Half way over???

Hola!!! I just finished crying because I just realized my time in Spain is HALF WAY OVER. I’m trying to be positive here and think, golly gee, I still have two months left in this beautiful country! That being said, I can’t stop the ticking clock in my head that is counting down my time left here. *sobbing*. HOWEVER, this blog post isn’t to whine about how much I don’t want to leave Spain, rather it is to share with you all the most amazing week I had with my two favorite people who just so happen to be my parents! They arrived here on October 15 and just left yesterday (October 21), *sobbing again* so they were basically here for exactly a week. If you know my dad, you won’t be shocked to know that he literally had a folder containing a list of all the restaurants, foods, places and things he wanted to try along with some other information he had researched. Shocked? Me either.

First on our list of things to do was of course food related. We had signed up to do a tapas tour around Madrid and let me just tell you now, I have never had so much fun in my life. We all met up at a nearby plaza near Sol and were introduced to our tour guide Enrique. There was me and my parents, a young couple from Texas, three older gentlemen from England, and two couples from Atlanta and Chicago (wooo shoutout to my favorite city in the US!). Quick explanation of how this tour worked; we made our way to the restaurants and upon arrival Enrique would order a bunch of tapas that the particular restaurant is known for. We would then eat the tapas, sip on our vino, and relax until we had to move onto the next restaurant. Food, wine, and good company? What else could you possibly need??? In total, we went to four restaurants and ate everything from grilled squid, to flambéed bread pudding! It was a great way to try different types of Spanish tapas that I wouldn’t normally get!

We did a bunch of ~*touristy*~ things while they were here, like visit Retiro Park, shop along Gran Via, see the museums and we also ate at a couple mercados. We also went to a Real Madrid game! On Saturday, Real Madrid played Levante at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Our tickets were purchased the day before and I am not even kidding we had the highest seats possible in the whole stadium. No one was behind us because we were the last row!!! But I knew it was going to be a terrific game because one, before we had entered the stadium my mom (bless her heart) bought me a bag of gummy candies from a small vendor outside, and two, when we walked into the stadium, TAYLOR SWIFT WAS PLAYING!!!!!! If you even know me then you’ll know this is the best sign that God can possibly give me. And even though this was no special game, the stadium was insanely crowded! Spaniards really do love their futbol! It was all cool though because at this particular game, Cristiano Ronaldo was recognized and given a golden boot award for scoring the most goals in Real Madrid History!!! And we also ended up winning 3-0 so it was a very very successful game!

All in all, I had such an amazing week with my parents. Its always nice to eat something other than sandwiches and croissants!!!I just wrote a snippet of my favorite things we did together so I apologize if this post is so short! But having them here made me realize again, how lucky I am to call Spain my home! From the amazing artwork at the Prado Museum, to the amazing wine from the wine tour (We also did a wine tour but I’ll save that story for another time 😉 ), Spain will always be a place that I call home!

Hasta Luego!

P.S

I’ll be in Italia next week so be on the lookout for a fun little blog post regarding that!