Madrid Dia 1 : El Gran Encuentro en Madrid

16th of August 2011. We left Aunt Mimi and Uncle Morten's place quite early (continuation from the London blog entry) , given that our flight is 8.25 am, so basically we have to be at the airport by hook or by crook by 6.25 am. Gasp! We didn't know how we managed to wake up that early that day. We managed to catch a 4 am bus, that interchanged at the Victoria station for another bus that leads to Stansted Airport.

Knowing that Spain's weather is about the same as Malaysia in summer, which is 16 - 32 °C, we were thinking, this shouldn't be a challenge! The biggest challenge we foreseen was the language barrier, which we are going to find it pretty interesting when we arrive there.

We arrived Madrid around 11.55 am via RyanAir airlines. Now, I'm not sure how the low cost carriers are being compared over here in Europe, but I would prefer Air Asia anytime due to its familiarity and pretty much for its air stewardess. But we're not complaining much either, we did arrive safely in Madrid despite the not so comfortable flight seats along the way.

RyanAir - Still prefer AirAsia LOL

Once we arrived the airport and checked in our passports, our first destination was thought to be a hostel, but it turned out to be a huge hall that accommodated almost 30 + of us, which from here on be referred as Pacifico because it is the identifiable name we absorbed since it is near that station. Anyhow, the actual place is called Caritas, just so you know.

Using the metro in Madrid is pretty much like using the Tube in London, pretty well drafted map to follow. The only issue about the metro is, the ticketing is not very strict and people conveniently went over the borders and use the train for free. We managed to reach Pacifico station all the way from Barajas within 2 hours, and when we arrived there, we started looking for our so called accommodation. We asked some of the locals for directions, but I would say, most of them cannot speak English but at least I recognize a few key words which eventually led us to our accommodation.

Map of Madrid's Metro

About World Youth Day, the package that we paid for is around €362 (about RM1450), which was inclusive of accommodation, train ticket that could bring us anywhere within the Metro vicinity and 3 meals per day in forms of vouchers. The meal vouchers can be used at any food outlet that has the World Youth Day sticker at the store front. 

Transportation covered for a week :)

It was quite a deal, and although I am not a full fledged participant (and Larry knows about it), I am there to participate the program as I go but I was given leeway to walk around should I choose not to participate in any of them (since I am not a Catholic)

So there we were, unloading our bags and managed to chat a few with our liaison, Esteban who was a WYD volunteer. A Madrid local, he was very friendly towards us and tried to speak to us in English, which was a challenge to him but in return we tried using our broken Spanish and communicated. It was kind of hilarious us trying to speak Spanish, oh well.

We had lunch at the local Burger King with a bunch of new found friends from Belgium. BK was a relief from the hot sun (can't believe as a true blue Malaysian, we were complaining about the heat, oh wait, that is being Malaysian anyway, no offense :).

Burger King. Which can be found quite frequent in Madrid compared to McDonalds.

Again, language barrier but we didn't let that stop us from introducing ourselves and where we came from. After lunch, we went to one of the WYD stations in town and collected our WYD pack, which includes our meal vouchers, train ticket and other devotees kit (such as rosary, mini bible,cross etc).

JMJ World Youth Day Kit. Image courtesy of MadridJMJ

After unloading some of our items back at Pacifico, we then made it to Plaza de Cibeles, one of Madrid's most iconic places for the Opening Mass. Getting there, alongside with us, are thousands of other participants, which outnumbered the locals in Madrid easily. I'm not a huge fan of being sardine packed in crowds, and a little advice here, be 100% aware of your belongings when you're in one. 

At last, we managed to reach Plaza de Cibeles, braving through the massive crowds, all devotees ready for the Mass. One thing that we have to do here, is respect, and show the respect to the people for being pious as they are. So that was what I did, I actually went through the whole mass with Larry and thousands of others, presided over by the archbishop of Madrid and concelebrated by the partcipating bishops and priests for the WYD.

The crowd of pilgrims

As to how hard it get in Plaza de Cibeles, it was equally challenging to get out of the place as the crowd dispersed at the same time, all heading to the nearest place for dinner and going home. It was insane, one of the memorable experience I never expected in Madrid.

Opening Mass at Plaza de Cibeles

It was dark by the time we were done getting our bites, so we headed back to Pacifico and called it a night. And this is just day 1, we wondered what adventures was in stored for us the following days.

Ivan's Tips

1) Learn as many basic Spanish words as you can as not many of them can speak English

2) It's more polite if you asked anyone if they speak English before actually asking them the question, that way they will feel more open talking to you.

3) The decimal points for values are replaced by commas. E.g. RM1.00 here would look like RM1,00 over there.

4) WYD is also widely recognized as JMJ over the event, which stands for Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Jornada Mundial da Juventude (Jornada = Journey, Mundial = World Wide, da Juventude = of the youth)
#Thanks Felipe for the info correction :)

Day 5 - 6 Wembly, Wimbledon and Windsor

 Day 5, 14th August 2011

The morning was a little laid back for me as Larry had to go for Sunday mass. Anyhow, that gave me ample time to watch British TV, if I was not mistaken it was some soap opera. Negligible to say the least. When Larry came back, we made our way to our next stop, the Wembley Stadium. Conveniently, the tube station we stopped at was Wembley Park, see, taking public transport is easy in London I tell you! There wasn't any games on while we were there, and the stadium was quite serene I would say. 

Our next target was the infamous road where the Beatles walked on, the Abbey Road. Since it was only just me and Larry, it was a challenge to recreate the scene, so we ditched the plan and we just conveniently camwhored our way through.  

Abbey Road from our perspective :)

Also, I've managed to pass by Gordon Ramsay's restaurant! Didn't managed to go in though, hey, tight budget :P

Day 6, 15th August 2011

It was pretty much our last day to fully tour London. My initial plan was to travel all the way to Old Trafford, and the Stonehenge but we've calculated our time and Larry opted for Wimbledon Stadium and Windsor Castle instead.

Colours of Summer

Which was fine, because taking transit time into consideration, we would've only manage to see one place at the day itself. Now Wimbledon stadium, as opposed to the Wembley is more lively in the sense that there is actually a market next to the stadium, thus the crowd would be there, regardless if they are there for the game or otherwise.

Windsor Castle was a journey! From London to Paddington, changing train at Slough and finally Windsor and Eton Station. Don't worry if the places sounds utmost foreign to you (despite the fact that they are foreign to me), follow the tube/train, they will lead you there eventually.

Windsor Castle is another Britain's iconic landmark, so that'll substitute for missing the Stonehenge :|

Regardless, the castle is absolutely stunning, pity we were there quite late to enter the castle for visiting.

After the day is done, and we were exhausted to the limit, it was still no time to fully rest for the night, as we prepared ourselves for our next destination, SPAIN.

Our Lunch/Dinner

If navigating in London is easy, as everyone speaks English, I wonder what challenge lies ahead for us when we arrive Madrid.We called it a night right before midnight, as we had to catch an early flight, 0825 (gasp!)

Tell then, hasta la vista :)

Next Stop : Madrid 
Madrid Dia 1 : El Gran Encuentro en Madrid

Quite a common brand over here

Grocery Shopping made fun here :)

Day 3 - 4 : Travesting Covent Garden and more

Before continuing reading on, you might want to read Day 1 and Day 2 of my previous blog post, sorry for the discontinuation, hadn't had the time to properly organize the posts, my bad!

Day 3, 12th of August 2011.

Our intended destination was to find the late Amy Winehouse's house, but unfortunately the folks at Camden Market does not know when Camden Square is. Gutted. We spent most of the morning in Camden Market anyway, true to its market name suffix, it gives a feel of a flea market when we were there.

 

 

Later then we took the subway trail, all the way to King's Cross Station (yet another Monopoly landmark) and stumbled across Platform 9 3/4. We couldn't get to Hogswart though, tickets were sold out, gutted yet again. 

Another notable places we went that day was the St.Paul Cathedral and Covent Garden marketplace.

Oh, while you're at the Underground at Covent Garden, do try to take the stairs up sometimes. So much fun :)

We made it back to the Queen's Gallery since we've purchased the tickets the day prior. Nothing too exciting here though. We also made it South Kensington, saw the Tower of London, as well as the London Bridge. As for dinner, we had fish and chips. You gotta have that when you're in London :)

Our last stop of the day was the Westminster Abbey and the Big Ben for night shots. Pretty packed day I would say.

Day 4, 13th of August 2011.

You have got to visit the Madam Tussaud Wax Museum when you're in London. Their art work is immaculate, and frankly some of them are eerily similar to the actual person. Be prepared to go in a crowd though, and tips, purchase your tickets earlier online. Other attraction would be the Sherlock Holmes museum, that is of course if you're a fan of the sly sleuth.

We made our way to Cambridge Theater to catch the Chicago play. We were contemplating between Billy Elliot, but we chose All That Jazz eventually. That was my 1st musical to be honest with you!

The rest of the day was actually quite random, we went from the Savoy, to the Strand, and Hyde Park Center. I can concur that we did a lot of walking, a lot! Our last stop for the day was the Hard Rock Cafe, the very first HRC that was opened back in 1971.

 

 

All in all, we did heck a lot of tourist hopping around. Day 5 to come?