Madrid

A huge highlight of this portion of our trip, and reason we decided to travel to Spain, was the opportunity for Kate to reconnect with her exchange student sister, Elena. Elena lived in Idaho with Kate's family when she was 16 as a foreign exchange student, and Kate was welcomed by Elena's family 2 years later to live with her in Madrid, Spain., as a gap year before heading to college.

Kate: The experience I had living with Elena and her family in downtown Madrid as an 18 yo was incredible. I studied Spanish at the local university in a program aimed a foreign language learners, and spent weekends dancing the night away (literally- you started your night out at midnight!). I was able to experience the 1 million+ people protests of the Iraq war in Madrid and see large worker led union protests at the university campus- both created powerful impressions on my young mind about agency, activism, and systems of power and would later inform my decision to study sociology as an undergraduate.

But I hadn't had the the chance to return to Madrid until this year- 23 years later! Elena, my host sister, now has a career as a professor in environmental sciences studying specifically invasive tree species, and also has a young family of her own. She and her partner Oscar have 2 young boys: Edu (2) and Guille (3 months) who we got to meet and play with. It was so lovely reconnecting with her for several days where she now lives in a suburb community of Madrid. We met for walks in town and playground playdates. Oscar and Elena hosted us for a beautiful meal, and the girls enjoyed playing with Edu (and his toys) and we all loved cuddling with cute little Guille! Elena and I also seemed to just pick up where we left off, enjoying our conversations in a blend of English and Spanish. It was such a wonderful reunion!

Visiting their apartment- apartments are generally tiny! But they are making do in their space, and we were impressed with how well the space was used!

Hanging out at Edu's favorite playground.

Enjoying a lovely meal with the family!

More playground time! The girls love these spider web structures!

We then spent several days in downtown Madrid in the very touristic district of Plaza Mayor. It was super fascinating for me to be back in Madrid- it seemed familiar, but also different. It had, after all, been over 2 decades since I was last there. I think also, in general, most of my memories are from the university campus, my time in the family apartment, and night life. So while some of the areas of downtown were familiar, I definitely felt like I was exploring it all over again! And our family had the normal routine of trying to find all the best playgrounds around- so that was definitely an adventure I was not on when I was 18. Moving around the city was comfortable and easy, and I could've stayed for much longer- there is so much to explore. We didn't even get to take advantage of all the amazing museums and artwork in the city- which I do remember doing as a young adult. But we enjoyed strolling around a lot.

We visited El Retiro Park on Sunday (something like central park for Madrid).

We found a really cool play structure of suspended logs that the family loved climbing around and cool metal tube slides in the Madrid River park.

We visited a really cool interactive light museum.

Nell enjoyed getting hugs from the huge beasts in Plaza Mayor and seeing the police on horseback.

We had churros and chocolate and enjoyed tapas in Mercado San Miguel.

While there, we were also able to reconnect with my host mom, Lola , and my older host sister Ana (and her 10 yo son Daniel) in the apartment I stayed in all those years ago. Ana, her husband and her two kids are temporarily living with Lola as they are in transition to a new home- it was a fun surprise to be able to see her too! Our visit was too short to be able to see Luis- my host brother- who now lives in a completely different part of the city. Walking around the apartment, memories came flooding back as I poked into each of the rooms I had spent so many hours in years before. I have such fond memories for Lola, Elena, Ana, and Luis- they provided such a loving space for me to learn and grow as a young adult. And I had forgotten just how exquisite and quite spacious the apartment was- and particularly special that it has been in their family for over 6 decades! The girls had a lovely time playing with Daniel- who was so sweet with the girls- while I caught up a bit with Ana. Lola then took us to a nearby playground, where we were able to reminisce and catch up briefly before parting ways. It was a short, but very sweet, connection! Someday I hope to come back and have more time to spend with all of them, and hopefully less than 23 years from now.

A few more highlights:

Finding an epic candy shop with floor to ceiling treats!

Riding the metro:

Walking around Plaza del Sol, and seeing the "bear kissing the tree" (as Mae called it!):

Randomly came across changing of the guard- quite the spectacle of pomp and circumstance in front of the royal palace, which apparently occurs every first Wednesday of the month! (The girls, again, were more interested in the nearby playground- which was also a random find- than watching soldiers standing at attention. There were occasional parades of horses and marching bands too).

I neglected to mention that on the drive to Madrid we were able to have impressive views of the miles and miles of olive tree plantations! This picture from the top of the Jaen Castle depicts some of that- as far as the eye can see. It was impressive to appreciate where all of that delicious olive oil we eat comes from!

While we had a great time in Spain, we were also eager to head on the next leg of our adventure to Argentina! (Spain travel map):

We have not been travelling particularly light. It has been tricky to figure out what exactly to bring. In addition to considering the kids needs (including toys, tablets, stuffies, and lots of changes of clothes), we had to consider changes of weather- highs in the 50s & 60s in Spain, lows in the 30s, with a switch to HOT and humid in Buenos Aires and similarly in Mendoza until Fall sets in in March & April, and the cooler temperatures in Patagonia where we would be. We dream of a future where we can travel with MUCH less stuff, but just couldn't figure out a way around having 2 large suitcases, 4 smaller carry-ons and each having a backpack! In hindsight, we might have had 1 large suitcase worth of stuff just shipped to Mendoza to have on our arrival....we probably would've saved money considering all the baggage fees, and been less squished into various taxis too, not to mention saving our backs a bit. I think we did pretty good for a family of 4 with two young kids, but it still seems like too much! Alas....at least the kids (sometimes) think pushing our suitcases around is fun and can be "big helpers!".