Tea Time Travels

What better way to start 2023 than with good food, better friends, tapas and wine in a rich and cultural Spanish setting? We rang in the New Year in Madrid and had the most wonderful time doing it.

We caught a very early flight out of London with just a few hours of sleep as we were celebrating the last night in London with my brother. After meeting up with our friends at our Airbnb, we took off to explore the city.

What better way to see a new city than by eating?! We explored several different markets, and had some traditional Spanish cuisine, my favorite being a chorizo tortilla. We continued to wander the colourful streets and admired the hand painted murals featured on the walls.

Of course we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to try even more food, so stopped at a bustling restaurant to try some more delicious food. We were lucky enough to be traveling with friends who are fluent in Spanish, which made the ordering process much easier. When the dishes came out I dug in without even questioning what it was. Come to find out one of them was cow stomach, and I think I would have preferred to be blissfully ignorant to what I was eating. But the flavours were delicious. When in Madrid, right?!

We strolled a few blocks to the Plaza Major, where there were still Christmas markets and decorations, along with vendors trying to sell funky hats for the New Year’s celebration. The streets were buzzing with energy as people were preparing to celebrate that night.

Next, we wandered to the Royal Palace of Madrid, which we were lucky enough to see as the sun was setting. The castle’s exterior was vast and impressive, while the gardens that sat directly below were quaint and serene.

After a day filled with walking, sightseeing and food… It was time for more food. We got ready and headed to the restaurant where we had our New Year’s reservation. It was a Mexican restaurant that offered a four course meal with an all inclusive bar and a welcome margarita.

The food was amazing… nachos, quesadillas, ribeye steak, and a passion fruit desert. And all the bottles of wine of course! When midnight came around, the staff passed out glasses of champagne and 12 grapes. During the countdown it is considered good luck to eat these over the last 12 seconds. I nearly choked as I was laughing doing it, so decided I would risk my luck and eat them within the first 12 minutes instead of 12 seconds.

Waking up after too few hours of sleep, we headed out to explore more of the city. We decided to rent bikes and explore Parque de el Retiro. This was a wonderful way to see some beautiful gardens, fountains, and an exhibit called the El Palacio de Cristal.

The sun was shining, the crisp air was refreshing on our bikes, and there were hundreds of people laughing as they enjoyed the first day of 2023. We pulled over to have a picnic with a charcuterie board in the park. After a stomachs were full, it was time to continue our Spanish adventure with a flamenco show.

The dresses, the music, the singing, the guitar. It was truly magical. These four individuals were insanely talented, and encapsulated Spain’s heart and soul in their performance. I have never seen a guitar players fingers move so fast but sound so smooth at the same time. You could feel how much life the dancers put into it based on the sweat that was flying off their skin as they danced. It was a wonderfully authentic experience.

Our last day, we went to another market for brunch, and sadly had to drop our friends off at the train station. This left my husband and I to fend for ourselves in Spanish until our flight at 9PM. Luckily, my husband is on a 180 day streak of Duolingo. However, when we tried to order a churro and ended up with a large cup of melted chocolate, we figured some of the things might be a little lost in translation.

The rest of the day we spent exploring some other parts of the city we hadn’t seen yet. We saw some beautiful architecture, browsed some boutiques, had a lovely dinner at a Spanish restaurant, and finally made our way to the airport.

Madrid was the perfect place to bring in a year filled with even more travel and adventure.