I had been trying to piece together a trip to at least one of my targeted destinations in Europe before the arrival of Mama and graduation. Now, I definitely do not want to be caught in a situation where I ended up travelling alone to these places. I dread thinking of the fact that I may end up getting lost alone in Europe. It’s always better to have a 2nd person since that would mean accommodation would be cheaper and taking photos would not be such a hassle. Leo joked that I should do a ‘Carrie’, in reference to our mutual female friend who had travelled around England and Europe by herself. Ahhhhh,,I’m trying very hard not to go down that road!
After much deliberation and checking, I decided to make Spain – Madrid and Barcelona as the destinations to go to during this early July period. I did a couple of flight checks to get the best pricing and in the end, the cheapest combo that I could come up with was to start off with Madrid first using Easyjet from Manchester, followed by a connecting flight in midweek via Spanair to Barca and returning back to Leeds from Barca via Ryanair. With that settled already, I went around, asking in desperation for people to join me. The response was not very good though, as people were either not free, going with parents to the destinations I am going or have gone back to Malaysia. In the end, I got quite fed up asking people or waiting for their replies. I made the final decision, albeit reluctantly, to go ahead with my plans alone and to book the necessary accomodations.
The flight from Manchester was in the evening on 6th July and when I reached Madrid, it was already 10pm+ or so. When I walked out of the plane onto the Madrid runway to take the transit bus to the terminal, I could feel the Spanish warm air. Ahhhh, it looks like somewhere in Europe, there’s a place where there is tropical Malaysian weather! Naturally I was delighted because I could get rid of the Northern European cold for once. The hostel that I booked is in the region of Barajas, which is where the airport is located. I decided to stay near the airport since my Spanair flight is early in the morning at 7.30am. The area where my hostel is located looked a lot like some small town in Mexico..lol. I think that’s how the Spanish influence the Mexican in terms of town planning. I was quite surprised to find a Chinese provision shop near my hostel too. Hmmm..seems that the Chinese are everywhere! I managed to find my hostel without much problems and my room is actually located in a separate building from the reception office. I was quite surprised at the size and nature of the room though because it felt like a hotel room and the toilet inside the room was quite nicely decorated with marble tiles. There was air-con and Spanish cable TV, so I ain’t complaining much about it. The only left to do is to get a good night’s rest and prepare to explore Madrid the next day.
On the next morning, I headed straight to the train station to purchase the Madrid transport pass which enables me to have unlimited travelling on buses and trains for 3 days straight. The first destination that I had on my card was to head towards Puerto del Sol, which is the main square for Madrid. I was supposed to be there early for the free tour but because of my lateness, I had to go for the free tour in the evening. So, with plenty of time for me to burn, I did a short exploration around the central square before heading to one bakery stall to get some food. I got myself a jamon, which is someone like a raw cured bacon ham in a croissant and it costs only 1 Euros! I topped it up with some juice from the supermarket and that was good enough. After the small lunch, I decided to head off first to check out the Chamberi Train Station, which is one of the ghost train stations in Madrid. One of the reasons why I started from there is because it’s free too..lol. Chamberi is a train station that’s abandoned for decades and has just recently been reopened as a small museum. It’s interesting to see the retro ticket barriers still in place and some of the painted rail map is still in existence. I head back to Plaza Mayor to join up with the free tour group. As usual, we had a basic run through around some of Madrid’s main attractions. That gave me some idea on where to go and what to plan for the next few days. As you can see, I’m pretty impromptu coming into Madrid with not much expectation or plans on where to visit except for the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
For the 2nd day, I decided to start off the day by heading to bullfighting ring at Plaza de Toros. Bullfighting is a controversial sport but it is part of the Spanish cultural heritage. There are occasional bullfighting matches in Madrid but it is totally banned in Barcelona. So, if I wanna have a chance to see how the inside of a bullfighting arena looks like, this is the best opportunity. I went to have a look at the museum first which is free and it exhibits a lot items related to the gory sport. There are bull heads, matador costumes (including one which still has blood-soaked stains), weapons and portraits of famous matadors. After feeling satisfied exploring the museum, I headed out to the main gate and purchased ticket for the tour. It was very much like a stadium tour as the guide brought us around the arena. He had to speak twice though, once in Spanish and another time in English. The waiting areas around the arena are somewhat like a football stadium, they do sell snacks and drinks. We did go down all the way to where the bullfighting takes place and it’s nothing but sand and dust. After bullfighting business, I went to check out the Vincenzo Calderon Stadium, which is Athletico Madrid’s stadium. From the distance, it looks rather huge and impressive. I tried to search for a main reception area (like Anfield or Old Trafford) but found none. It seems that outside the stadium is quite plain. The interesting thing about the stadium though is that it has an active road traffic running under the stands. Athletico certainly has a bigger and modern stadium than Anfield and I wonder what Torres thought when he first transferred over..haha. I didn’t have lunch or anything yet, so I went to search for El Tigre bar which I read on the Internet serves free tapas for any drink that you buy. It took me quite some time to search for it because it was hidden in a small alley. I came at the right time around 4pm-ish where the crowd is the least. I ordered cider, thinking that they will give me the typical English cider. Instead, they gave me somewhat like a dark red Spanish cider cocktail with peppermint leaves. It tasted quite good and refreshing actually, especially under the hot blazing cloudless Spanish sun. I was given free tapas as expected and it’s quite a generous portion of paella and meat. My drink cost 5 Euros, and I suspected that I may be overcharged as a tourist but I still think it’s worth it if I were to put the meaty tapas into consideration. In the evening, I went to the Madrid Maritime Museum. It was listed as free on the web, but when I went there, I was requested by the guard to make a ‘donation’ of 3 Euros. Ahhh, I paid up anyways since I’m curious to see the artefacts of the Spanish as a former seafaring colonial power. They would have some remnants about Isabella being pwned by Elizabeth during the Golden Age..lol. I stayed until the museum closes. My free tour guide told my group the day before that Madrid has the largest collection of art pieces in a city. It would be a waste if I don’t visit at least one. Apparently, some of these world famous museums do offer free entrance at a particular time. I picked Museo del Prado as it has free entrance from 5pm-6pm and it fits in just nice with my schedule. Inside Museo del Prado, there’s hundreds of Biblical themed paintings. With such a short span of time, obviously I can’t finish seeing everything but it’s good enough to have a glance for a free entrance. I waited for quite some time for the sky to get dark. It’s the peak summer period and even at 9pm, the sky is still bright. Finally, when nightfall did settle in at around 9.30pm-10pm, I walked around the city centre area to enjoy the night lights of Madrid. I went to the Bernebeu for a quick preview and to check out to see whether the stadium is litted up at night. To my dismay, the stadium was pitch-black but outside the stadium were some “pasar malam-ish” food stalls. Oh well, looks like I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get the full view of the stadium.
For the last day, I took the train down straight to the Bernebeu station. The Bernabeu is a massive complex situated in the middle of Madrid’s high end commercial hub. Most stadiums are located in the outskirt but Real Madrid’s stadium is right smack in the city. I proceeded to a long queue to buy the stadium tour ticket and it costs 16 Euros. Unlike the stadium tours in England, visitors to the Bernabeu are allowed the freedom to explore the stadium on their own and stay however long they wish. So, it’s not only the museum that visitors can have the leisure of wandering around, but also the spectator stands, commentator box and dressing room. There are barriers to guide visitors to walk the correct path in this self-guided tour. The first point that visitors came across is the highest point of the spectator stand in the Bernabeu stadium. That point of height is at least 9 to 10 storeys high. Afterthat I went through the museums and the trophy display room. The Champions League sections reminds us that the last time Real had won the CL is in 2002. At ground level, visitors have the opportunity to get a feel of the seats at the substitutes’ bench and of course, Mourinho’s seat. It was there that I got to know for a short time a Bulgarian who strangely had a fancy for Celtic. It was towards the last part of the tour, so he helped me to take photos for the last stretch. After Bernabeu, I went back to the town center for lunch. Once my stomach is filled, I decided to backtrack to some of the places that I came across during the free tour. I came across the Royal Palace but I declined to go in because the price is quite expensive. Instead, I entered inside the Almudena Cathedral, which I thought was a very unique structure. It does seem weird to have a cathedral with an Arabic sounding name but I guess it’s due to the Moorish influence in the past. The interior Almudena is quite impressive while it’s exterior is a reminiscence of Moorish architecture.
My last stop in Madrid is the Buen Retiro Park which is the largest green space available in the city. It houses the monument to King Alfonso XII. Looks like there are plenty of activities to do there. There’s a huge lake in there too where folks can ride a boat around. The most interesting structure that I came across was the Crystal Palace The entire structure was built somewhere in the 19th century and consisted predominantly of glass. With that, I closed the chapter on Madrid and prepared to go back to my room early to get sufficient rest before waking up early for my flight. My overall conclusion for Madrid: clean, excellent rail service and it certainly did not look like the capital city of a country in debt. I was quite fortunate to have supermarkets selling 1.5l of orange juice for 1.38 Euros and Museo Jamon to sell those cheap 1 Euro croissants. That saved a lot in the food department. Ahhhh, the next stop will be in the Catalan region and I’ll be interested to see how they would differ from the capital city.
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