Christmas Travels: Part II

Hello Everyone!

As if traveling to Dublin, Edinburgh, London, and Paris wasn’t enough, the past two weeks my dad, brother, and I visited Madrid, Segovia, León, Córdoba, Sevilla, and Málaga.

My family arrived in Madrid on December 29. We saw the Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, and a few other neighborhoods before having a delicious dinner and grabbing dessert at the famous churros place, San Ginés.

Churros and Chocolate at Madrid’s famous San Ginés

We had a day trip to Segovia on December 30 and saw the Cathedral, Álcazar, and aqueduct. For lunch we went to a lovely little Spanish restaurant and spent two hours eating in the sunny little plaza. It was hard to believe it was the middle of winter!

For New Year’s Eve we were back in Madrid. Thousands of people gather in Puerta del Sol to welcome the New Year. The tradition is to eat a grape for each of the 12 clock dings. Not finishing the grapes is a sign of bad luck for the New Year.

On New Year’s day we went to León and my family got to meet my host family. My host mother, Carolina, outdid herself with all the delicious Spanish snacks and Christmas candies. I practically ate my weight in turrón. (A traditional Christmas candy in Spain.)

My dad and brother met my host parents!

For the last part of our trip we went to southern Spain. We went to Córdoba and saw La Mezquita and the various Roman ruins.

January 4th we arrived in Sevilla. We visited la Giralda as well as the Plaza de España. On January 5th we got to see the parade celebrating the eve of Los Reyes. A ton of candy is thrown to the children along the parade route. The streets become covered in a very sticky residue of crushed candy. It was pretty neat to see, even if I had to clean the soles of my shoes.

The last stop of my long journey was Málaga. We stayed at a hotel right on the beach and ate plenty of delicious, fresh seafood. We went to the Picasso Museum, the Alcazaba (a medieval palace whose foundation was made by the Phoenicians), and a great flamenco show. My favorite part though was sitting on the nearly-deserted beach and relaxing after such a busy trip.

Relaxing at the beach in Málaga was a perfect way to end the trip

Now I’ve had a lot of fun, but finals are fast approaching. I better hit the books!

Best,
Ali

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 10th, 2016 at 11:33 am and is filed under Leon, Spain, Spanish, Spanish Major, Study Abroad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.