FROM THE STRAIGHT ARROW: Viva La Vida; Trip To Spain

Ola! Now that I am back on blogger, I will start the chapter of my long-lost travelling tale back in 2012 visiting Spain while I was on spring break during studies in London. Friends flew from Malaysia to visit me in London and we went for a short visit in Manchester so they could see Old Trafford with their own eyes, and left to board a budget flight to Madrid. It was a very short visit to Madrid but we had our memorable Spanish experience during the four-days-three-nights trip.

Why Madrid? Because we came across a promotion ad online and the flight ticket was only £35 per person and we had never been to Spain before. We basically chose the best budget hotel that we could on websites, as we were not into backpacking but still wanted to stay on our tight budget. We love snapping OOTDs, so backpacking was not an option. We found the hotel on RyanAir website too and the deal was quite interesting. So we took the bus to Manchester from London so we could board a cheap flight to Madrid two days after. It was uncomfortable of course, but it was not that bad. After all, the journey only took us less than three hours. It was okay.

So we took the train from Madrid Airport to the city, where our hotel was located. The journey took us in about half an hour from the airport underground and we got to the nearest station, Puerta Del Sol, where our hotel was located just a few steps away! It was quite a relief knowing that our cheap accommodation was so conveniently located at one of the famous attractions. As it was already midnight, we decided to just unpack and go to bed so we could spend the next day exploring the attractions.

We woke up the next morning feeling so hungry and we walked from the hotel looking around without any preferences, and we saw a very cosy cafe just opposite the hotel building with the main sign that we could understand; 2 euros! Lol! We straight away went across the street and looked the big menu displayed outside the cafe with photos of breakfast meals including a hot drink for 2 euros! It was a cosy little cafe with furry white fluffy cushions on the chairs and the price was 2 euros?! We went in and started ordering the main thing we had in mind, churros! We were hungry but since the price was not that bad we figured we could order more later.

The first place we went after breakfast was Plaza Mayor as it was the closest landmark we could see on the map, walking-distance from the cafe. It was early in the morning so it was not crowded, people were cleaning and started arranging chairs at outdoor cafes at the plaza. We were stunned by the architecture of that rectangle-shaped building. We came from an entrance and realised there were nine entrances to the plaza. It was a place for various cultural events at present, so we could not imagine the time when it was once a place for public execution back in history. So we snapped a few photos of the plaza and of course, our outfit of the day before walking out from Plaza Mayor.

*post to be continued