First of all I feel like I've just stepped out of the dark ages. No, this has nothing to do with being in Pamplona, but all to do with starting a blog!! Many of you know I am a "phantom" on facebook and otherwise a complete luddite with my non-smart phone....but here I am blogging. Well, if I am going to do this, I better not be boring.
We are on our fourth official day in Spain, not including our travel day. But I will start at the beginning...
Getting here was surprisingly easy with three small children. After being dropped off at Logan by my Dad, we checked in with no lines at all and then went to the Air France club for some victuals and the first glass of wine of the trip. The kids loved all the free food and the 3 hours of waiting for the flight went by quickly. On the plane, the kids were great...no fussing at all thanks to modern technology (DVD players). Jordan and Ella sat in business class and Celia, Caleb and I were in steerage. (I honestly don't know how anyone mildly overweight would fit in any of these seats...once the person in front of me reclined I barely had 4 inches to spare and anything stored under the seat in front of me may have well have been buried in the lost city of Atlantis). After dinner - I was surprised to be fed on the plane at all - Caleb was very cute and put himself into his pajamas. Shortly thereafter the cabin went dusky and Kung Fu panda came on the in-flight entertainment. Nothing like silent japanese animation to put your kids right to sleep. Caleb was out across my lap and Celia took up the other two seats...while I think Ella and Jordan were having grapes peeled for them in biz class. Whatever, I hold no grudges. J is 6 foot 3, I know. But suffice it to say, I got no sleep. We woke the kids at 1 am Boston time to change planes in Frankfurt and they rallied beautifully.
Frankfurt, I am sure, has some lovely new parts to it's airport, but we saw none of them. We had only an hour to get to our new gate, and it was at least a mile a way. We sprinted and made it on time. There we boarded with a young pilgrimage group from South Africa who were very nice. I also met a New Yorker who was on his way to Ibiza for a few weeks vacation for the second year in a row. Instead of boarding the plane at the gate, we boarded a bus and for a while I thought we were being driven to Madrid given how far we went. (I think the driver also got his license by watching that awful film where Keanu Reeves drives a bus like a lunatic. It was moderately scary at a few moments.) We finally got onto our second leg of the trip...and I got my just desserts. Sitting with Celia in buziness class on a rickety old plane. Seriously, not too bad. The flight from Frankfort to Madrid had the most beautiful views of the Alps, and then the Pyrenees. We started to get very excited.
Once we landed in Spain, everything came together smoothly. We picked up our bags, found the bus to the long term lot where our Spaniards left their van for us, and then navigated to our hotel in Madrid were we planned to rest up and kick our jet lag.
By now I guess you could say that we were tired - from the late night packing, the all-nighter on the plane, and coming down off the adrenaline of our big trip. I was probably quite a fright. But it gets worse. Not more than 30 minutes at our hotel, I went looking for Caleb who walked outside to an enclosed patio and BOOM I walked right into a glass window HARD. The waitress screamed a little and out of embarassment I started laughing until the looks of horror faced me as blood started trickling down my face. Then I started crying, albeit briefly. The staff took very good care of my minor head wound (a gash above my left eyebrow) and we all went up for a nap. Afterward, the kids and Jordan had a quick swim in the hotel pool, we crashed for about 2-3 hours of sleep, then found a bite to eat, and then all slept for 13 more hours in the same room! It was amazing. We woke up late the next morning, got dressed and went downtown to see Madrid.
The Metro in Madrid is incredible. So clean, so frequent (we never had to wait). We first got out downtown in a lovely pedestrian mall with so many shops and markets (lots of hanging meats and cheeses on display) and walked several blocks to the Plaza Mayor which was expansive but somewhat arid - no trees or greenery or fountains at all. Still, the buildings of the plaza structurally were beautiful. Just on the otherside of the Plaza was a market that was spectacular. All glass enclosed with gourmet food stalls of wide varieties - fish, fruits, seafood, bread and pastries, and ice cream. We got juices there and tapas. The fish in particular was outstanding. From there, we walked (I should mention we did have a stroller with us for the tired little ones) to see the Palace which was quite lovely. We sat on the steps of a cathedral facing the entrance for a while and listened to some classical violin. From there, we went to the lating quarter for lunch and found the coolest bar/cafe to eat lunch. The music was incredible, lots of artsy folks were hanging out at the bar, and the food was excellent - tapas and amazing salads that Jordan is still fantasizing about. The kids were still doing remarkably well (no major meltdowns).
From there we went back to the hotel for another swim and a siesta. At the hotel pool we met some girls on vacation with their family from Barcelona. Their English was pretty good and my spanish decent enough for us to have a chat....but remarkably the universal language of music was a common denominator. They mentioned Justin Bieber as soon as they heard we were from the US. After swimming and chilling out for a while, we ventured back out into Madrid for dinner which turned into more of an adventure than a meal. We were guided to a funky neighborhood called Lavapies which was supposed to be very ethnic and hip. It certainly was very ethnic, with many senegalese and robed muslims of other ethnicities all speaking spanish around us. It was not touristy at all and felt very authentically urban and diverse as though we were in parts of NYC. We stumbled across another hip/artsy cafe for some mediterranean appetizers, and then ambled back up to the more popular parts of Madrid's city center. It wasn't until about 10 pm that we crossed back through the Plaza Mayor, and this time it felt quite alive with people dining and walking about, and street vendors entertaining and selling toys to the kids. We got the kids a light up toy that you fling in the air like a sling shot and it twirls back down. Within minutes, Ella's was stuck on a balcony and Caleb had broken his...but thankfully they still managed to keep themselves together and enjoy the remaining one (and a half). I was amazed to see my kids awake at 11 pm (Spain time) and having a great time. We took the Metro home and met an Italian couple who had been on the same Metro as us earlier in the day. They were lovely and interesting to chat with. By midnight, we'd completed our first full day in Madrid.
The next day we planned to depart for Pamplona, but we still wanted to head into Madrid in the morning for a little more exploration. We visited the Parque Retiro - a huge park in downtown Madrid. It was hot and we got no futher than the playground at the entrance where we stayed for an hour or so. (This was actualizing my thought that going to a foreign country with kids was really just spending a lot of money and getting jet lag to be in a playground in some other country...but the day before had already quelled that concern.) After lunch we headed out of Madrid by about 3 pm.
The kids' initial take on being in Europe was that it was not too different from home. There was a subway, supermarkets, cars we recognize (toyota, VW, BMW) but also cars we don't (peugeot, renault, fiat). Most of the people look like we do, and there is a lot of diversity like at home. The food is a little different, but you can still get hot dogs and grilled chicken. The big observation they had was that SO many people smoke. They were astounded since they know it's so bad for you. The street were covered in cigarette butts. So we talked about that plenty. They also really started to hear Spanish and ask questions about what certain words mean. I am sure they are abosrbing more and more each day (vocabuarly, that is, and hopefully not second hand smoke).
I think I will sign off for now and post more about the trip to Pamplona and our first days here later (just at hint at what's to come: it's amazing! we are in the heart of the old city on the street where both the pilgrims walk on their way to Santiago de Compostela and also where the bulls run in the festival of san fermin...it's incredible...)
With love,
Evonne
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