The Misadventurer 01: New Year's Eve in Madrid

The 12 grapes, an unlikely encounter and talking to strangers.

In fall 2022, my boyfriend Jeff and I packed our bags and moved from Arizona to Spain. And maybe that phrasing makes us sound like two spontaneous, wanderlust-struck souls that just love to throw caution to the wind and set sail for whatever adventures strike our fancy. Not exactly.

We do like traveling, and I try to be adventurous. But really, it’s just easier to say, “We packed our bags and set off!” than to detail the following:

• The months we spent pulling our hair out over getting visa appointments at the Los Angeles Consulate

• The opportunity to learn about the horrifying labyrinth of bureaucracy and paperwork required to move abroad

• All the times we were like, “Oh my god, is it even worth it? Should we just stay here? Settle down and get a mortgage and jobs in cubicles with those little clanky metal ball desk toys? Maybe watching the metal balls clank back and forth can hypnotize us out of the idea that we even want to see other places.”

• How long it took me to decide what to cram into two suitcases when it was time to move.

Now, I don’t mean to imply we only had two choices: cubicle job or moving to Spain. In fact, we were lucky enough to both be working at jobs we enjoyed, which had allowed us to save up the money to make this move feasible. This left us with enough hope for at least one of us at a time to keep thinking, “We’ll figure it out.”

And, as it happens with many things in life that are a big pain in the ass at the time, in hindsight it’s all very romantic and worth it.

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This is a new blog about our life in a new country, so I want to tell you how we rang in the new year in Madrid, Spain. My mom came to visit us for the holiday, and she suggested making dinner reservations for New Year’s Eve. (Good idea, Mom.)

It was then, as I set to expertly Googling phrases like “Madrid restaurants” and “Spain NYE” that I realized there are two main differences in how Spaniards ring in the new year, as compared to Americans.

1. The 12 Grapes. I can’t tell you how many people asked me in the weeks leading up to New Year’s Eve: “Do you know about the grapes? You know about the grapes, right?!” I did not know about the grapes, and it sounded mysterious. It’s traditional to eat 12 grapes during the countdown to the New Year (one for each month) to bring luck in the new year. No big deal. We would be sure to get grapes.

2. In the U.S., people go out, or throw parties, and the night sort of culminates with the new year. “Happy New Year!” we shout, and we go to sleep, or maybe have another drink or two on top of the many we’ve already had, and we call it a night. In Spain, the party pretty much starts when the New Year starts.

Jeff and I are adventurous in the “move to a new country” sense, and sure, we like to go out for drinks sometimes, especially since they’re often cheaper than water in Spain (on Christmas Eve, we got two large beers on tap for a total of €3.) But we aren’t the type of people to stay out until 7 a.m., have a churro for breakfast, and then pass out. We may never fit in here.

But, in the name of “experiencing Spanish culture,” we resolved to do our best to stay out late.

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After enjoying an early dinner (around 8 p.m. is an early dinner in Spain), the three of us began walking back to our hotel so we could pseudo ring in the new year with my mom at 9:30 p.m. and she could go to bed like a responsible adult.

On the way home from the restaurant, by crazy coincidence, we ran into someone we knew from Arizona. Can a statistician please calculate the probability that two parties from the same random U.S. city would both choose to go to Madrid on the same New Year’s Eve, then be on the same street, then be on that street at the same time, then somehow notice each other through the crowds? Feel free to email me directly once you’re done with that math.

There was also an enormous line winding through the streets. We kept encountering it at different points, sometimes having to cross through it or walk alongside it. I knew it had something to do with Puerta del Sol, which I have heard described as Spain’s equivalent of Times Square in NYC when it comes to New Year’s Eve. But what? Was there some sort of elaborate performance in the plaza? Was Beyonce here? I finally asked someone in line what the line was for.

“To enter,” she said.

“To enter what?” I asked, eager to know about the innermost secrets of Spanish culture. Was there going to be a giant bullfight? A special performance by the best Eurovision contestants of all time? Free paella for everyone? Free houses for everyone?

“To enter the plaza,” she said.

These people were waiting for hours and hours just to get into the plaza, which has a limited capacity of, from the most recent number I saw, 20,000 people. I knew it was popular, but wow. We went back to the hotel, did a fake countdown so Mom could eat her grapes, and drank our hotel-provided mini bottles of champagne. Much more my speed.

Jeff and I went back out. It was impressive how crowded everything was, even when we got a fair distance away from Puerta del Sol. But we found a place to get some enormous beers and reflect on 2022.

Do I look overwhelmed by the size of this beer? I was!

As we screamed down the countdown for the new year and ate our grapes, we were surrounded by people, but not uncomfortably so. And for the first time, I kind of understood the appeal of the plaza: It felt nice to be in the midst of so many hopeful, happy people. We were feeling so good (and pretty tipsy) that we started asking people what their New Year’s Resolutions were, in English, Spanish and Spanglish.

The first person we asked said, “Less drugs!” The second person we asked said, “More drugs!” My memory of the rest of the answers, for some reason, is a little fuzzy.

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Question of the Week: What is the best piece of advice you have ever received, and what do you think is the best advice you’ve ever given? Did you listen, and did the person you gave advice to listen?

Recommendation of the Week: I know there are a lot of videos like “Types of People at Your Christmas Gathering” on the internet, but something about this one just killed me. Do you recognize anyone from your own family here?

Thanks for reading!