Chillest Vacation during Vacation-mode ever Part II

  As I said in the other post, oversleeping and rushing to the airport is no fun. But, at least I get to see this really cute slogan on Belgium airlines.

Figure 74.1: ^_^

__________________________
  This is where the super chill part comes in. My stay in Madrid is muy relaxed.

  I was living with my friend's family. They don't live exactly in the city center, so we're kind of at the outskirts kinda. Kinda like Subang Jaya to Kuala Lumpur kind of thing. Not very touristy, very much family-suburbian kind of environment.

  That being said, most of the time is spent in the house, just chilling. This is where I borrowed their home office and turned it into a sort of resume workshop. My friend's step-dad, according to my friend, is some sort of "professional resume and cover letter reviewer", or at least of "professional-level" quality of sorts. That's basically it. 

  Well, I mean, one day was spent walking around Madrid of course. It's almost an hour bus ride to the city center, so we basically walked around the place, looking for the "local cuisine" to eat. Paella may be what Spain is famous for, but not Madrid. Madrid is famous for this dish called "cocido". After many hours, we finally found a place that serves "genuine" cocido and my goodness, I can see why it's not a popular dish globally. Imagine your typical Newfoundlander/Scandinavian dish, where it's just meat and potatoes. Aight? So, due to the harsh weather, they are traditionally cured with salt, so it the dish are more like meat and potatoes and salt. Now, cocidos is the same thing, except twice the amount of salt. It's salty as heck. Drank so much water after finishing the plate.

  While touring round the city, I found a Tims! Everything is way more expensive than Canada obviously. A donut cost 99c here while it cost 1.80 euros there. The drinks too are all definitely more expensive. What sets it apart is that the Tims there is like a proper cafe. The Tims in Madrid have all sorts of fancy espresso machines and whatsoever. I bought a cup of hot chocolate and man they did take a while to make. The ones in Canada is basically instant. They put the cup underneath some machine, click the "hot chocolate" button and bzzshhh there you go, it tastes of sugar. This one definitely taste more chocolatey for sure.

Figure 74.2: The subtitle "Cafe & Bake Shop" is foreign though.

  At one point, we went to a factory outlet. It was having a boxing day new years sales of sorts, so everything is much cheaper than it even was. What's amazing is that I found a pair of Onitsuka Tigers for only 30 euros! That's incredibly cheap! Alas, because I am aware that all I brought was a backpack, I have no space to fit a pair of shoes. As much as I want to buy those Tigers, I had to restrain myself. I didn't get anything from the outlet, but it was cool to just walk around and check out Mediterranean-European fashion.

  I guess the highlight was the hike in the middle. The parents invited us to go hiking and I thought: "Man, I've just been at home for the past few days, a hike wouldn't hurt!" I didn't bring any hiking clothes, or even any sport-y clothes, so I wore the mom's clothes (because she's around my size). At one point, there apparently was a landslide so a part of the hike is closed off. Guess what, the adults don't care, so we continued hiking anyway. 

  The uphill was no problemo, it was fun and exciting. The downhill though! It was so steep and slippery, my thighs were constantly trembling to the point 30 minutes in my thighs hurts with every step. When we reached back to the bottom there was another problem: We have to venture past this trail which is surrounded by thorny shrubberies. Man, I was getting stabbed and scratched everywhere. My clothes was also constantly getting hooked, so I have to spend time unhooking my clothes while at the same time trying not to get slashed or stabbed. I don't know which I dislike more: the thorns or the downhill, but the uphill is definitely amazing and the view from on top was really nice!

Figure 74.3: View from the mid point

Figure 74.4: View from the top!

Figure 74.5: Our starting point, the church!

Figure 74.6: This little town.

  I guess I celebrated New Years with the family. We cooked up a huge feast (I used we because I helped with the chopping and cleaning!) and then we did the countdown thing. Apparently, there is a tradition in Spain, where in the last 12 seconds of 2018, you make a wish, and try to swallow 12 grapes, one in each countdown second. They take that tradition very seriously. We prepped the grapes, and we stood around the TV, with our grapes, waiting for the countdown. My friend reassured me that EVERYONE in Spain is doing the same, EVERYONE.

  So we start doing it, and by my 6th grape, I started laughing. I was laughing because I had this image in my mind where families are just standing in front of the TV, trying to swallow 12 grapes in the span of 12 seconds. Heck, even those people standing in the city square, apparently they all have grapes and is doing the same, just standing publicly in the middle of the city, or in whatever bars or pubs they're celebrating, watching the tv and just swallowing grapes. I started laughing, and my friend started laughing, so she couldn't finish her grapes (I obviously didn't). The step-dad had till the 5th grapes then he decided to chill, citing that "It's not worth choking to death about it" while the mom was successful. My friend says that if her wish doesn't come true, it's my fault. :p

  Yeah... that's about it. My Madrid trip was really relaxed. My plane also got rescheduled from the original 11am to 1pm, which means I get to wake up at a reasonable time too. The real panic comes after leaving Madrid, when I got stuck in Toronto, but I already covered that. Didn't take much photos because it's mostly spent at my friend's home. And this concludes my 2018 tale! Time for 2019, hopefully filled with excitement, action, romance, mystery, horror, intrigue....

Figure 74.7: What else am I missing?