The last of Europe

In order to come home for Christmas I booked a flight out of Madrid to Hong Kong, for a mere 250 euros. I booked onward connections to Manila for a little over three weeks, four nights in Bali and then home for early December.

I spent too much time in Madrid, but did a little more of the touristy sight-seeing stuff that I missed out on my first visit.

I visited the Reina Sofia art museum, home to many famous artists like Picaso and Dali, as well as smaller temporary exhibitions. 

I did another walking tour in Madrid, hosted by a very entertaining and informative tour guide. His stories were engaging and interesting, such as the history behind the statue below - it was the first ever "rearing horse" statue in existence! The artist reportedly had to get in contact with Galileo for advice to make it balance - the simple solution of a hollow front and solid rear section was the answer!

He also described the history of the current royal palace. Prior to it burning down in the 1700's, it was an abomination that architecture buffs from France, Italy and the like scoffed at. This was a result of its Frankenstein architecture - each of the Spanish kings wanting to make their mark and alter the original building! Rebuilt on the same site, the new building is now something to write home about!

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My aforementioned cheap-as-chips flight with Etihad to Hong Kong was a bit of a disaster. Scheduled for 9:30am, it was an early start to do the day. I rocked up, checked my bag, passed through security and immigration and waited... Twenty minutes after scheduled boarding they announced a technical issue with the flight and to wait two hours before more information. 

Everyone got a free breakfast.,

The announcement then came that our flight had been cancelled and they were working with Emirates to try to get us to our relevant final destinations. 

I had to go back through immigration into Europe, collect my bag, take a shuttle to another airport before trying to check in for the replacement flight. 

The way this was organised was one guy was standing in a crowd of bystanders yelling out names, when each persons boarding pass and connecting flight had been processed and ready for collection!

An hour of standing around, I got my ticket and was on my way back through immigration. Luckily the flight only had the same two hour layover as the original!

All in all it was a great flight - they certainly treat you well at Emirates!

Tapas, Sangria and Siesta

I have been really lazy in updating my blog lately - in part because I don't have a whole lot to write about and in part because I used Spain as more of a relaxing destination! I have been more interested in getting to know the culture than seeing the sights - and their culture involves great food and drinks and sleeping during the day!

The first stop of mine in Spain was Barcelona. I was staying at an interesting "skate" hostel as part of the big Sant Jordi hostels group. The hostel had a mini half-pipe inside!

Barcelona is a big city - one of the biggest I had visited in the last few cities. It is not exactly walkable; metro rules in Barcelona. I had my first taste of Paella, the traditional Spanish rice dish, and I found it to be pretty damn tasty, despite the somewhat sub-par meat used in making it.

I visited the main touristy sites, such as the Sagrada Familia, a church that has been under construction for a few hundred years and is still being completed today.

The highlight for me in Barca was a trip up the hill to the Bunkers of Carmel. I'm not sure on this history of these but it is an old bunker up on a hill overlooking Barcelona and offers pretty spectacular views of the big city.

From here we travelled down to Valencia - the self proclaimed home of Paella. Once more I participated in a walking tour and learnt a little about Spanish history, in particular how the south was occupied by the Muslims until the 1300's and how the Christian army drove them out.

Valencia is a lot more walkable than Barcelona, its main sights condensed into the city centre where my hostel was situated.

Next up was Madrid, the country's capital. Madrid is a hip city - featuring a number of rooftop bars and a good party scene, it makes for a lot of weekend tourists from elsewhere in Europe a top destination. As a result, I was only able to spend two night in Madrid - come the weekend, all hostels were booked out!

I jumped on a late bus to head down to Granada, my favourite city that I visited in Spain. Granada differs from much of Spain in that they are more traditional - tapas is included with drinks! For around 2euro, you buy a beer/sangria/coke, which includes a serve of food. Depending on where you go, you can chose what you get with your drink - anything from hamburgers to panini rolls to fish! This offers a great style of living - you go out late afternoon for a drink with food, and over a couple hours you drink and eat at your leisure.

Granada was the last city to have the Muslims driven out during Spain's occupation, and a main tourist attraction here is the Alhambra, a great castle set up on a hill overlooking the city.

Adjacent to the mountain on which the Alhambra sits is the area of Sacromonte. People up here live in caves they have dug out of the mountain, a percentage of which are licensed by the government due to their age, others are more off the grid housing for youth and immigrants. I did a walking tour taking us up through the arabic neighbourhood before heading up the hill overlooking Granada and seeing the caves.

You can spot the Alhambra atop the hill in the last panoramic photo.

Not only do you get cheap drinks with free food in Granada, but they also have cheap bars, such as the one that did 16 shots for 6euros! Granada is a student town afterall, with a lot of university students - its not hard to see why it is cheap!