Spain

The last (and first) time I went to Spain was when I was 6, about to turn 7; August 2013, I think it was. My whole family went for a family reunion and to attend my cousin’s wedding. Though many in our extended family have met every year for a reunion, that was the most recent time the whole family reunited, and it hasn’t happened again since. Anyway, this year, my mom, one of my older sisters, and my younger brother and I went again. Now I could go through every detail and make this a several-thousand-word post, but I don’t have the time to write it all and you probably don’t have the time to read it all, or if you do, then you probably wouldn’t want to spend all that time reading every little detail. So, instead, I’ll just write the general idea of the trip, which includes a description and explanation of each location, and I’ll tell you some highlights, and a photo dump! Let’s begin.

The General Description of Our Travels

1. Grandparents house: Near Madrid

• So it was a 7 hour plane ride from Chicago to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. When we arrived we waited in the airport for a very long time. My feet hurt as we waited in lines and my head spinned as we ran around to the next gate. That was the worst part of the trip, and it’s over, thankfully! From there we flew to Madrid, the capital of Spain.
• At the Madrid airport our grandma picked us up and took about two hours from the capital to her and grandpa’s home. We (my grandparents, my family, and the other two families in Spain) spent a little less than a week at their awesome house and property, which has olive farm. They also have gardens and a donkey called Mr. Chico. At their house we spent a good deal going to charcas, natural pools in rivers formed by rocks.
• It was a lot of fun making the annual cousin movie with my cousins, which we presented to the parents during the velada (talent show).
• The velada was very fun. That’s where I listed all the countries in the world.
• My siblings, mom, and I had two days with just ourselves and grandparents, as the rest of the family left. That was a peaceful time.
• It was fun to do some running there, in the mountains of Spain. I’ll give a little more info on that in my future post on running, to be posted in probably a little over a month. 😉

2. One family’s house: Near the Spain-France border.

• We left our grandparents house and got a rental car in Madrid. We walked through Madrid for a lil’ bit then took off on the 6 hour drive to our cousin’s house at the foot of the Pyrenees Mountains.
• It was a long drive, though not unenjoyable. I looked out the window at the beautiful Spain scenery for a lot of it. I thought a lot. I tried to sleep a few times, I think. I also played Minecraft. I ate some food too.
• I had a vague memory of what their house looked like, but the layout was a lot different than what I remembered. It seemed as though the whole house had sunk and the outside of the property had shrunk. 😅 They also added a new living room to their house which was super snazzy.
• They are a fun family, with seven kids and a fun property, which we enjoyed playing around in.
• One day we hiked up to a high hill, which had a small steeple at the peak. It had amazing views of the Pyrenees Mountains.
• We were there for two days and left on the third day to Barcelona to the other family.

3. Another family’s house: In Barcelona

• Situated on a steep hill among many other cramped houses in the city, theirs is quite fascinating! Now, if you know me well, then you probably know that I’m enthralled with architecture. And the situation and design of their property is captivating! Their house (i.e. building) itself is kind of simple, but the way their surrounding grounds go along with the steep incline is. . . all the synonyms I’ve already used. I tried mapping it in my sketchbook to get a good idea of what it looks like,  but I stopped for two reasons. One, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to do it, and, two, the math of it made no sense! Anyway, I’m unnecessarily ranting so I’ll stop now. 😉
• Anyway, I had a fun time there hanging out with my cousins. At one point my mom and I ventured into the downtown of Barcelona, which was fun. We took a lot of time to get souvenirs for the rest of our family back in Chicago, which was stressful.
• We were there for two days, and left for the airport on the third day.
• We survived the airport process, and made it onto the plane, nervous as we neared Lisbon airport every passing second. When we got there, yeah, you guessed it: there was a very long line. Except not as long as it was last time. The strike that started when we were there the first time was still kinda continuing. Lots of chaos and confusing things. . . until we made it onto the airplane, finally. We had a decent ride back home. We made it through regular O’Hare Airport procedures, and my toddler sister and dad were there to greet us and take us home.

The end. 🙂 Just kidding! Photo dump time. 😎

Photo Dump

If I’m being honest, I wish I’d have taken a lot more photos, but I forgot a bunch of times. I’m going to see if I can convince my brother to put some videos of Spain on his YouTube channel. . . But what a blessing this trip was! I am very grateful.

Now, what were some things you all did for vacation? I’d love to hear about it!

With God’s help,

Daniel L. Amador

CREDIT TO DANIEL L. AMADOR FOR ALL PHOTOS IN THIS BLOG POST.