Finally back from our Europe trip! It has been a wonderful journey yes even with the bitter memories but we gained such an amazing experience! An experience we can never forget and definitely encourage everyone to do it just once in their lifetime! To explore the unknown, to get lost, to venture in a new city and be mesmerised!

After 2 short transits in KL and Dubai, we finally reached Madrid at 8:30PM. It was a very tiring flight, I’ve never had to have a full 5 meals on board an aircraft before. I had to turn down a couple meal services as I was too tired. As mentioned in my previous post, we used Mozio to book for our transportation to our Airbnb Apartment. We had to wait for 30mins as we are sharing the shuttle with a couple of others. Which wasn’t that bad for the price that we pay. For taxis in Madrid, they have a flat fee of €30! We paid about AUD$28 for the shuttle.

Our AirBnb apartment was cosy,clean and for the location it was worth the price! We did set a budget of getting an accommodation for AUD$100 a day! We did have a total of 18 nights so definitely budget is quite important in our trip! We had our first tapas for breakfast at Tapas 44 and it was awesome! I think it was the best one.

Madrid is a very cultural city with the Palace, the Plazas, the Facades. When you’re in Madrid, have some Churros! Among the places we visit were Puerta De Sol, the Palace, Plaza Mayor. But the weather was cold, rainy and rather gloomy while we were there! So it has been about running seeking shelter and warmth!

And i wonder why we shopped heaps in Zara! Well, definitely hit Zara and Mango when you’re in Spain. Cheap Cheap Cheap! We used Tripomatic app a lot during our holiday trips. It’s great as it features all the must see attractions and restaurants that you need to visit in each city and you can plan your daily itinerary as well! Very useful!

We spend about 4 days in Madrid and another 4 days in Barcelona. We were giving each city ample time just afraid we did get jet lag like we were in New York last September. We spend each day walking throughout our day. Due to the proximity of our apartment to the City, we walked almost every where except to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

We cab it to the stadium as it was starting to rain. The stadium tour was awesome and no doubt it was huge! The hubs had a great time and was in awe! Thank god we head there on a Weekday morning, it was less crowded and look who decided to show up, Mr Sun of course! 

On the fourth day we head to Atocha station to catch the Renfe Train to Barcelona. We got the tickets in February and it was an early bird ticket! So pretty happy to grab bargains of course! The trains were spacious, each carriage had a luggage area for you to store your luggages. If you like to know more, Seat 61 is the best train travel guide!

It was such a great weather in Barcelona! Alhamdulillah, we got upgraded from a 2* Hotel Santa Marta to a 3* Hotel Suizo as the hotel was still under refurbishment. As per TripAdvisor, initially there were heaps of mixed reviews regarding Hotel Santa Marta! So we were a little scared but you know to just accept whatever! Then we were told a week before that we were upgraded to Hotel Suizo! We were so ecstatic because it was located right in Gothic Quarters! Such a great location, close proximity to La Ramblas, 2 train stations within walking Distance and great cafes and Tapas bars within reach! Below is the view from our balcony.

Something about the Hotel bathrooms in Spain and Italy, they have this urinal thing at the side. Which we thought was weird. We stayed here for 3 nights and the hubs couldn’t sleep soundly due to the noises and theres really strong smell in the bathroom which i reckon coming from the separate urinal which we never ever used. But i think for the price and location, we are still grateful. We still think its a great place to be based at.

  The highlights of soccer fans being in Barcelona is to catch their game! Definitely had the best time, front row seats and having Barcelona conquered and dominated the match! It was amazing and of course getting to see your favourite players in real life! It was indeed such a dream come true!

Among the attractions that you definitely need to catch is of course the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Plaza Espana, Montjuic Fountains and Barcelona Beach! These places are amazing! We didn’t go into Sagrada Familia, the line is long and you know w just enjoy the facade really. Park Guell, definitely get tickets online! We had to wait 3 hours for the next available time to enter the park! So definitely lessons learnt there! Montjuic Fountains starts at 9pm so definitely worth checking the times before you go as the time changes as the seasons change!

Barcelona has been such an amazing city and is definitely our favourite city of the Trip! Halal restaurants are so easy to find in the city too!