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It was surprising how easy it was to slip back on my tourist hat after almost five months of living in Madrid. While showing my family around Madrid, I was back to taking photos (mainly family selfies), dipping in and out of tourist shops and visiting all the classic tourist attractions in one day (like a pro.)

But it was nice to fall in love with Madrid all over again, and hopefully my family could see why I did. While not as much of a “tourist” city with multiple monuments or a hundred museums to visit, Madrid still makes itself a city well-worth visiting. It’s a happening, fun, New York-style kind of place. It even has a park that I like to relate to Central Park. Called Retiro Park, this place full of fountains, street entertainers, gardens and crystal palaces could keep you walking for days. My family and I had a casual lunch in the park, visiting the Crystal Palace, a rose garden and the famous statue of the Fallen Angel.

Hanging out in Retiro Park!

Crystal Palace

I also took my family to El Tigre, of course—the restaurant I raved about in the very beginning of my blog posts (in “It’s the Little Things” section). One drink order and you’ve got plates full of complimentary tapas coming right up! My family was amazed by the amount of food and miserably stuffed afterwards. We had pinxos, paella, tortilla, chicken and more that I’m probably not thinking of…

We dedicated a lot of time to simply walking the streets of Madrid, especially the main shopping street, Fuencarral, since the Rebajas (sales) have started. We checked out the central plaza of Madrid, El Sol, and also Plaza Mayor where we enjoyed some churros with chocolate. My family was very lucky that day because they got to see the fat Spiderman who hangs out at Plaza Mayor. This chubby man in a Spiderman suit is practically famous now for his fun-and-games personality with passerbyers and obviously ridiculous costume. Why he does it? No one knows. But he certainly brings some life to the plaza. He of course spotted us foreigners out and even knew of Arkansas, spitting out some random facts about Bill Clinton and its capitol, Little Rock.

El Sol at night, in front of the Christmas tree!

That day we stumbled upon the Madrid palace, where the King and Queen stay when in in the city. We also visited the Royal cathedral next door. Pretty cool I have to say.

My family loved the food markets, as do I! We walked through the Mercado de San Miguel, where my mom bought some paella spices. And one night we ate dinner on the third floor of the Mercado de San Anton. This market is really cool because it has a supermarket on the bottom floor, a fresh produce market on the 1st floor, a wine bar and tapas dining on the 2nd floor and a nicer restaraunt on the 3rd with an outdoor bar. On the 2nd floor, my mom made some nice investments in olive oil and chocolates. The restaraunt's food was no dissapointment! And the view of the market beneath us provided a fun, trendy setting.

On our last night in Madrid, we switched gears and had dinner at Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world that I’ve also mentioned earlier in my blog. Very good as expected!

And the next day, just like that, we found ourselves putting bags in a taxi and hugging goodbye. Leaving my family was just as hard as the last time, but I know six months is going to fly by! I could not have asked for a better two week Christmas break traveling around Europe with my family, and I think I can speak for them and say they would agree 100 percent!

As for me, on to the next…

#travel