Family Fun / Life Abroad / Travel

Our Trip to Madrid

If we’re friends on Facebook or Instagram, then you already know that we’ve been traveling for most of the month of August. We were in Madrid, Spain and then just returned from Budapest, Hungary.

Even though I did bring my laptop with me on our vacations with every intention of posting, it just didn’t happen. Our summer has been so busy and full and fun that the blog has taken a back seat to real life.

I have a bunch of photos from Madrid to post and will get to posting some photos from Budapest shortly.

We spent five nights in Madrid and had a great time exploring the city. We hit most of the major sites, including the Royal Palace, Buen Retiro Park and the Museo Nacional. I, personally, love museums, but exploring museums is a little tricky with two little ones in tow. The Museo National proved to be a bit of a bust, as I ended up ducking into a stairwell to nurse Lark and our short-lived visit ended with Prim going what we refer to as “full-noodle” (going limp on the floor having a meltdown — y’know, like a when you drop a cooked spaghetti noodle on the floor).

So yes, in case you’re wondering — traveling with little ones isn’t always easy. In fact, sometimes it’s just downright HARD. We definitely have days where KC and I are tired and are not as patient as we should be (with the kids… with each other… with everything) and Lark is teething and Prim just CANNOT with anything.

Those days are tough, and I’d be lying if I said I never have moments of thinking, “Why are we doing this???”

But overall, the good moments far outweigh the bad ones. And I think “This is amazing, we are so lucky” far more often than I feel like tearing my hair out and just hopping on a plane home.  Spain is amazing and probably one of our favorite European countries so far, but the Spanish schedule tends to be a little tough with the kids. Spaniards generally eat dinner late — after 8pm — and as much as we stretch the kids schedules, having dinner so late just doesn’t work for us. As a result we would basically eat in deserted restaurants at 6 or 7 every night (I’m sure the locals thought we were crazy. Or maybe that we were having lunch.) which worked well with the kids (no one to disturb at the tables nearby!) but we were forced to abandon a lot of the restaurants we wanted to visit as many didn’t even open until 8 or 8:30pm.  We did manage to have authentic paella, and even though I have to admit that I just am not the hugest paella person (sorry!) — it was delicious. And this amazing yellow door was just outside the restaurant, so of course I had to shoot P in front of it (we had escaped outside while KC finished and paid the bill — sometimes staying at the table that long just isn’t an option with a 2 year old.) We actually finished dinner pretty early our last night in Madrid, so we wandered over to Cafe San Gines for churros and chocolate — because what better way to finish up a meal full of rice than with a plate of fried dough and sugar, right? The woman taking our order recommended 12 churros, since we had three people eating and they come in sets of six. I wanted to only order six, but KC insisted on twelve, which I thought was ridiculous. Well, we sure did finish off all twelve and I’m really not sure whether I’m surprised, proud or totally ashamed of that, but they sure were delicious. Another doorway outside San Gines. Europe really knows how to do doorways right.  We walk everywhere when we travel and are always either pushing a stroller or wearing one of the kids (or sometimes both!) We average around 6 miles a day and Prim probably walks about half of that, at least. We do sometimes force her onto the stroller to get somewhere quickly, but we do try to let her walk and run around when she wants.  The times she is on the stroller board she mostly spends her time chatting with Lark. It keeps Lark entertained and is endlessly adorable — so, win/win.  These sister, man. There is just nothing better.  ^^ That’s the train station in Madrid — it has a little jungle inside. Isn’t that cool? Prim was fascinated by all the fish and turtles just chilling in the pond sections.  You were amazing Madrid!

A bunch of photos from Budapest will be coming up (hopefully) shortly.