Looking back and filling in
So I was looking at my past posts a bit and realized not only has it been several months since I’ve been on here but I never really mentioned anything about my Spain trip which was a huge thing for me. So anyways this post is going to be long and feel free to jump past it if you wish.
Spain - Oct 2012
This trip to Spain was a huge deal for me for many reasons. I had been to Spain once before but it was with my family and as such there was a lot I wanted to do and see that didn’t happen. We also were not in the South of Spain at all which is somewhere I had really wanted to go. It was also big because this was the first time I traveled on my own and while I do speak Spanish it is not intermediate and rusty so that was possibly going to cause a bit of problems. Either way I was super excited and looking forward to going. I had ten days and other than a weekend in England (for the purposes of football entirely) I was going to hit up three areas of España!
Thursday, October 4th I landed in Madrid. Getting from the airport to the metro stop I needed was pretty simple and I wasn’t worried about getting around that way. Of course street signs are not everywhere and they are on the buildings which is something to get used to. The little circle almost where I get off the metro was busy with several streets and in my tired state I couldn’t find the street I needed. (Later once I did it was so obvious I don’t know how I missed it) But I went into a shop and asked directions and voila 5 minutes later I was at my hostel. That first day I did a bunch of walking and got a bit lost so the first day was tinged with some uncertainty.
I walked around and saw Cibeles which was beautiful and I could just picture Iker kissing her and I wished I was there at a time they were celebrating a win because that would’ve been incredible. I went el Museo de Prado that night and it is impressive but I’m not a big paintings fan. I went to the museum with these German girls that were in the same dorm as me.
Cibeles
Museo del Prado
On Friday the first thing I did after getting up was go to the Santiago Bernabeu. I can remember standing outside just being giddy with the idea that I was actually there. That I was seeing the famous stadium and was going to go inside. I spent a few hours going through it, took a bunch of pictures, spent a bunch of euros and left feeling I’d missed so much. But I saw it and I sat where these players have sat and I read about their history and saw the proof of their legacy in the museum. Also side note saw a guy wearing a Barcelona shirt in the museum and thought it was funny.
Home of the Blancos!
Looking down at the stadium.
With the Copa del Rey final jersey signed by the players.
Champions!
To think of the players who have sat in this very chair... sigh.
After the Bernabeu I just walked around the Madrid city center for a bit, was given a free postcard because the man said I was “la mujer la más hermosa en el mundo” haha before leaving to catch my flight to London that evening. I got into London around 11 or so and walked through a light rain to the hostel. But it was nice. I enjoyed the rain and hey I was in London so it was expected.
Saturday was the day that Chelsea was playing and I had bought tickets to see the match. Not great tickets but I didn’t care because a lifelong dream was going to come true. I was going to see Fernando Torres play live! The game was in the afternoon so I figured I would go see the London Eye first. I bought a ticket at the hostel and headed out. Unfortunately the metro was undergoing improvements at the time and the line by my hostel was shut down so I had to take trains and stuff instead. Still pretty easy but sadly I got directions for going to the match and directions for going to the Eye mixed up (same line different directions) and essentially spent the morning riding this one train line back and forth. Realizing I was going the wrong way getting off and going back on the next train only to realize I no longer had time to get to the Eye, ride it and get back before the match so getting off again and waiting to go back from where I just was. Surprisingly this amused me instead of bothered me and I was still in a good mood.
Wearing my Spain Torres jersey
The match was incredible. I am not a Chelsea fan but they played well and were in control of the play and best of all Chelsea’s first goal was scored by Fernando Torres. It was a beautiful header and I went wild and throughout the match I probably took a couple dozen photos of him alone. The final score was 4 -1. Before the match I made a quick stop in the store to buy a keychain for my neighbour since he is a big Chelsea fan (we argue all the time) and he is the one that came with me to see LFC when they were in Toronto that summer.
The Eye was nice but a bit crowded and people were rude not moving so others had a chance to take pictures as well. Plus my camera battery died, oh well. That night I met a couple of guys at the hostel pub and hung out with them. One oddly enough lives ten minutes away from where I did back home.
The London Eye. 30 min around.
Sunday I woke up really early, caught a night bus to the coach station and took a five hour bus ride from London to Liverpool. Caught a taxi to Anfield (I WAS AT ANFIELD!) and got there in time for the match. It was exhilarating being there, listening to the whole stadium sing ‘You’ll never walk alone’ and seeing these boys play at home. Sadly the score was 0-0 but I was able to check off another life goal seeing them play at home. Was in a bit of a panic trying o find a taxi to get back to the station in time to catch my bus back to London but got there with ten minutes to spare. Got back in around midnight walked to that night’s hostel and crashed because I was up at 7 the next morning to go back to the airport.
Did I practically stalk these two with my camera from the stands? Yes!
Wish I had more time to take more pictures of the stadium.
Had some issues with the flight (got bumped onto a different one) but made it back to Madrid where I took a train to Granada for the next part of my trip.
Granada was beautiful. I did a walking tour with the hostel which is a great way to see lots and meet people. We walked around the streets, saw the Alhambra (didn’t go in because of time) and just enjoyed the warmth and the history. We went to tapas bars and ate and drank sangria and it was just so much fun I would love to go back with a friend some time.
A definite downside to only ten days is that I only get the feel for a place and them I’m off elsewhere but I wanted to see so much so I guess it just means I’ll have to come back sometime.
Alhambra.
Mosque fountain
Selfie with Alhambra in the background.
After Granada it was Sevilla. I went to a flamenco show, met some guys from London on the rooftop and hung out with them drinking sangria and beer. Wandered the streets of Sevilla at night with a young girl from Japan and an older man from Brazil. There is so much history in Sevilla that I felt like I was forgetting so much even as I was hearing about it. I wrote things down when I got back to the hostel and hopefully I remembered most of what had caught my attention. My last night in Sevilla I went on a little tapas tour with three girls from my dorm. We wandered around and went to three or four different tapas bars and that was our dinner and evening fun. It was a lot of fun; we got tipsy, ate a lot of good food and laughed lots.
Giralda
The cathedral
Triana
Plaza de Espana
Friday October 12th my trip was almost over. I took the train back to Madrid and was flying out early the next morning. I went to the Bernabeu a second time. (Still amazing and saw so much more this time). Went to see Cibeles lit up at night and more or less said goodbye to Spain. I left the hostel around 3 am and took a taxi back to the airport since my flight left at 6:30 or so. (Why I booked such an early flight I don’t know.)
By Saturday night I was back in Mississauga and my trip was over. It was a great experience, I met so nice people, saw amazing things and most importantly I did it.
Spain - Oct 2012
This trip to Spain was a huge deal for me for many reasons. I had been to Spain once before but it was with my family and as such there was a lot I wanted to do and see that didn’t happen. We also were not in the South of Spain at all which is somewhere I had really wanted to go. It was also big because this was the first time I traveled on my own and while I do speak Spanish it is not intermediate and rusty so that was possibly going to cause a bit of problems. Either way I was super excited and looking forward to going. I had ten days and other than a weekend in England (for the purposes of football entirely) I was going to hit up three areas of España!
Thursday, October 4th I landed in Madrid. Getting from the airport to the metro stop I needed was pretty simple and I wasn’t worried about getting around that way. Of course street signs are not everywhere and they are on the buildings which is something to get used to. The little circle almost where I get off the metro was busy with several streets and in my tired state I couldn’t find the street I needed. (Later once I did it was so obvious I don’t know how I missed it) But I went into a shop and asked directions and voila 5 minutes later I was at my hostel. That first day I did a bunch of walking and got a bit lost so the first day was tinged with some uncertainty.
I walked around and saw Cibeles which was beautiful and I could just picture Iker kissing her and I wished I was there at a time they were celebrating a win because that would’ve been incredible. I went el Museo de Prado that night and it is impressive but I’m not a big paintings fan. I went to the museum with these German girls that were in the same dorm as me.
Cibeles
Museo del Prado
On Friday the first thing I did after getting up was go to the Santiago Bernabeu. I can remember standing outside just being giddy with the idea that I was actually there. That I was seeing the famous stadium and was going to go inside. I spent a few hours going through it, took a bunch of pictures, spent a bunch of euros and left feeling I’d missed so much. But I saw it and I sat where these players have sat and I read about their history and saw the proof of their legacy in the museum. Also side note saw a guy wearing a Barcelona shirt in the museum and thought it was funny.
Home of the Blancos!
Looking down at the stadium.
With the Copa del Rey final jersey signed by the players.
Champions!
To think of the players who have sat in this very chair... sigh.
After the Bernabeu I just walked around the Madrid city center for a bit, was given a free postcard because the man said I was “la mujer la más hermosa en el mundo” haha before leaving to catch my flight to London that evening. I got into London around 11 or so and walked through a light rain to the hostel. But it was nice. I enjoyed the rain and hey I was in London so it was expected.
Saturday was the day that Chelsea was playing and I had bought tickets to see the match. Not great tickets but I didn’t care because a lifelong dream was going to come true. I was going to see Fernando Torres play live! The game was in the afternoon so I figured I would go see the London Eye first. I bought a ticket at the hostel and headed out. Unfortunately the metro was undergoing improvements at the time and the line by my hostel was shut down so I had to take trains and stuff instead. Still pretty easy but sadly I got directions for going to the match and directions for going to the Eye mixed up (same line different directions) and essentially spent the morning riding this one train line back and forth. Realizing I was going the wrong way getting off and going back on the next train only to realize I no longer had time to get to the Eye, ride it and get back before the match so getting off again and waiting to go back from where I just was. Surprisingly this amused me instead of bothered me and I was still in a good mood.
Wearing my Spain Torres jersey
The match was incredible. I am not a Chelsea fan but they played well and were in control of the play and best of all Chelsea’s first goal was scored by Fernando Torres. It was a beautiful header and I went wild and throughout the match I probably took a couple dozen photos of him alone. The final score was 4 -1. Before the match I made a quick stop in the store to buy a keychain for my neighbour since he is a big Chelsea fan (we argue all the time) and he is the one that came with me to see LFC when they were in Toronto that summer.
The Eye was nice but a bit crowded and people were rude not moving so others had a chance to take pictures as well. Plus my camera battery died, oh well. That night I met a couple of guys at the hostel pub and hung out with them. One oddly enough lives ten minutes away from where I did back home.
The London Eye. 30 min around.
Sunday I woke up really early, caught a night bus to the coach station and took a five hour bus ride from London to Liverpool. Caught a taxi to Anfield (I WAS AT ANFIELD!) and got there in time for the match. It was exhilarating being there, listening to the whole stadium sing ‘You’ll never walk alone’ and seeing these boys play at home. Sadly the score was 0-0 but I was able to check off another life goal seeing them play at home. Was in a bit of a panic trying o find a taxi to get back to the station in time to catch my bus back to London but got there with ten minutes to spare. Got back in around midnight walked to that night’s hostel and crashed because I was up at 7 the next morning to go back to the airport.
Did I practically stalk these two with my camera from the stands? Yes!
Wish I had more time to take more pictures of the stadium.
Had some issues with the flight (got bumped onto a different one) but made it back to Madrid where I took a train to Granada for the next part of my trip.
Granada was beautiful. I did a walking tour with the hostel which is a great way to see lots and meet people. We walked around the streets, saw the Alhambra (didn’t go in because of time) and just enjoyed the warmth and the history. We went to tapas bars and ate and drank sangria and it was just so much fun I would love to go back with a friend some time.
A definite downside to only ten days is that I only get the feel for a place and them I’m off elsewhere but I wanted to see so much so I guess it just means I’ll have to come back sometime.
Alhambra.
Mosque fountain
Selfie with Alhambra in the background.
After Granada it was Sevilla. I went to a flamenco show, met some guys from London on the rooftop and hung out with them drinking sangria and beer. Wandered the streets of Sevilla at night with a young girl from Japan and an older man from Brazil. There is so much history in Sevilla that I felt like I was forgetting so much even as I was hearing about it. I wrote things down when I got back to the hostel and hopefully I remembered most of what had caught my attention. My last night in Sevilla I went on a little tapas tour with three girls from my dorm. We wandered around and went to three or four different tapas bars and that was our dinner and evening fun. It was a lot of fun; we got tipsy, ate a lot of good food and laughed lots.
Giralda
The cathedral
Triana
Plaza de Espana
Friday October 12th my trip was almost over. I took the train back to Madrid and was flying out early the next morning. I went to the Bernabeu a second time. (Still amazing and saw so much more this time). Went to see Cibeles lit up at night and more or less said goodbye to Spain. I left the hostel around 3 am and took a taxi back to the airport since my flight left at 6:30 or so. (Why I booked such an early flight I don’t know.)
By Saturday night I was back in Mississauga and my trip was over. It was a great experience, I met so nice people, saw amazing things and most importantly I did it.