Davis clan hits Europe!

Ok so I admit it, I am a little late on my blogging. My family came and joined me for a great week in Madrid, midterms hit, and then I took off to Italy for my ten day Spring Break and a milestone birthday, 21! Needless to say I have been very busy since the middle of March.
My whole family arrived in Madrid March 12th for the week of Charlotte Latin's Spring Break. I was so excited I could hardly wait to tackle them upon seeing them walk through the sliding glass doors standing between us. I finally saw everyone after two months of being away, definitely the longest I have ever gone without seeing anyone in my family! After saying our hellos everyone got to experience the adventure of lugging suitcases through the airport and onto the metro while battling with all the other Madrid people. We made it through and arrived at the apartment my parents had rented for the week. I was so excited to have some down time with my family and therefore decided to basically move into the apartment for the week. The
apartment was wonderful, spacious, clean, and had a full kitchen which allowed us to prepare our "bucket meals" each night. It was a perfect place and I was so excited about the upcoming week. Needless to say everyone crashed within an hour of arriving to the apartment so I decided to cook one of the main things I live off of, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and spinach tossed in olive oil over pasta and impressed the family with my new found domestic abilities. Over dinner I enjoyed my first legal glass of wine with my parents and loved finally getting a break from the hectic lifestyle of Madrid. Friday night was also the ACC tournament quarterfinals so we all gathered around my computer to watch Duke and Virginia play. We showed true dedication to college basketball many times throughout the week. Everyone was still hungover from the flight and called it an early night so we could wake up for a big day in the city.

Saturday I decided to show my family the historical parts of Madrid that make me love the city so much. We took the metro to the Sol stop, a.k.a. the Times Square of Madrid, and then walked towards the Palace. I showed them inside my favorite place in Madrid, Cathedral Almudena, so they could witness the beauty and peace I love about the Cathedral. That day there was a choir of young kids participating in the church service that sang some of the most beautiful songs and created the atmosphere in the Cathedral that I have come to love so much. After leaving the Cathedral we walked to the Palace and then on to Plaza Mayor.
After seeing the major sites of historic Madrid we rode the metro to the Irish Pub dad had staked out on Google Map, the famous James Joyce pub. We had a wonderful lunch and then walked around Parque Retiro which was right across the street. It was a beautiful day and Vic got to witness all of the musicians in the park which he thought were not so great. After burning off a little bit of our lunch I introduced the family to the phenomenon known as Chocolate con Churros or fried dough to dip in a pudding like hot chocolate. I think it was a hit with everyone and is definitely an essential part of experiencing Spain. We walked back towards the apartment, which was a great location close to the park, and stopped to get out "bucket" to prepare dinner in front of the Duke Miami game in the ACC tournament semifinals.

Sunday morning we woke up early for museum day! We headed over to Museo Sorolla, a recommendation from a lady at our church which turned out to be a hit. The Museum is a gallery of Joaquin Sorolla's work on display in his house. The house was a beautiful yellow stucco surrounded by peaceful gardens and fountains that made it seem like it was far outside the city boundaries. I loved finally seeing some Impressionistic work since the museums I have art class in cover mostly Goya, El Greco, and Velazquez work and fail to cover any beautiful nature-themed paintings like those of Sorolla. After walking through Sorolla's house we ended up having lunch at...SURPRISE the James Joyce Pub. I won't complain though because it is the closest thing to American food I have had since I have been in Madrid. Luckily we ate a big lunch so we could fuel up for the long journey through the Prado Museum. The Prado museum is huge with three floors of paintings from artists like Goya, Velazquez, and Rubens. The museum also had a temporary exhibition with the works of Rembrandt which dad was happy to show us. I think out of all of us Vic probably had the best time...ok so I am kidding, but we all got our culture in for the semester. We decided to walk back to the apartment from the Prado cutting through the Park since it was such a beautiful day. On our way back we ran into a guy at the exit who had clearly had his share of alcohol for the day and delivered a slurred threat to fight dad later on that night. Needless to say that little run-in provided our entertainment for the rest of the night. We went to the store for our normal 32 euro bucket and headed home to recover from our academic day while watching the ACC tournament championship between Duke and Georgia Tech. Lucky me still had midterms to study for so I settled down on the couch in my pajamas to prepare for my midterms in the upcoming week.

I woke up Monday and headed off to take two of my midterms while my family headed to Toledo, a city about an hour outside Madrid, for a little day excursion while I was in school. Tuesday after I returned from school we went to lunch at a place called Hemispheres where we fell in love with their chicken fajitas and salads. We then continued to attempt to culture ourselves by heading to the Museo Thyssen that was temporarily displaying the works of Monet along with the permanent gallery that included works from artists like Van Gough and Picasso, among others. It took us a long time to navigate the entire museum and by the time we were done we were ready to go home and relax again. We decided that culturing ourselves is a tiresome duty! We continued our schedule of picking up a bucket of food from the grocery store and cooking a makeshift meal and then relaxing on the couches. The rest of the family had to rest up for Wednesday because they had another day excursion to Segovia, a beautiful old town tucked away in the mountains about 45 minutes outside Madrid.

Thursday after I finished off my final two exams I met my family back at their apartment for lunch at Hemispheres again, can you tell we weren't really feeling the Spanish food? I then took my family down to the church San Antonio de la Florida, a small beautiful church that holds a chapel with ceilings painted by Goya and the grave of Goya as well. It is an intimate little church filled with beautiful pictures on the ceilings and walls so I knew it would be a hit with the family. After spending a little bit of time in the church we walked down towards the Rio Manzanares to see some pretty views of the Palace and Cathedral from the river and then continued up a hill to Templo de Debod, an old Egyptian temple with great views of the city. We spent some time walking around and enjoying the views and the public displays of affection around the park that I have come to accept as normal. We returned home to the apartment to rest up before attempting to follow the Spanish schedule and try a real Spanish meal with tapas. We headed out to dinner around 9, still early for many Spanish people, and ended up at a place called Bar Restaurant in which we were dragged in by a waiter selling his restaurant hardcore outside. He turned out to be a highlight of our trip as he tried his hardest to speak English (even drawing pictures at some points) and sell as much of his food as he could. Needless to say we ate well that night as we all split appetizer dishes (tapas) including croquetas, salad, pizza, calamare, fried eggplant, and bread. It was definitely our favorite meal and was even better because of our entertaining waiter who was the sweetest man I think Madrid has to offer. We stuffed ourselves full and then returned home to sleep soundly on a full stomach!

The next morning we woke up to a foggy and rainy day and decided that we were going to lay around and relax the day away without making any secure plans. It was amazing to do nothing with my family for a day, one thing I will never take for granted again. I showed my family my apartment and we picked up small things for lunch because we were planning on going back to our favorite new restaurant for round 2! We hung out until dinner time and headed back to Bar Restaurant for another meal with great food and our favorite waiter, Tomas. We ate very well again and returned home just in time to gather around my computer to watch the Wofford Wisconsin game in the NCAA tournament. Wofford's basketball team qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time in history so it was something I could NOT miss. It was so much fun to watch my own team in a big time sporting event for the first time and experience a little piece of home again. Wofford put up a great fight and ended up only losing by 5 to the 4th seed Wisconsin. After the game we went to bed to prepare for the trip back to the airport the next day.

I was dreading my family leaving but I also knew that the quicker they left, the quicker I would see them again back in Charlotte. It was such a fun week getting to introduce them to a city I had come to know as home and a new culture that none of them had ever experienced before. It is always fun to get to be a tourist in your own city too because a lot of the time I am so busy in my routine that I forget to stop and get to know my own city. I had the best week ever and it was a great start to the next couple of weeks, including my wonderful Spring Break trip to Italy!