Hola a todos!

I am way behind on the blog updates--sorry, these last few weeks have been full of exams and I've been all over! Anyways, Madrid was great - my friend Maria and I stayed at a nice little hostel for 2 nights and we packed in a lot of sightseeing both days...we visited the famous Parque del Retiro, el Museo del Prado and Reina Sofia, where we saw artwork by Picasso and Goya. It was fun to walk around to the plazas in the city because EVERYONE was out even though it was freezing and rainy--5 degrees C! I had never been anywhere so full of people. Many of the stands at Plaza Mayor were selling grass and hundreds of miniature characters for the Nativity scenes..the Spaniards go all out when it comes to these! 

The following week my mom flew out to Granada! :) We had a nice time together walking all over the city, drinking wine, eating tapas, and relaxing in the Arabic baths. A few days later, the rest of the family flew out! It was weird to be reunited with everyone in a different city. We stayed in a piso in Realejo, a beautiful area of Granada near the Alhambra. It was fun to show them different areas of the city and we thoroughly enjoyed the variety of free tapas. We celebrated Christmas with the Murray family and had a wonderful time together. All the restaurants and tapas bars were closed on Christmas Eve so we had an early lunch at a nice restaurant and then continued the celebration at our piso. At midnight we went to the largest cathedral in Granada for midnight mass. It was interesting to see the procession in a different culture, where the Pope was reading far towards the front. 

After Christmas we rented a car and began our crazy adventure around Andalucia. Our first stop was Sevilla, where we ended up seeing the whole city as we searched for our hotel on the one-way streets for a few hours thanks to our navigation system, and, not to mention…the drivers were absolutely crazy! Sevilla was cold but lovely- we visited the cathedral, took a boat down the large river and also rowed our own boats around Plaza de España. It was exciting to walk around in the big city where the festivities continued late at night. After Sevilla we headed down south to Cádiz, the city on the peninsula in the shape of a smile :) We stayed at a nice hotel and enjoyed the spa and some of the best seafood ever. We also had the opportunity to see the breathtaking view of the city from a high tower that overlooked the coast. Down at the Christmas market in the centre we enjoyed a huge portion of churros straight from the broiler. After Cádiz we continued down the coast to Tarifa, the southernmost tip of Spain. Our bungalow-style hotel was like paradise right on the coast with horses and kite-surfers. Elliott and Sofia were even brave enough to bathe in the freezing water! Tarifa was a cute, small city full of kite-surfing shops. While we were there, we took a ferry and spent the second day in Tangiers, Morocco. We ended up touring the old part of the city with a guide. It was interesting to see the different culture and to hear the prayer being called out from the shrine. When we returned to Tarifa we had a great dinner but Sofia unfortunately came down with a bad case of food poisoning :(

The next morning we made our way over to Málaga, passing Gibraltar on the way. It was nice to celebrate New Year’s with the family taking it easy in our hotel room.

The following day we headed back to Granada, packed up the huge suitcases and stayed the night in Santa Fé near the airport. It was hard saying goodbye to everyone again since 7 months is a long time apart.. Luckily I was able to spend a little more time with my mom before she flew home. We flew together to Sweden where it was cold and the sun set early, but we had a great time seeing family and friends during the week.

All in all, the holidays this year turned out to be amazing. I am really thankful that my family was able to fly out here and spend time with me!!! 

I've posted some pictures of our trip!