One Year Away

Joseph

I have a lot of family in Madrid, many of whom I’d never met, so this was our first stop in Spain. My father flew in from Montreal and met us there. He grew up in Madrid and most of his family is still here.
We spent the next few days exploring the city with my father as tour guide during the day and having family dinners at night.

The city center is a large area surrounding the Plaza Mayor – the central square of Madrid. I haven’t been to Madrid since childhood and I was surprised at how large the old city area is. It’s a beautiful area of colourful old buildings with small ironwork balconies on each window. The streets are narrow and many are closed to vehicles. At almost every corner there is a plaza with bars and tapas restaurants.

Speaking of restaurants, Spain now ranks as my top country visited on this trip so far in terms of the food. It’s not just the delicious dishes like cured ham (jamon), aged cheeses (queso), garlic shrimp (gambas al ahillio), potato pie (tortilla) or even Spanish sausage (chorizo). It’s the whole experience of going out to a neighborhood bar, sitting down for a drink and a couple of small tapas dishes to share with friends. My
dad, cousin Alvaro and girlfriend Julia, Penny and I happily spent the whole night hopping from one bar to another eating tapas and drinking sangria. To end the night in true Spanish fashion you can enjoy a plate of chocolate con churros (deep fried sweet dough with a cup of melted chocolate). And surprisingly for
the quality of the food and the fact that we’re in Europe the prices are very reasonable. Well, enough
about the food, I’m getting hungry just thinking of it.

We also spent a very pleasant day on the weekend up in the hills north of Madrid at the summer home of my cousin. My aunts, cousins and second cousins made it up there where we enjoyed a nice lunch and a leisurely walk in the hills. The best part though was meeting family for the first time and seeing family resemblances I had no idea existed.