a fun American flag shirt for the Fourth of July, and a cute new pair of wedges. This area required a lot of Spanish translation on my end and I even learned the shoe-size system for Europe. Apparently I'm a size 41, which seems entirely too big. Things are so different over here.

Once we were done with shopping, we headed over to a restaurant that is just north of the Puerta del Sol called La Casa Labra. We went here on a recommendation by my professor for really good croquettes, and I really loved it. We tried some cod croquettes, which brings me to our palabra del dia. The word for cod is one of my favorite Spanish words simply because it is just fun to say: bacalao (pronounced "ba-ca-low"). The bacalao croquettes were surprisingly good! I was expecting a strong, fish flavor but they almost tasted like there was no flavoring in them at all. Just delicious croquette flavor. We could see the flaky white fish in it though so we know it was there. I would definitely recommend these to try, although my mom says her favorite is the jamon croquettes, so maybe you should just try an assortment if you get the chance.

After lunch we tried one last time to go to the market that my professor showed us after class one day, but it was closed for siesta so we decided it was time to give up hope and just headed back to our flat for our own siesta, which was obviously well-earned after a long day of shopping.

For dinner that evening, we decided to hit up the Mercado de San Miguel one more time for more than just dessert. Here is the progression of our foods of the night:

Dad snagged us a couple of pizzas for round one

For round two, we had an assortment of mozzarella appetizers. Some of them tasted almost like dessert!

The sweet mozzarella didn't stop us from getting real dessert though. My selections of the night were baclava, a giant raspberry macaroon, and a little blackberry pastry. The macaroon was the winner of the night. Please enjoy my contemplative face here as I enjoy the first bite.

By the time dinner was over, I was ready for some stretchy sweat pants, so we headed home early and got a good night's sleep.

Spain, Day Thirty-Two

Today was another adventure day for us. We scheduled a tour through a few wineries that are in the suburbs of Madrid! This was my first time going through any sort of winery before so I was very excited about this new experience. We'll go ahead and get the palabra del dia out of the way early this post because I know you all know it's coming. So we all know the word for wine in Spanish is "vino," but did you know the word for winery is "bodega?" Also, if you know the word for red, which is "rojo," you might assume that red wine is "vino rojo" but its actually "vino tinto," which I think just translates to "tinted wine." So there's a little vocabulary lesson in Spanish for you.

I'm going to be frank, I did not actually learn a whole lot about the process of wine actually being made. They tried to explain it to us, but between their thick Spanish accents and the growing buzz from all the wine I was tasting, I decided just to see it as an opportunity to taste different wines and see which ones I liked. Truthfully, I liked just about all of them, which is shocking considering when I was younger and my parents would let me taste their wine, I would tell them that it tasted like "every other red wine I had ever tasted," which means it was gross. It's funny how your palate can change over time. I never thought I would be a wine person, but now I kind of like it (especially in Sangria!).

So we toured three different wineries, and all before lunch so you know we were feeling pretty good that afternoon. I'm not much of a day drinker, but sipping various wines and eating meat and cheese appetizers that they prepared for us was actually pretty nice. So since I don't have much to say about the wine-making process, I'm going to split my pictures up between all of the different bodegas and just show you what I saw all day.


Bodega #1:  El Regajal

A couple of the wines we tasted. Wine is pretty cheap in Europe!

Dad and me standing in the vineyard

The wine casks. The guy showing us around actually siphoned it straight out of the cask to let us try some.

Bodega #2:  Peral

Just casually chatting with the owner. He only spoke Spanish.

The wine here was super cheap because they have these caves that keep the wine at the perfect temperature, so there is no need to have electricity and pay an unnecessary bill.

Bodega #3:  Consuelo

A couple of the wines we tasted.

The owner of the place showing us the different tools her family used to use to gather and press grapes about 100 years ago.

Our tour guide divvying up the goods. We also had some really good olive oil at this place.

After a long afternoon of taste-testing and making new friends, we crashed pretty hard back at our apartment. I actually was feeling a little too sugared-up from all of the wine so I decided to stay in and relax while my parents went out to dinner across the street. They informed me that they were missing their translator a bit while they were out and had to just point to what they wanted on the menu and smile and nod. It's good to know that I'm finally contributing to this family in some way, haha. Needless to say, I went to sleep pretty early that night and slept in a good bit the next day too.

Spain, Day Thirty-One

Today, we decided to do something a little unconventional for a city vacation: we went hiking. One of the very few awesome things about Madrid is that it has the mountains right up next to the city. So after an hour train ride to the outskirts of the city, we found ourselves in the quiet town of Cercedilla (pronounced like "sir-say-dee-ya"). Once we arrived, we trekked up the hill for about a mile and a half, only to find that the visitor's center with all of the maps for the trails to be closed. Fortunately, they had a bulletin board outside their office with a map of all of the trails and their difficulties. We decided on a one and a half hour trail called "camino del agua" which translates to "water walk" (hooray for palabras del dia and for learning things!).

Dad and me inspecting the trail map

It actually didn't have all that much water along the trail except for during just the first twenty minutes of the walk, where we found some nice creeks and ponds. They served for some good photo op stops but not much else. They weren't very big.

Little creek #1

Little creek #2

The rest of the walk was an uphill rock climb for about twenty minutes and then downhill the rest of the way until we were spit out in the town of Cercedilla. We had planned on getting a drink or something from the town and just check out what small-town life in Spain is like, but we couldn't find anywhere to go. It was all just apartments everywhere. We came across two restaurants, but they were only open Wednesday-Sunday, and it was Tuesday. So we ended up just walking back to the train station that was on the outskirt of the town. Fortunately, there was a little bar open next to the station where we had a beer. My parents struggled with the language barrier a little here since it was a small town, which meant pretty much no English-speakers. When I explained to our bartender that my parents only spoke English, he was excited to use what seemed like it was his only English phrase, "Do you like Spanish?" Thinking back, we think he might have meant Spain, but he could have also meant spinach because his pronunciation was a little off. All in all, we enjoyed our hike and getting some fresh air in the mountains. Here are some photos of our adventure along the trail:

Walking along the trail

Having lunch on a boulder

Couldn't pass up an opportunity to "throw what I know" in the mountains

After another hour-long train ride back to Madrid that was significantly hotter than the first one, we were rather exhausted and decided to siesta back at the apartment for a while and then head over to a restaurant that was just around the corner to get some Italian food for dinner. Although it was certainly not as good as what I had in Rome, my mushroom risotto was still better than what we have back in the U.S. Another exciting point of dinner was dad accidentally catching his breadsticks and then, consequently, the table on fire just for a brief minute, but that's a story for another time.

Spain, Day Thirty

For my first full day with my parents, we decided to begin our day by going to El Rastro flea market. This is a street flea market that only occurs once a week (Sundays from 9 am to 2 pm). I'm not much of a flea market person myself, but I do enjoy finding hidden treasures, and according to Rick Steve's, one in every ten things you find there is supposed to be a treasure. While I'm sure there was some really neat stuff there, we were more annoyed with how crowded the streets were and how everything kind of looked like junk rather than treasure so we did not stay long. Even if we would have wanted something, it was all larger-than-average, trinket-type things as well as some paintings, so we would have had a really difficult time getting everything back to the U.S. The only purchase of the day for us was a pair of sunglasses for my dad, which we are a little unsure if we were supposed to barter on or not, so we may have gotten ripped off. Still, ten euros didn't seem like a bad price for a pair of cheap sunglasses and I'm not sure my Spanish skills are at the level they need to be in order to knock a few euros off the price.

Casually strolling El Rastro in a surprisingly uncrowded area of the market

After our (mis)adventure at the Rastro, we decided it was time for a small snack. Truthfully, it was actually time for lunch but we had a big breakfast that day–which was very un-Spanish-like because their breakfast consists of toast and a piece of fruit–so we just wanted something little and quick. We found ourselves in the lobby of San Gines, the churros and chocolate place I had gone to with Maria a few weeks back. Mom and Dad enjoyed trying the local treat even though I still don't think it's my favorite–it just taste like fried nothingness dipped in chocolate. Even the chocolate is a little too bitter for my taste. I'm glad someone likes it though.

We walked around for a little while longer before heading back to the flat for a siesta and to figure out our plans for the rest of the night, which only consisted of grabbing a beer and tapas from one restaurant just off the Puerta del Sol and then getting some more tapas from another restaurant in the Plaza de Santa Ana called El Lateral. We had an assortment of tapas from this one, which consisted of ham croquettes, mushroom croquettes, a sirloin and brie slider thing, and fried artichokes. This brings me to our palabra del dia. The word for artichoke was actually one I learned that night from a Spanish girl sitting at the table next to us who asked us what we were eating. I described it in Spanish and told her I didn't know the exact word for it, to which she replied was "alcachofa," which is pronounced exactly how it looks. So after a night of stuffing our faces with tapas and learning new words, we decided to head to bed early because we had a very early adventure planned for the next day.

Spain, Day Twenty-Nine

Today was a transitional day for me that began at about 9 in the morning with breakfast and some goodbyes. I had packed all of my stuff up from my host mom's house and was getting ready to head over to my parent's flat for the remainder of my stay in Madrid. My roommate, Maria, decided to come hang out with us for a little while too since her flight out of Madrid wasn't until about midnight anyways. So on this Saturday morning, we gathered our things and said a final goodbye to our host mom–not without taking a selfie before we left though.

In Spanish, selfie just means selfie

Surprisingly, our flat was already cleaned and ready for check-in when we arrived at the new location. The housekeeper let us in and gave us the lowdown of the place. She only spoke Spanish though so I got the full blast of how everything works and had to translate for my parents. That was quick enough though, so after the housekeeper left, we unpacked our things and then headed out to explore the area a little bit. I had actually mapped out a good shopping area for us to check out for this adventure, which led us to the Tiffany and Co. store, where mom and I purchased some charms for our Tiffany travel bracelets. We decided to go with a bear charm because of the bear statue that is in Puerta del Sol because it is a pretty big symbol for the Madrid area and Spain doesn't actually have a specific charm from the Tiffany collection. We had no problem taking the creative liberty to decide on the bear though.

This is my charm. Mom got a similar one but it was a 3D bear instead of flattened.

After shopping was done, we headed over to El Corte Ingles, which had a rooftop restaurant called the Gourmet Experience. I don't know how gourmet it actually was but we tried some interesting things, the weirdest of which being pig's ear, which brings me to our palabra del dia. If you ever want to know how to say pig's ear for whatever reason you encounter, it is said "oreja de cerdo." Honestly, it tastes exactly how you might expect a pig's ear to taste. But yeah, it wasn't my favorite but I'm glad I tried something new. By the time we were finished eating, my jet-lagged parents were pretty sleepy so we decided to head back to the flat and siesta for a little while.

Once we woke up, Maria decided it was time for her to head on over to the airport, so we said our goodbyes and bid her farewell. Then it was off to the grocery for us. One of the things I really like about Europe is that each neighborhood has its own little grocery, which I think is way more convenient than the mega-groceries that we have back in the U.S. Although, my parents had a few difficulties understanding what some of the foods were since the labels were in Spanish, but I was happy I was there to translate for them.

After unpacking our groceries and having a little snack, it was nearing dinner time (for Americans) so we decided to do a little exploring in downtown Madrid before sitting down for our meal. We decided to go to the area I know best: Puerta del Sol. We walked from the bear statue to Plaza Mayor, where we had a few tapas before dinner. My parents discovered they really enjoy the Tortilla de Patatas here, which is a classic Spanish dish.

The famous bear and tree statue.

Dad found his Spanish ancestor at the tapas restaurant in Plaza Mayor

After our tapas appetizer, we headed over to our restaurant, Las Cuevas de Luis Candelas, which was an underground cave restaurant that had lots of bull fighting history in it. After our long and slow dinner, we stopped across the street at the Mercado de San Miguel (obviously my new favorite place) to look around a little and then grab some ice cream. We headed home early so that everyone could get a good night's sleep before our first full day together in Madrid.

We had some live entertainment at dinner!