chronicles of buaya: italy/spain trip

spain - the land of zara, churos, tapas and paellas

after a very uncomfortable night on the rock hard floors of rome's ciampino airport, we were on our way to sunny spain. or at least what we thought was sunny spain. little did we know that the weather ahead of us was going to be the total opposite.

the order of cities visited were girona, barcelona and finally madrid.

girona: the ghost town
when we touched down at girona airport, i noticed something amiss. why the heck was there frost on the airport vehicles? when i stepped out of the plane i got my answer. it was freezing! we boarded the bus to girona, tired and cold. not the ideal condition to go travelling in. but still we forged on, walking around the town of girona with all our barang barang. it was 9am when we got there, but the streets were almost completely empty. we explored the eastern part of the city, which was the more historical part and contained most of the sights. soon we got too bored, too cold and too miserable and thus decided to head off to catch the train to barcelona.

the empty streets of girona

more empty streets

the pool that froze over

a damn big church for a small town

barcelona: my favourite city
our train ride to barcelona was slightly confusing. the train made an unscheduled stop, so we were pretty puzzled when we got off at the supposed stop only to discover that it wasn't the correct stop. there was probably an announcement made over the PA but we didn't understand a single word of spanish. nevertheless we jumped onto the next train and made our way to the hostel to dump our lugguage and give our shoulders a well deserved break.

barcelona is a pretty cool city. there are lots of funky architecture around, thanks to this architect called gaudi, who was extremely fascinated with the nature and decided to incorporate them into his building designs. when not having gaudy facades (pun intended), the rest of barcelona's buildings are pretty modern and well maintained. coupled with the wide streets and structure town layout, barcelona was a refreshing change from the dreariness i felt in italy. not only that, barcelona is by the sea, so it has some rather lovely beaches and nice seaside views. the bad thing about our stay there was that it rained and hailed on our second day, but if the weather was fine (and warmer), barcelona and her beaches will definitely be a fine option for a holiday.

sagrada familia - some swanky gaudi church

a more normal church

the barcelonian harbour

the hail on our second day there

yes hail

funky entrance of guell park - another gaudi project

beach side property

the (abandoned) wintry beaches of barcelona

madrid - shopper's paradise
we soon left barcelona on one of the high speed bullet trains bound for madrid. cruising along at speeds of up to 301km/hr, we were soon in madrid after two and a half hours.

madrid is somewhat like the mecca for the mid-budget shopper. there are tons of clothing stores around, ranging from zara to springfield to some brands i have never heard before. within a 500m radius one can find like 2 or even 3 stores of the same brand. and the stores are pretty large as well, some being 3 or 4 storeys high (catering mostly to female fashion obviously). as for touristy sights, madrid can be covered within a day, but shopping at madrid deserves another day at least.

it snowed on our last day there, which got us kind of excited, until we realised it meant that our flight may be delayed. walking along the snow covered streets proved pretty tricky as well, as they were very slippery. when we got to the airport, we had our worst fears confirmed, that our flight will be delayed by 8.5 hours. fortunately it wasn't cancelled, because that meant we would have to catch an even later flight, and all of us weren't too keen on camping overnight at an airport again. eventually we reached back london, where the temperatures were more forgiving than those we experienced in italy and spain. ah the irony of it all.