Travel offers fantastic perks, such as meeting new friends and discovering delicious foods. Madrid, Spain, is one of the top “foodie’ cities worldwide. You’ll frequently encounter delicious options—it’s a food lover’s paradise!
Everywhere we looked, everywhere was bustling with people eagerly waiting for food and drinks. Tables were few and far between, so whenever someone spotted a seat or two, a lively rush would follow as everyone scrambled to claim it first. Eventually, we came across a table where four people were leisurely enjoying a generous spread of food and glasses of wine, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around them. They moved over for us.
I pointed to a big bowl of olives and asked what kind they were. With that, he invited us to taste some. None spoke perfect English, but his wife leaned over and asked us where we were from. I replied, “Tennessee.” The man immediately lit up and said, “Yes, Jack Daniels!” So from that point, we were all new friends. We all bought and shared a lot of food and drink, and had a terrific time. At one point, the older man and his son-in-law disappeared; we took that as our signal to depart and started walking away down the small street.
After a minute, we heard a young girl asking us to stop. We turned to see the man’s daughter signaling that her dad had gone to buy a special drink for us, and we should return. We saw six glasses with a beautiful amber liquid at the table. He had gone to get Spanish brandy to toast our friendship, raising his glass and saying, “Cheers to Jack Daniels!” What a guy, family, and memory of Spanish olives and Tennessee whiskey.
Are we there yet? 