LUCY GOES TO MADRID

 D I S C L A I M E R: This week I traveled to Spain and Italy but I decided to make separate posts for them in case I began to ramble on. 

On a rainy Sunday afternoon, I flew to Madrid with one of my flatmates and stayed at my aunt's house. She lived in the suburbs a bit further from Central Madrid so the taxi ride did cost over 70 euro just to get to her house. Her house was absolutely stunning with tons of rooms, a theatre, dining room, etc.

This experience was certainly different from my France and Italy one. I was living in an actual Spanish house and learning more about their culture. Jillian and I had both not eaten for several hours , but the moment we arrived, my aunt served us lunch. Spaniards tend to eat lunch 2:00-4:00 pm so we arrived at the perfect time to eat. Their largest meal during the day is lunch time and we were given a bowl of soup, a plate of ham slices, garbanzo beans with chicken slices on top, bread, hot water, and melon slices. You would finish one course and then be given another course right after. Now as some of you may know, I have decided to go vegetarian again but I was terrified of telling my aunt that I did not eat meat considering that she was letting me and my friend stay at her house and feeding us for free. After our enormous meal that I am actually still full from to this day, we participated in what Spain calls it a "siesta".

s i e s t a s: the entire country closes down its stores, office, and schools for two hours or so to "relax". 

After our siesta (we watched Love, Actually because I love the UK so much), my aunt drove us around to show us more of her town. She showed us palaces, bars, stores, supermarkets where the people of Madrid go to during their leisure time. She wanted to show us Madrid's night life and took us to a bar where couples were flamenco dancing, drinking mojitos, and just enjoying themselves in the late hours. 

My aunt was very excited that I had come to visit her. Although I do not know full details, she left El Salvador and moved with her husband to Spain and has not gone anywhere else since then. It's crazy to think of not seeing your family for so long. To be quite honest, I had no idea who she was until my mom told me about her a week before my departure. Yet, when I arrived to her house, she showered me in hugs and kisses and was more excited to see me than I expected. The past years she's spent her life looking at pictures and videos of her family back in El Salvador or in other parts of the United States (California, Texas, Atlanta). She shared her childhood stories with me. My cousin even told her during dinner that she was boring me, but she really was not. I normally do not like hearing stories from my older family relatives because they sound the same. Yet, hearing it from her was a lot different. You can see the happiness in her eyes when she talked about growing up with her cousins in a small town. You can also see how much she genuinely missed them. I feel like I do not really appreciate my family as much and being away for college I've been so out of the loop with everything. I'm too focused on school, my sorority, my friends, organizations on campus, and wanting to become the best version of myself but I really should put more effort in caring about my family. I am lucky enough to only be 2 hours away from them, but I've never even taken the time to go home one weekend and spend time with them. This is the moment when I realized that I was homesick and missed my family dearly even if it can be filled with drama and taking sides. My aunt knows better than me about how our family is, but she still missed them and now I do as well.

On our second day we had breakfast at a cute little cafe where they served us "churros con chocolate". Spanish chocolate is definitely a whole lot richer and the churros were thicker. The Spanish normally have this for breakfast or they will have coffee and dip their churros into it as well.

We made a quick stop to see Santiago Bernabeu Stadium where Real Madrid and other soccer clubs come play. I bought a couple of gifts for my family who are obsessed with the team (hi Cecilia and Carlos) and there were a bunch of soccer fanatics wearing their favorite player's jerseys. We then headed towards Central Madrid and saw The Royal Palace of Madrid and walked through their garden and church. After we headed towards Puerta del Sol. It was filled street performers, tourists, shops, and souvenirs. It sort of resembled Piccadilly Circus and Times Square. After a morning filled with sunshine, it began to rain so we headed towards a cafe and got drinks. I have become extremely addicted to coffee after months of not drinking it and so I am always wanting to try coffee from other countries that I visit. The cafe late was pretty bitter but it was very "cute" looking so I did not mind it. Later my aunt took us to Plaza Mayor, the central plaza of Madrid. There was a lot of construction going on so it was not as "nice" as I hoped for it to be, but it's understandable for them to continue renovating. My flatmate Jillian really wanted to try a paella and so with my aunt's recommendation,  ordered a paella that had rice, meat, squid, prawns. I have not really noticed the portion sizes difference from America and London but it was noticeable in Madrid. The paella came in a small pan and three of us had shared it. After our delicious meal, we walked around more and saw the vibrant colors, energetic people, and deliciously smelling foods. Our last destination was the Temple of Debod and this by far is one of the most beautiful monuments I have seen. My aunt had planned to take us when the sun was setting so it was BEAUTIFUL. The water was sparkling and the lights of the temple slowly began turning on as the sun gently moved down. Next to the temple was a fantastic view of the city of Madrid where we stopped to watch for a couple of minutes to take it all in.

The following day my aunt could not join us considering she had multiple errands to do so Jillian and I had to figure out bus transportation. I normally do not speak Spanish back at home, but here I had to and it did make it easier to get to places. The people of Madrid were extremely friendly and did not seem to notice that I was not all that fluent (and if they did notice-they were really good at hiding it). Jillian and I visited Buen Retiro Park, which is by far one of the largest parks I have visited. The park was filled with several monuments, detailed fountains, statues, shaded grassy areas and a large lake. For 5 euro we paid for a 45 minute boat ride and were able to row and relax. Walking through the park, we found  The Palacio de Cristal. The palace was made of glass so everything was transparent. When you walked inside, there was a corner of dinosaur bones hung and a couple of beer boxes scattered around. Apparently the building holds exhibitions so they were holding one but I did not get information on what exactly it was. I truly did admire the palace, but I really enjoyed the pond in front of it. It had red and orange trees planted under the water and a small waterfall that people could walk under. There were also stairs that started from under the pond and ended towards the front of the palace, which I found super neat.

We later visited the Museum of Prado that was filled with Italian artists (I guess this is was a preview of the next country I was going to visit later that week). Museums are a lot more exciting in Europe and people seem to truly admire the art. There were also several artists that would paint the same portraits and they looked identical to the real artworks. We  then went to a tapas bar and had a small meal and relaxed for an hour. After our long day, we met up with my aunt who wanted to go back to Plaza de Mayor and have us try one last Spanish meal. She ordered us a calamari sandwich with a cider. The plaza was darling during the night and my aunt shared with us that during Christmas, they fill it with tons of lights and how it is a tradition for her and her husband to come to this particular spot.

I was genuinely sad the next morning when I had to leave Madrid. I had learned so much about their culture and about my family in such a short period of time that it almost felt like I was leaving home. Through the entirety of trip, I had been texting planning with her a future trip to Madrid in July. My aunt even recommended jobs I could have here after I'm done with college. It would be really nice to return to Madrid with a couple of family members to make my aunt happy, bond a whole lot more and makeup for lost times. Madrid was a very happy place filled with so much culture and familiar faces and I cannot wait for my trip back.

xoxo,