Eurotrip: Madrid

My adventure started on the 30th of December when I headed to the Newark Airport. My best friend Kelly drove me. It was out last chance to hang out as she was leaving to uni in North Carolina and would be gone before I got back. So off we went to the airport. 

I got there two hours early, waited in line and checked in. No checked baggage for me as I had my pack and a bag of presents for my Spanish sister, Ana. So after doing the shoes off, electronics out, empty pocket dance through security I found a nice seat by my gate and hunkered down for an hour and a half wait. I started reading A Game of Thrones. Then it was time to board my flight at 19h30. After dinner on board it was sleep time!

And when I woke up it was snack and coffee time before our final decent into Madrid. I arrived around 9h45 and I couldn’t meet up with my host till some time after noon. So I started doing a bit of wandering about in the city. I took a few photos…

Then headed to Dimitri’s place. After a quick shower we headed out to lunch. After walking around a bit we headed back to his place. He had just gotten back from Brussels (his home town) that afternoon from Christmas break. So since we were both tired it was nap time.


A three hour nap was just what I needed. I got up and got my glam on for New Years eve.  Dimitri had found a secret party on couch surfing that we were going to that night. I say secret because we had to give a password to get in. The password was “Gato llama Gata”. A funny password but it turned out to be a pretty cool place. It was an old house and was really cool looking, I would have lived there.

When midnight rolled around it was time to eat the grapes! You have 12 grapes you’re supposed to eat one with each stroke of midnight. Now let me tell you, as an American I’m used to our genetically modified seedless grapes so when I bit into my first one and ran into a big crunchy seed I almost gagged. But there was no time for gagging as I had to eat another one and so on… I failed miserably at eating them. I got them all in my mouth but it took a few minutes after midnight to clear my mouth and wish everyone a happy new years. Thank goodness I wasn’t the only dork who hadn’t mastered the grapes, a few other guests were struggling to finish them. 

Over all it was a pretty kick ass New years. I got to party and eat the grapes and for one night pretend like I was Spanish.

The next day we were up a bit late… er… sleeping off the night before. Plus we were out till 5h00 so I think a sleep in was called for. When we finally made it out for breakfast it was around 14h00 and we had sandwiches and wine for breakfast. Then Dimitri was nice enough to walk me around the city and I took a few photos. 

I didn’t take as many photos as I tend to because I knew I’d have one more day in Madrid at the end of my trip to be a real tourist and take a zillion pictures. This time I was just enjoying chatting with Dimitri about all things European. 

We Started by stopping by the Atocha train station…. 

There are palm trees inside! INSIDE!!

 AND TURTLES!!!

We walked around most of the day, took a turn through Parque De El Retiro. Last time I was in Madrid I couldn’t find the Crystal Palace in the park and I gave up because I was getting rained on and I wasn’t a happy camper because I didn’t have my rain jacket, silly me. This time though Dimitri took us right too it. Turns out last time I was in the park I was spitting distance from it.

My last day I slept in, since I was catching an afternoon bus to Murcia. So I packed up my stuff then headed off to the bus station! Next stop my sister’s house!!!!

But first I had to stand a 5 hour bus ride.. And that turned out to be a lot of fun actually…. But that’s next.

Cheers,