Blogs from Madrid, District of Madrid, Spain, Europe - page 9

Meillä on pitkä vaihto Madridissa. Ollaan yötä lentokentän lähellä hostellissa Bajarasissa. Hintaan kuului kyyti kentalta ja takaisin. Kaytiin syomassa laheisessa ravintolassa seka illalla etta aamulla.... read more

Despite my weariness, I was awake sparrow-fart and tossed and turned until finally giving up the dream of sleeping like a normal person around 5:30am. Kohen managed to sleep longer (ahh…the blessed ability to sleep through anything that we seem to lose with adulthood). Anyway, we were all soon up and about and looking forward to checking out the Spanish capital. The apartment was nice and spacious, with everything we could want and views forever. Best of all, Kohen had his own room and a real bed (not always the case with some apartments we’ve had before). We were told at the airport that our luggage would be delivered between 2-6pm, and we would need to be at the apartment to take delivery. Major bummer – this would put a big hole in our opportunity to ... read more

I have to admit that I did very limited research into Cuenca before the start of our trip. I only knew that it was a beautiful little town known for its picturesque Hanging Houses. So when we arrived in Cuenca, I was caught off guard when the train dropped us off literally in the middle of nowhere. I had no idea that the train station was so far away from the city center. We had to take a cab into the city center, costing us around 15 euro. At this point we were running low on funds and only had enough money for the cab ride back to the train station. In the city center we were unable to locate an ATM machines. However, we contemplated about withdrawing more money because we didn’t want to pay ... read more

The next morning we said goodbye to Lisbon as we headed off to Madrid. We reached our hotel in Madrid in the late afternoon. We had our final sit down optional dinner with the group at a restaurant in the main square. Then it was off to the various clubs around Madrid. We partied on into the night as we said goodbye to a great group of people and new friends.... read more

Today was our first official day on our Contiki Spain, Morocco and Portugal Trip. Our trip leader, Nihar, gave us a quick orientation tour of the central tourist area of Madrid including the Royal Palace and the Plaza Mayor. Then, we separated into groups to discover Madrid on our own. The first place we decided to visit was the Royal Palace. We joined fellow Contiki travelers Erin, Caitlin, Tezlyn, and Edwin. On the way to the Royal Palace from Plaza Mayor we discovered a random sheep parade on the main street. With a bit of research, I discovered that the parade is a protest from neighboring shepherds in defense of ancient grazing, migration and droving rights that are being threatened by urbanization and modern agricultural practices. It was very interesting seeing rural culture on the streets ... read more