The Family Arrives in Madrid!!

Sunday marked the big day: the arrival of my family! After a short night’s sleep, I woke up bright and early to meet my parents and sister at Madrid’s international airport. The timing was great. I waited at the “lounge” doorway they exited through. I snagged a spot front and center so they could not miss me. In fact my friend Jaclyn from high school had her parents visiting her too! Except she did not come to the airport. Her mom walked through the door and says, “Julianne!” Not paying attention, I looked up in surprise to see Mrs. Gerson. She told me Jaclyn wasn’t meeting up with them at the airport and proceeded on to her limo driver. After seeing a few happy reunions (which made me tear up), I finally was reunited with my own family. I made them a sign that said “iMom, Dad, and Laura, bienvenido a Madrid! Which means welcome to Madrid in Spanish. Instead of taking an expensive taxi ride to their hotel, I introduced my family to the Metro System here in Madrid. They commented on how clean it was especially compared to NYC subways. Once they were settled in the hotel, we headed right to the market, “El Rastro”. This place was mobbed with people, most likely because we did not go first thing in the morning when you probably should go because there would have been less people.

El rastro

 I didn’t even get close to any booths/tables to see merchandise nor did I feel comfortable going into my purse for money. I’ll have to go another time first thing in the morning to even see what’s really good and not good! After we had enough of the markets, I escorted my family to Plaza Mayor to get a glimpse at a cool site but a huge piece of history. The plaza was setting up the Christmas market which looked awesome. I’ll have to go check it out now since it just opened a few days ago! Nap time rolled around and my family was ready to crash after being on the move for almost 24 straight hours. I went back to my senora’s house to do homework. Eventually it was dinner time, so we went to this Italian chain called Gino’s which was PHENOMENAL. I had never been there before and would really like to go back! I had Rigatoni Alfredo. But the funniest part is that I was the only one with the English menu and did not realize it until my mom and Laura kept asking questions about certain plates. I finally said to them, “Why are you asking so many questions? The menu is in English”. It’s pretty ironic that I, the only Spanish speaker, was handed the English menu while the rest got the Spanish menu.  The food was great and everyone was happy with their meals including the dessert. This was SUCH a delicious way to end the first night spending time with my family in Spain.