Family Comes to Visit!

I had been counting down the days till my family finally arrived in Madrid! Thursday (the day they flew in), I could barely pay attention in class. The second class was over, I rushed to the Plaza where Mom, Dad and Joey were waiting for me. They weren't in Spain for more than a couple hours, when they had to meet my host family. My host family invited my family over for lunch. I was extremely nervous, considering the Frost family only speaks English and the Navarro family only speaks Spanish. I would have to translate the entire meal....Luckily, the grandma from my host family came to lunch, and her English is fairly good.

 Also, I was impressed at how well Joey spoke to everyone in Spanish. He has taken a few classes in high school, and only one at Mississippi State and he was doing just fine! We had paella for lunch (first real time I had had it since the Barcelona incident...don't worry! I kept it down this time!) and it was delicious. Mom even liked it, and she HATES seafood.

Lunch went ten times better than I had expected! The families got a long great, and surprisingly there wasn't much lost in translation! It went so well, that Grandma Navarro invited us to her house in the mountains in Guadalajara for lunch that Saturday.

After lunch, my parents gave me gifts from America. The best gifts they could possibly bring. CANDY! I was almost as excited for the candy as I was to see my parents... (I said almost!). Needless to say, a week later, its almost all gone!

That night, we took it easy and had dinner near the plaza. The parents were tired from the trip and needed to get some rest for the road trip the next day.

Friday, we woke up fairly early and started our road trip. First, we went to a city called Ávila. It has one of the most well preserved medieval walls surrounding the city. The city was nice, but the main attraction was definitely the wall.

After Ávila, we went to Segovia. I had already been to Segovia, but since it was such a beautiful city, I had to take my parents back. I have already written a blog about this city, so I just added some pictures from our visit.

Roman aqueduct bringing water into Segovia

King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella's Castle

That night, we returned to the hotel for a few minutes to rest before dinner. On our way to dinner, our rental car started to make some really unsettling noises. Dad called the rental places, which happened to be at the airport, and asked if we should bring the car to them or if they could come get it. Unfortunately, they said we had to bring the car to them. I was not happy about this, because I worry about everything, and our car was not sounding good. It is about a 25 minute drive from our hotel to the airport...and the poor rental couldn't even make it that far. We broke down on the side of the M-14 (a very busy highway in Madrid) less than a mile from the airport. I'm not going to go into all the details, but it took over 4 hours from start to finish to get a new car. A majority of that time was spent on the side of the road. Never a dull moment in the Frost family!

Saturday we went to Grandma Navarro's house in the Guadalajara. It was about an hour drive, but it was beautiful. It was in the mountains and we passed through a lot of small villages. Her house was wonderful! It was literally on top of the mountain, and the view from her backyard was stunning. Her son and his girlfriend was there and his English was very good as well. They announced that they were getting engaged at lunch! They really made us feel like a part of their family.

After we left their house, we had a relaxing evening in Alcalá. I took them to their first tapas bar, and they absolutely loved it!

Sunday morning we turned in our rental car and checked into our hotel in Madrid. The rest of Sunday we spent exploring Madrid and shopping in Plaza del Sol. It was nice to not have to rush around to places all day.

We went back to the hotel mid afternoon and rested for the bullfight. If you want to hear about the bullfight, I have written a separate blog about it. 

Bullfight Blog

Monday was the last day my parents were in Madrid (on Tuesday they went to Paris...without me!). We visited Plaza Mayor and El Mercado de San Miguel.

On the Plaza Mayor

The market was wonderful, it had fruits, nuts, olives, meats and anything else you could imagine. (Don't worry, I didn't eat any fruit at this market!). 

Mercado de San Miguel

 

 

I did however have some of the best olives I have ever eaten, and I am not a huge olive fan. Also, I had octopus which was actually pretty good!

After the market, we went on a tour of El Palacio Real de Madrid. I have been to the outside of it multiple times but never inside. It was very impressive! I have been to a few other castles in Spain, but this was the first Palace. It was breathtaking. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take pictures inside.

El Palacio Real de Madrid

After the palace, we did some shopping on one of the main streets in Madrid, Gran Via. The street was lined with tall beautiful buildings. All of my favorite clothing stores were on this street as well! (Zara, Sfera, H&M, Bershka...I am gonna miss the shopping!)

Gran Via

We had dinner at a sidewalk cafe near our hotel.

More paella.

Then they walked me to the train station and I headed back to Alcalá. (Which I have a very interesting story about that train ride, message me if you would like to hear about it).

Farewell at Atoche RENFE

All in all it was a wonderful trip. We got to see some beautiful attractions, without having an extremely touristy weekend. It was also excellent getting to show my parents all I have learned in the past two months (at times it was frustrating having everyone depend on me for what to order at a restaurant). Having them here though was almost a tease, they were gone as soon as they came. And I have to wait two more weeks to see them again! Countdown is at 8 days now! Can't wait to get home to America!