Sadly, our time in Barcelona had come to an end. Mallory, Carson, and I were ending our time in Europe with a fun trip to Madrid with two other friends for New Year’s Eve! Kimia joined us in Barcelona a day before we were set to “check out” of our apartment. We made our final rounds to all of our favorite cafes and bars to wrap up this time in our lives before heading to Madrid for a fun NYE celebration.

December 28, 2022:

With our apartment all packed up and ready to depart, we spent the morning doing some last minute things to clean up and get our large collection of suitcases down to the street and ready for our rides to the train station. In the midst of our morning frenzy, Mallory and Carson were not feeling well. They had gone out for sushi the night before and were feeling suspiciously sick. By the time we made it to the train station, they weren’t feeling any better. The two of them were taking turns going to the bathroom and taking medicine to hopefully kick this sickness. We hurried to our train car, which of course was literally the last car and was the farthest away, and lugged our MANY suitcases up to the upper deck. We had to play a game of Tetris to fit all of our stuff in the luggage area. Meanwhile, all the physical exertion was not helping Mal and Carson at all. Both of them were feeling even more sick and weak. By this point, we had deduced that they must have gotten food poisoning from the sushi they ate the night before. My poor friends were really going through it. When we finally made it to Madrid after a three hour train ride, we were more than ready to get to our Airbnb so the two of them could rest. Kimia also had to work that evening, so we were all prepared to have a chill night in.

We piled into taxis and headed towards the Airbnb where we were meeting Lex, who had just flown in from the U.S. When the taxis dropped us off, we were confused because we were in front of a school, and the Airbnb was nowhere to be found. We had been messaging the host for assistance, but he hadn’t answered any of our messages. The five of us ended up sitting on the sidewalk with our nine suitcases trying to contact Airbnb support and figure out what we were going to do. We never ended up hearing anything from our host, and we came to the conclusion that the listing was a scam. The address posted on the listing wasn’t even in the same area as it showed on the map, so we were far from the city center. Luckily, Airbnb guaranteed us a full refund, but that still didn’t solve the issue of where we were going to stay. We spent two hours sitting on the side of the road looking up hotels and Airbnbs trying to find somewhere to go. This was especially difficult since it was NYE weekend, so the city was packed with people here to celebrate. We weren’t having much luck finding any day-of reservations.

By this point, we were desperate for ANYWHERE to settle our things. Mallory and Carson were still feeling like crap and desperately needed to lay down, have some water, and be near a bathroom. Kimia had to start working and needed a reliable Wifi connection to join/lead her meetings. We ended up splurging on a hotel room for two nights that we would have to squeeze into until we could figure out somewhere else where we would have more space. The hotel was really fancy, and our room had a gorgeous view! We had to sneak Carson in since it was a four person room and there were five of us. Mal and Carson immediately laid down and got some rest while Kimia, Lex, and I went off to get them some water, Sprite, and saltine crackers.

Later in the evening, while Carson and Mallory continued resting up, Kimia, Lex, and I went out for dinner. We found a place to sit outside and eat. We were glad to finally feel settled and have a good meal after such a crazy day.

December 29, 2022:

After a restful night, Mallory and Carson were feeling a lot better. The three of us all planned to take it easy in Madrid, especially since we were all coming off the tail end of a sickness (I hadn’t been feeling 100% that week either, but not due to food poisoning, thankfully). We all had long travel journeys after Madrid and wanted to make sure we were rested and feeling well for that. I slept in and stayed at the hotel to relax while the rest of the group went out for breakfast.

Mallory and I met up afterwards to get pedicures. We wanted our toes to be nice and fresh for our upcoming tropical trip. It was nice and relaxing. Back at the hotel, I napped for a few hours before we all regrouped and went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant. I got a delicious truffle risotto and we snacked on lots of tasty olives and cheese.

December 30, 2022:

Before checking out of our beautiful hotel, we made sure to take advantage of the free hotel breakfast. There were pastries, fruit, eggs, and even churros with chocolate. It was delish! We then packed up our crowded hotel room and made our way over to the new Airbnb we had found where we had a little more space to spread out and we didn’t have to sleep three to a bed. We were grateful to have found this place so last minute! It ended up being in a great area too, coincidentally right by where I stayed when I was in Madrid in October, so it was easy for us to get around.

Mallory, Kimia, and Lex took the train for a day trip to a nearby castle, while Carson and I stayed back. He had to work later, and I just wasn’t up for the trip. Carson and I went off on a walk and ended up in Retiro Park where we sat and enjoyed the weather and talked for a while. On our way back to the apartment, we stopped in a cafe for smoothies. We ended up realizing that we had both been to some of the same restaurants in Madrid during our last visits; me in October with Anthony, and Carson in November with his mom and sister. What a coincidence!

Back at the apartment while Carson worked, I relaxed for a bit and then went off on an errand to get my haircut. I was in desperate need of a trim, and my hair felt so fresh afterwards.

When the girls were back from their day trip, the five of us all went out for a dinner at a place called Oven Mozzarella where we got pasta and cocktails. We hopped across the street afterwards to a club called Teatro, which has seven floors each with a different theme/style of music. I’m usually not up for clubbing, but this place was really fun and played great music!

December 31, 2022:

We all came to the unspoken agreement that we were sleeping in today. In the early afternoon, Carson, Mallory, Lex, and I motivated ourselves to go on a walk for acai bowls. It was a gorgeous day, and the walk was really nice. The place we went to had really good acai bowls, and I paired mine with scrambled eggs and a slice of avocado toast. Mallory and I went to a nearby cafe afterwards to journal and prepare for our midnight festivities. There is a tradition in Spain where at midnight on New Year’s Eve, you eat twelve grapes and make twelve wishes as the clock strikes midnight. All of us were taking time throughout the day to make sure we had our twelve wishes for 2023 ready to go. It was nice to spend time reflecting on my 2022. It was a crazy year in the best way.

Back at the apartment, we were all getting ready for the night. As the group was finishing getting ready, Carson and I slipped over to a nearby market to fetch some grapes and divide them up into batches of twelve to take with us. We hadn’t made reservations anywhere, so we wanted to head out semi-early so we could have better luck getting seated somewhere in time to make it to Plaza del Sol for the grapes tradition. We had to wander around for a bit, but we finally got lucky and found a place where the five of us could sit outside and order dinner. We ate paella, shared sangria, talked, and laughed. It was a great last meal of the year!

We then made our way towards Plaza del Sol, which was so crowded we didn’t stand a chance of getting in. We ended up on a different street that was nearly as full of people celebrating. There were lights strung across the streets and people standing outside on their balconies watching the festivities. We waited patiently for midnight, and when it turned midnight, we all cheered and started eating our grapes and making our wishes for the new year. Fireworks started going off and the crowds all around us were celebrating. It was such a cool experience! It felt like the Spanish equivalent of being in Times Square when the ball drops. We felt really connected to Spanish culture, and I’m so glad we got to participate in this cultural tradition.

As the crowds started to dissipate, we went back to the apartment for a little bit. We had picked up some small bottles of cava, which we toasted and quickly drank before heading out to go dancing. We were laughing about the first place we went to because they almost didn’t let me in because they didn’t think I was of age (which is even funnier because the legal drinking age in Spain is 18… and I’m 26…). I hadn’t even brought my ID with me, but luckily I had a picture of my passport on my phone, which they accepted. The bouncer was a bit of a jerk about it, but it worked out. We went to a couple different places to dance for a bit, and then ended up getting some pizza by the slice to chow down on our way back to the apartment.

January 1, 2023:

As I usually do after a night of drinking, I woke up super early this morning. I was feeling wide awake, so I decided to motivate and go to a hot yoga class. I could tell the rest of the crew was going to be hibernating for a while so I snuck out and walked to class. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and it felt so good to start my day/year with a walk. The class was really nice, and it felt so good on my body to stretch. I left class in the best mood!

Back at the apartment, the rest of the group was starting to stir and a handful of them went to a cafe. I stayed back and got my life together a bit. I needed to rearrange most of my luggage and get myself ready for my long travel journey the next day. We had all planned the night before to go back to our hotel from the beginning of the trip and go to the rooftop bar for sunset. We got some drinks up there and admired the gorgeous view of Madrid as the sun went down. We also had reservations at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant, which was very tasty. We ended the night at a hookah bar that was playing great music – just bop after bop after bop. We had fun hanging out there before we called it a night. Mallory and I were heading to the airport in the morning for a long travel journey to Thailand and wanted to get some rest.

While this trip to Madrid started off quite chaotic, it ended up being fairly restful and rejuvenating. I was glad that we got to take part in the Spanish New Year’s traditions and enjoy some beautiful weather to end our time in Europe. The next morning, Mallory and I said our goodbyes to the rest of the group before we made our way to the airport for our next adventure.