happy SPAINing... (part I)

ah huh! i am back!! Surprise!!! just when everyone thought that i will be back only on sat night, here i am, on a cold lonely sat night, typing noisily on my keyboard...

first, to explain why i am at home in aveiro instead of the hostel in barcelona... simply, i've ran out of money... maybe i have truly integrated into the portugese lifestyle, where expenses are much lower than as compared to everywhere else in europe...

ok, let's get back to the main topic... despite being away in spain for the whole of the past week, i was constantly brain-storming... not those sleepless nights that had been bugging me during the exams period of course....wondering how i am going to write this blog entry of mine... something which will reflect both the fun as well as my inner thoughts, and that this blog will bring back the memories whenever i read it again....

so here it goes... well, as an engineer (errr.... no prior experience as one, but let's just put it as engineer-to-be), i think i will put what i have learnt into use, so.... let's do this the "report-writing" style....

INTRODUCTION
2 foreign guys in a foreign land... well, at least my traveling mate speaks spanish, so that's a consolation... why spain? since portugal is situated at the western end of the continent, we thought that it might be a good idea to just start with somewhere near... besides, the great fun which i had in barcelona in the summer of 2006 helps too in the decision of where-to-go-after-the-exams....

so with minimal planning. we decided to spend a week in spain, starting from madrid, then travel south towards sevilla, malaga, granada and finally end our spanish adventure in barcelona... here I go!!!MADRID
excitement had been building up (think exponential function) ever since the 2nd last paper... however, upon touching down at the madrid airport, all those vivid images of a sparking new airport and the endless rows of duty-free shops came to an abrupt death... hahahaha... errr... come on, madrid = capital = i thought that the airport should be at least comparable to those in europe which i had been to... for example, like those in zurich, frankfurt or even london... but it is not to be... hahahaha... pretty old and the facilities are not that great, and we waited for ages for our luggage to be unloaded from the airplane...

met up with ROSA... a friend of alex's.. well, she is like how i imagine her to be... sweet, pretty and petite... alex issued a warning much earlier:" she is nice but dont touch her, she is my brother's girlfriend"... so rosa was to be our guide in madrid, at least for the first 2 days...

that first night, we had lots of yummy tapas... tapas such as calamari rings, and tortillas... nice, and we had some (err... ok, a lot of) sangrila... nice too... but when the bill came up to a whopping 45 euros... hahahaha... good food don’t come cheap, but then again, the quantity plays an important part in that inflated bill too... and we were still talking about sticking to 10euros per day as food expenditure... easily busted 2 days' budget on just one meal...

and since we had no accommodation... we were still hoping that we can spend the night warming the floor of rosa's room... we tried to get 2 beds for sat, but it was impossible... so we came to madrid knowing that there may be a high chance of us sleeping in the streets of madrid on saturday... (sunday and monday nights were already taken care of)

hence, faced with the thoughts of having to survive one night in the cold weather versus going to the hostel and trying out our luck, we decided on the latter....

as luck had it, (well, only 50%) there is only ONE bed available for the night = having to sleep in the same bed as alex = risking the curious looks of the rest of the people in the room in the morning after... but we managed to survive that... was uncomfortable since there was little room to turn about... and we wanted to keep as much space in between us as possible...

on the following morning, after the embarrassment, we started mingling with the rest of the travelers at the hostel... as usual, we have a large number of american youths... but since we were in a 14-bed dorms, there were people from holland, peru, spain, italy...

surprisingly, we managed to get along pretty well with the dutch guy (RAMSES)... pretty young, only 19 years of age... and he was in a group of 3... dutchman + spaniard + peruvian... think the only reason that brought RAMSES and me together in the first place was the fact that we speak only english... and he felt left out when his 2 female traveling mates started speaking in spanish, which happened all the times... so its just him and me... and we hit it off immediately... and that brief friendship was further strengthened on the basis that we are simply crazy about football....

something interesting... we accidentially wondered into the gay streets... hahahaha... one freaking asian (that's me) plus one south american.... think the people there probably had some wrong idea.... maybe we would get picked up if we had stayed there longer...

of course, no trip to madrid will be complete without visiting the home ground of real madrid... SANTIAGO BERNABEU and there happened to be a match on the day itself... madrid vs tarragona... tried buying the tickets but was appalled to discover that they don't sell tickets on the day of the match... black-market price = 120euros a pair.... and there are no more "david beckham" shirts... and because of the match, i can't go for a stadium tour... shucks!

later that night, i came back from dinner alone... hmmm... dinner was fantastic!!! never once in my life have i seen anything like this before... a "ham museum"... just order a beer, and you will get some free ham and things like that... felt that ROSA and alex would have a better time without me "tagging" along... as i was examining the numerous currencies displayed on the wall, something remotely familiar caught my attention... "don't like that lah", "see lah", "got meh"... these familiar sounds kept filtering out of one of the room... that was when i got excited!!! "there must be a singaporean around!!!" hahahaha... wasn't everyday when i can find a singaporean within 100 feet of me... so, 6 girls in the room (5 malaysians + 1 singaporean) whom happened to be on vacation too... first year medical students studying in dublin on holiday in spain... hahahahah... had some wonderful time with them chatting and playing cards... hot milo, familar chinese songs blasting away... ahhahaha... i've found home in madrid... 6000 miles away from singapore... oh, there are another 3 more Malaysian guys in my room too... fellow students of the 6 girls... however, the day didn’t end here for me... went out for supper (dinner to be exact) at 10pm with RAMSES... then we met up with 2 dutch girls in the same hostel... and we went clubbing... think everyone was tipsy when we took these pics… the last day in madrid was spent wasting in the park... afterall, it's a holiday for us... weather was fantastic, but for the strong winds... well, this day coincided with the start of a slightly cold spell in madrid... so, it was strong winds, strong winds and more strong winds... ahhahaha....but we managed to squeeze in some fun, together with RAMSES... and not forgetting the plaza de toros (bull-fighting arena)

oh, of course, madrid is a pretty city... but i dont really like it... felt like some commercialized... tall buildings everywhere...

SEVILLA
decided on taking the bus since the express trains cost 70 euros and the regional trains will include countless transfers... besides, taking the bus would set us back by approximately 18euros per person... but of course, we have to endure 6 hours of traveling... argh!!!

sevilla is a nice city... i decided that it would probably turn out to be my favourite city for the whole of the spain trip, which it did... and the hostel is probably one of the best which i had stayed in... fantastic location + incomparable atmosphere... the first night was spent on a tapas tour (been to 2 different tapas place... had 4 different tapas dishes and lots of new friends of course), and also, a traditional flamengo... whoa... wow.... no pics for this, but it was truly an eye-opener for me....

2nd day was spent exploring the many attractions offered by this charming city... been to places like the plaza de espana.... and the cathedral of course.... and at night, had this eat-out organized by the hostel... and oh, i have a japanese as a roomie... and also, this german girl (BIRTA) who happens to live close to hamburg... so alex and me arranged to meet up with her again when we settle down in hamburg...

oh, the cool street "art"... and it was in sevilla that we realized that we are running out money and that it would be easier for us to just change our schedule and return from madrid instead of barcelona...