Parents Visiting!

This past week (December 3^rd-6^th) my parents came to visit and then we all went to Ireland from December 6^th-10^th  and then they had a flight home on the 11th. Ever since I knew they were coming I always thought about that as being the very end of my time here (I leave on December 22^nd) so when the time finally came for then to visit it was so weird. It came up so quickly.

I skipped my Monday classes to meet them at the airport and I found them really easily. Transportation and airports seem easier to me here in Europe than in the U.S. I don’t know why. We got them to their hotel easily and I figured they would want to rest all day (due to jet-lag and Madrid is 7 hours ahead of Chicago time) but they surprisingly wanted to go out.

We got coffee at this cute local place by the hotel and then I showed them Parque de Oeste (a park by my house), Temple de Debod (the Egyptian Temple that is in Parque de Oeste, don’t ask me why or how it got there) and finally my house. Unfortunately my host parents weren’t home (one of their daughters had surgery so they went to visit her and help take care of her kids) so they didn’t get to meet them.             

After that I took them to the Prado, the major art museum in Madrid. They really liked it but I could tell they were fading fast. My mom was basically falling asleep in the museum. I was also pretty tired because I got up 2 hours before I usually do and I couldn’t really sleep the night before because I was afraid I would wake up late and not get on the metro to pick up my parents at the airport. We decided to all go home and take a nap and then reconvene later for dinner. 

Me and Madre at the Prado

Madre and Padre at the Prado

The next day I let my parents explore Madrid on their own because I had to go to school. They went to the Palace and loved it, they also went to Sol, Plaza Mayor and Mercado de San Miguel.

I met them at their hotel around 6:30 because we were going to El Botin, the oldest restaurant in the world. We had 8 pm reservations (the earliest you can do there, people eat a lot later in Madrid/Europe in general) and we decided to walk which was kind of a mistake. I had never been there before and I had mapquested the directions from the Sol metro stop, not from my parents hotel, which was probably closer to Botin than Sol.  My parents had also been walking around all day so they were tired. It took a little longer than expected to get there but we made it at about 8:05 which ended up being fine and we got right in.

The Padres and I at Botin

Sangria Pitcher 

More Padre Pics

My parents both ordered the Filet Mignon but I got garlic shrimp. We also got bread and butter and sangria. It was a really good meal however the restaurant itself was the best part of the experience. It is just so cute and old and small too. They had a bunch of really old furniture and it was just quaint. I liked it alot. We also met some Irish guys in there that gave us a bunch of suggestions for things to do in Ireland. They were really funny too so that made the dinner nice too.

My meal, Garlic Shrimp

Dessert, Pastel de Botin, a cake with pudding filling and meringue frosting

I went to school as usual again the next day and my parents went to Segovia, the part of Spain that has the Roman aquaducts that are over 2000 years old. I went to Segovia at the beginning of the semester as a SLU day trip and I really liked it. Its a very small, Spain town with cobblestone streets and such so its kind of like going back in time. My parents really liked it to and it gave them something to do for a day so that was good too. 

The last day we were in Madrid before Ireland was a thursday. I didn't have school because it was a Spainish holiday so we decided to explore some more museums. Also, on spanish holidays most museums are free so it was the perfect day to go. My mom and I wanted to see the modern art museum, The Reina Sofia, which house Guernica by Picasso, along with alot more of Picasso's works, Dali, Miro, ect. Its really a great museum, Madrid has sooo many priceless works of art its really unbelievable. 

Anyways, we decided to divide and conquer because Padre wanted to go the naval museum and we had to catch a flight that night so didn't have a ton of time. Id been to the Reina Sofia before but I didn't explore it that extensively, so it was nice to go back. Padre also loved the Naval Museum so I think we made the right choice to split up. He probably would have hated the Reina Sofia minus the Picassos. 

After the museums we got lunch and then I wanted to show them Retiro Park. I also hadn't seen it since the beginning of the semester and was excited to see what it would look like in the fall with all the leaves changed. It was beautfiul as usual. Going back to all these places I haven't been to for a while or since the beginning of the semster made me get really nostalgic about leaving Madrid. I'm really going to miss it. 

Me and Padre at Retiro Park