Spain

Less than a month after I returned from backpacking in Europe, my parents decided we would spend the holidays in Spain and Portugal, as my sister was having visa issues and could not come home. We all wanted to go somewhere warm, so the Mediterranean seemed like the obvious choice. My father, unbeknownst to the rest of us, had also invited my third cousin, Dani. Great guy of course, but this already created tensions for the simple fact that he did not ask, or better yet, inform the three of us that he was tagging along.

We all arrived in Madrid on the 24th, my mother and father tense from a screaming match they had indulged in just before leaving the house to catch our flight (a very uncharacteristic indulgence). Like the good WASP my mother is though, everything was fine. Zoe, Dani and I walked around for many hours after dinner, vainly searching for Christmas fireworks, instead finding soggy french fries from a Turkish street shop.

Christmas did not arrive without a hitch, as I made my sister cry because she did not hear me thank her for the present she made for me, a lovely silver pendant with a purple stone. Meanwhile Dani was blissfully unaware of anything wrong with our little family. I did have one of the best meals of my life on Christmas at restaurant called La Pimienta Verde. Everything was delicious, from the confit artichokes to the olive oil. The piece de resistance however was my meal, which was not actually what I ordered. The most delicious risotto of mushroom, pumpkin and shrimp. Even after filling up on appetizers of marinated sardines, delicious fresh baked bread and fried calamari, I managed to finish the delectable risotto that will continue to haunt my dreams for many Christmas’s to come.

From Madrid we went to Portugal, Lisbon for New Years, though that is another blog post. From here we skip ahead to Sevilla.

We drove 7 hours from Lisbon to Sevilla, and by we I mean my father, cousin and sister. I can’t drive. I sat in the back of the 9 person van my mother rented in the name of comfort, nursing a hangover brought on by the sweetest champagne known to man, watching Gilmore Girls and Snapchatting my emotional fluffer. I had to buy more data 4 hours in.

Not sure weather it was the residual hangover or perhaps I was just sick of being around the same 4 people for this long, but I snapped the next day. And when I snap, I snap hard. Yelling at my sister and mother over absolutely nothing and refusing to leave the house with them, and spending the entire day alone. When my mother texted me later asking if I’d like to join them later, I said no and told her I would be out of the house by the end of January. Good one Leila.

It is always horrible to be the blight of the family, or a trip, or the super combo the blight of the family trip, but I always squarely win that prize. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, and after my mother stopped pretending she was not mad at me it even was kind of enjoyable. We returned to Madrid for 2 nights before our flight, Dani having left us in Sevilla to return to Portugal to go surfing.

All in all, a typical family vacation. At least for my family.