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.