48. Real Spanish Culture

The Palacio Real: Where you can't get away with anything. Our adventures today started with a toura round this palace which still houses royalty! When there are royal people present in this palace a special flag is hung next to the spanish flag. Today it wasn't flying, but that doesn't mean security slacked on their job. Within the first half hour the Friends had been scolded at least 5 times. 

Giant four square? Not allowed in the royal courtyard. 

Sneaking pictures of frescos? I thought we taught you better, Brody. 

The kids were also chastised for taking a wrong turn after the royal staircase. Dad was shushed by a tour guide for talking too loudly. At one point we were "sternly talked at" in Spanish. Not sure what went wrong that time, but based on body language and frantic pointing, we made our way back to the courtyard.

Here are some things we got away with:

Climbing royal trees

Organized dancing. Just trying to earn some money as Brody would say.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and the boys split off to do man things. I ended up with a few post cards, and Arden got a dress that I'm hoping she'll decide she doesn't actually like back in America and give it to me.

Our afternoon treat were churros! I've never had these before and loved them and the extra chocolate that we had to just drink after all of the churros were consumed.

Senior year I came to Europe with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle George, and Aunt Geri. We traveled around to a few places and in Denmark, met up with some of my grandparents friends, the Christensen's. We spent the evening eating, and visiting. It was such an experience to learn about their way of life and eat some great food at the same time. We had a similar experience with Arden's friend Ana and her family.

We crammed 16 people into their place and had a great authentic Spanish meal. I kept having flashbacks to my Spanish fiestas in high school where Señora would spend a good ten minutes describing delicious traditional plates. Ana showed us around her home and we admired all the family artwork they had hung around the house. It sure beat anything I made in art class... 

I went into the kitchen to check out how dinner was being made and saw a huge propane tank hooked up to a huge circular pan that covered the entire stove top. This is where the paella was being made and it smelled wonderful! This is a staple in Spain and the paella pans come in all different sizes even bigger than the one I was looking at! 

Before dinner, we had appetizers of charizo (my new favorite meat), jamón, tortilla (potatoes and eggs), but the favorite among the kids was the bag of potato chips. Ana had 3 younger siblings, Samuel, Sara, and Lorena. The boys loved playing with Sam and were either playing on some type of electronic, or running around with nerf guns all night.

 Ana's family spent a year living in Fishers, so they know English very well. When the Paella was ready, we all ate way too much and didn't expect an entire fruit/dessert course following. Next came the the cooked pumpkin. Literally a pumpkin cut in half and put in the oven. It was the Spanish version of pumpkin pie. Just wayyyyy more healthy. Out other dessert was a almond mocha cake with some type of almond icing on top. Everything was great, and I thought they were going to have to roll me out of there.  We learned that everything is bigger in America, and Aunt Kenda decided she need to buy little Spanish spoons. Not only are the spoons smaller here, they have smaller plates, smaller stores, and smaller houses. Here they have exactly what they need. It almost makes us seem gluttonous in every way. 

It's a school and a work night for their family, but we still left their house around 11 pm. That's just the way Spain works. I could get used to late nights, late mornings and siestas every day!