The thought of writing about my two weeks traveling around Spain with my cousin, Allison, during Christmas break is daunting. I want to write a good entry, with details and funny stories…but there is just so much to tell that I’m going to have to write this in multiple sittings.
So a few months ago, Allison booked her plane tickets to come to Spain over Christmas. We spent the next months planning our trip around Spain (we originally wanted to do Germany…but we didn’t want the hassle of dealing with planes). After being so excited for so long about her arrival here, on Wednesday the 21st of December, her plane landed in Madrid. I had taken the bus in early that morning (school let me out of work two days early) and met up with her at the train station, where the airport shuttle had dropped her off. It was amazing to see family again. I know I’ve only been gone three months, but it’s felt a lot longer. After our “hellos,” we rolled her suitcase to my friend Juan’s house, where we would be crashing for the next two nights.
The next day we woke up and hit up the Prado Museum. Since we’re both technically “students,” we got in for free and spent the next few hours wandering through rooms and rooms of Velazquez, Goya, el Bosco, and many other artists. I had been to the Prado once, five years ago, but after my Spanish art history class in Valencia (though I must say I’ve forgotten a lot), the museum meant a lot more to me. After the Prado and introducing Allison to the joys of the Spanish “menú” for lunch (drink, 2 courses, bread, and dessert for one cheap price), we went into the big park of Madrid, Retiro. A few weeks before, I had been in Retiro and fed some ducks at one of the ponds there. It had been such a lovely time, sitting on the steps of the pond and throwing food to them, that I wanted Allison to experience it. We bought some popcorn and made our way over. Unfortunately, this time, there were a ton of little birds around who were very hungry. Every time we would throw a piece of popcorn to the ducks, the birds would either snatch it from the air before it even hit the water, or all of them would fly straight at the source of the food…us. It was terrifying. So we quickly left the ducks/birds and explored the park some more until Juan came and met up with us. The three of us rented a canoe boat and spent the next 45 minutes rowing around a lake. It was such a fun time and there was even a saxophonist close-by the lake playing Christmas songs. I said to Juan, “If I lived here, I would be here all the time. And this music is so nice!” He said, “I hate it.” Allison and I said he was a Scrooge and kept enjoying the musician’s jazz rendition of “Jingle Bells.” When he finished the song, we were eager to hear the next Christmas tune. He started to play…”Jingle Bells”…again. For the rest of the time we were in Retiro (over an hour), this man only played “Jingle Bells.” By the end, like Juan, Allison and I hated him too.
After the park, we walked through the city and saw the Christmas lights, got some food at Monteditos, went back to Juan’s to rest and watch some “Big Bang Theory” (a recent discovery for me, but now one of my favorites), got a beer at an Irish bar, then went to sleep.
Before I went to Madrid, I had bought Allison and I bus tickets back to Navalmoral (so they wouldn’t be sold out the day of). Since our bus was going to leave at 2.30, we had time to kill in the morning on Friday. I thought I would show Allison the convent in Madrid where nuns bake cookies and other sweets and sell them to you via a lazy-susan (you never see their faces). Samantha Brown had shown me this place years ago and after a failed attempt years ago with Nina and Brynn (the oven in the convent was broken that week), I finally bought some cookies from them last September and thought it was really cool. So in the morning, Allison, Juan, and I went to the convent. When we got there, I had a flashback to when I was with Brynn and Nina…there was a sign that said “We will have no more sweets until Jan 6.” Ahh! Mission Failed. We cried a little, then sucked it up and did the next best thing…went and ate churros con chocolate.
We still had a few hours left before we had to be at the bus station and didn’t really know what to do. Juan suggested that we could go see Real Madrid’s football stadium, Bernabeu. I asked him if it was far away and he said, “Maybe 30 minutes, more or less.” So we set off for the stadium, with a promised detour to the American store near there. Over an hour later of walking, we got to the store. Though a bit tired, it was all worth it when I was able to buy Stovetop stuffing and Ocean Spray canned cranberries for our Christmas dinner, candy canes, and Dr. Pepper (!). When all of that might cost in the States, $10, I spent close to the equivalent of $20…but it was money well spent. After that, we walked a bit more to see the stadium, snapped some pictures, then hopped on the metro to get back to Juan’s to grab our bags and get to the bus station. By the time we got to the station, we had 2 minutes to spare before the bus left…we had cut it close. We said bye to Juan and were on our way to Navalmoral, my home sweet home...
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