New Years Part Deux

We walked home from the party sometime around 2:30 last night, and Madrid was hopping. The party just starts later here.

The tradition in Spain is that you eat dinner with your family late, eat your grapes at midnight (another Spanish tradition), and then go out with your friends (hence the dead city at seven p.m.). We had our own grapes at our party, and this is how the tradition goes. You take 12 grapes in your hand, and when the clock strikes 12, you eat one grape for each bell. Supposedly, they are all supposed to be swallowed by the time the 12th bell finishes.

We couldn't hear the bells, so we substituted with one of the girls banging pan lids together. Unfortunately, in all the excitement, she started to speed up around the 6th time, and between that and bringing myself to swallow grape seeds, I didn't have them swallowed in time. It was a fun night and neat to learn new traditions.

April and Kelly left this morning, and the apartment is really quiet at the moment. I think I'll ring in the new year with a nap this afternoon.