¡Viva España!: Swastek Family takes over Madrid

FAMILY FAMILY FAMILY FAMILY!!!!!!!

Two weekends ago, my mom, dad, and little brother (sorry Kev you were with us in spirit?) packed up and make the trek over the Atlantic to come visit me in Madrid! (and also fit in a quick lil weekend trip to Rome too...not a bad deal if I do say so myself.)

The theme of the week was how many touristy things can we do in 4 days? (We did quite a lot, I'm happy to say.) When they first got here, my host mom Isabel invited them to dinner so we ate a feast and my Madrid familia got to meet my Michigan family.


My two favorite women

After, my family went back to their hotel and went to bed for the night. (It was 5pm. LOL time changes)

The next day, we met up and went on a bike tour of Madrid which ended up being awesome. I've done a lot of touristy things so far on my own (TOURIST TUESDAYS HOLLA!) but when I go to the touristy places, sometimes I don't know the significance of things or I don't really know what I'm looking at. So this was a great way to actually learn about the things I've seen. We hit every big site: Templo de Debod and Parque Oeste, el Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, Mercado de San Miguel, Chueca, Retiro, Prado (just the outside), Puerta de Alcala, Plaza de Cibeles, Gran Via, Banco de Espana...the fam was really able to see it all in 4 hours, which was perfect. Strongly recommend it to anyone with parents visiting! After, we met up with Isabel and some of my friends and then all went out to lunch together. (at a buffet place recommended by Isabel who actually goes nuts when it comes to buffets. Like I'm pretty sure she got like 5 plates of food.)

The next day (Monday) I was on campus from 9am to 715 pm (hooray 4 class Mondays!) and so they went on a day trip to Toledo. After, we all met up for dinner and were able to relax!

Tuesday was a bit of a disaster day. We were supposed to go to the Teleferico (a gondola that goes over the city and ends in Casa de Campo, the largest park in Madrid) but it turns out in October it's only open on the weekends. Then we went to Casa de Campo by metro, but when we got there, there wasn't too much to do. So, I decided that to make up for that, I'd introduce the family to Chocolateria San Gines, and thus, chocolate and churros bumped up the day to a success. Then they headed off to the airport to go to Rome. (I'd be meeting them Wednesday night.)

It was such a great few days showing the family around my home and being able to show them everything that I've only been able to talk about over the phone. My favorite people in one of my favorite cities!