December Highlights

December in Madrid: Christmas lights, giant Christmas trees in the plazas, Christmas markets, and a heightened sense of chaos and busyness in the streets. Even though we did many holiday activities in the city, we spent many good times at home with friends as well. December went by so quickly, and included a 4 day weekend and a  day trip to Toledo, Christmas crafts and lessons with my tutoring students, and a winter break trip to Sevilla and Morocco!

Since I did a terrible job updating my blog in December, I'm just going to focus on a few highlights. Hopefully it will give you an idea of how I spent the holidays here!

First thing's first: December 1st we put up our Advent calendar, which included different Christmas activities to do this month, like going to the Christmas markets, making mulled wine, visiting the nativity scene, and decorating our tiny, European - sized apartment!

Our advent calendar (recycled from last year!)

The first weekend of December began in good holiday spirit: with friends and in good company. We were invited to our Spanish friend Ana's house for lunch,   who happens to be our neighbor this year since she moved apartments! She has a gorgeous apartment with a beautiful terrace that overlooks our neighborhood. It seemed especially spacious next to our apartment, and gave us a neat rooftop view that made our area look more like a pueblo than a city. That night we went to a German Christmas market, which Ana wanted to go to since she studied abroad in Germany, and we accompanied her as she nostalgically looked through German books and ate pretzels and beer with us!

Part of the German Christmas fair at a local Anglican church. There was also a beer garden outside!

We also celebrated Hannakuh with our Belgian/French/Israeli/European-mixed, hipster designer friend Tal :) It was a fun experience as it was a not-quite-traditional celebration. We had many modifications, such as Christmas-colored candles, Tal's last-minute napkin-yammakuh, hymns read off of an ipad, and Dunkin donuts - to keep with the tradition of eating something fried each night of Hannakuh. It was really fun having Tal show us his traditions, and we had some interesting discussions afterwards.

A Hannakuh celebration fit for the 21st century!

We also had a puente, or long holiday weekend, in early December. Last year I would've used that opportunity to travel outside of the country, but this year I decided to spend more time in Madrid so I could really feel like I lived here by the end of my experience abroad. I also told myself that if I traveled it would be within Spain, as there is so much to see within the country itself and each region is really so different and unique. So this four day weekend, I decided not to plan anything- that way, if anything came up, I could actually say yes instead of "Well, I actually already have a trip planned to....". Sometimes you really have to just give yourself the chance to have spontaneity in your life and not plan anything- then you can experience adventures you hadn't foreseen. And what I thought would be a relaxed weekend actually became chalk-full of wonderful little adventures, including two day trips to Chinchón and Toledo!

Extra happy wandering the little streets of Chinchón after a big lunch and plenty of red wine :)

Chinchón from above- I love rooftop views of 

Chinchón is a lovely little pueblo outside of Madrid that can be underwhelming if you go expecting a lot. But for ambling through the alleyways, savoring a glass of wine in the big, open center plaza, or enjoying the views of the countryside around the town, it is the perfect place to spend a few hours on an afternoon. The center plaza is the main place to visit, and it's beautiful as it is round, open, and slants up from the middle towards the little cafes and storefronts that surround the plaza. It was historically used for bullfighting and horse races, which is very evident in its form. It reminded me of a smaller, Spanish version of the Piazza del Campo, the circular plaza in Siena where I visited my sister last year (and one of the most beautiful and unique plazas I've been to in europe!).

Toledo is a great town outside of Madrid that was once the capital of Spain and one of the few places in Spain where Christian, Muslims and Jews all coexisted relatively peacefully. It is an interesting place culturally and historically to visit, to see the Catholic cathedral, the old Jewish quarter, the Jewish museum, or the Arabic traces in some of the architecture. Since we'd already been last year and didn't feel the need to sight-see, we just took our time and wandered, relaxed, had a picnic enjoying one of December's sunny days :) It was neat to see go back and see a woman with a keyboard-violin who had been playing in the same spot, with the same long red curly hair and hippie clothing, the same celtic notes bouncing off the alley walls and rising up to the cathedral tower nearby, and the same melancholic vocals that sang of Spain's hard history all taking me back to 11 months before. How incredible is it to be able to return to a place you've once traveled before, where you perhaps didn't expect to be back so soon?

Toledo and the gorge of the Tangus River- what an incredible spot for a picnic! (which is exactly what we did)

Laura with the picnic spread- including homemade tortilla bocadillos!

Sam enjoying the amazing view 

One of the tiles marking the Jewish quarter (and the shoes of Laura, Sam, Ashleigh and Jose!)

We're thankful for Jose's company- and his car rides!

En fin, it was a wonderful December that gave me plenty of chances to enjoy what Madrid has to offer, delight in the novelties of the holiday season, and relax with old and new friends. I also hope you had a fantastic holiday season!