The start of the tour proper for me when we finally left Madrid on the bus. The first two stops of the day we made was in Avila and Salamanca, Spanish towns before continuing on to the Portuguese border...
The city of Avila 1117 meters (3665 feet) above sea level, the highest provincial capital in Spain. It is built on the flat summit of a rocky hill, which rises abruptly in the midst of a veritable wilderness: a brown, arid, treeless table-land, strewn with immense grey boulders, and shut in by lofty mountains. This results in an extreme climate, with very hard and long winters, and short summers.

St Teresa's church. Avila is renouned for Saint Teresa of Avila, a carmelite reformer who supposedly lived here.

Interior of the church

Plaza mayor, centre of the city.

Outside the city walls of Avila. Avila is most known for their medieval city walls that were constructed of brown granite in 1090 with 88 towers and 9 gateways. They are still in excellent condition, but a large part of the city lies beyond their perimeter.

Roman monument called the 4 pillars. Legend has it that St Teresa wanted to leave Avila to embark on a world wide tour, but when she reached this spot with her companions and turned back to look at her hometown, the view of the city was so breathtaking that she decided that Avila was not worth leaving at all....

View of Avila from the 4 pillars

Salamanca is a university town which is known for the University of Salamanca. The university is the oldest one in Spain and fifth oldest western university. It's other popular site is the cathedral.

Plaza Mayor of Salamanca: the centre of the city.


Salamanca cathedral. This cathedral is unique in the sense that there was an older cathedral built before that became too small for the congreation. Instead of pulling it down and building a new one as was usually done, the new cathedral was built around it instead.

The University of Salamanca.

There is a legend among the university students that if one can spot the frog in the picture below, single girls will find their future loved one soon. But most people will tell you that it is easier to find your future partner than to find the frog. See if you can spot the frog!!

Casa de las Conchas (House of Shells). Today it is a library

Walking around the streets of Salamanca... cobbled stone and everything...

Last views of the cathedral, city and roman bridge as we left...

When looking over my days in Madrid, I realized that I probably had 1 too many and decided to sign up for a day trip to El Escorial, Valley of the Fallen and Toledo. Cosmos had a Toledo optional, but I was lucky that I took this one, because I had great weather and the next day (during the optional) was the day that the sucky weather in Madrid began.

El Escorial Monastery is a historical residence of the Kings of Spain. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum and school. The main patron saint featured on the building is St Lawrence who was known for being grilled alive. With the exception of a few, the Spanish royal family is buried here including the current king's parents.

The Valley of the Fallen is a monumental memorial errected at Cuelgamuros Valley in the Sierra de Guadarrama near Madrid. It was conceived by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to honor those who fell during the Spanish Civil war. The is a basilicaa built into the granite mountain which you can't see from afar and only notice it when you reach the valley.


Afternoon excursion to Toledo. Toledo is a municipality located in central Spain, 70km south of Madrid. It was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1986 for its cultural heritage as one of the former capitals of the Spanish Empire and place of coexistence of Christian, Jewish and moorish cultures. Many famous artists were born or lived in Toledo, such as El Greco whose famous painting the Burial of the Count of Orgaz (below) can be found in Toledo.

View of Toledo and city walls from the outside.

Cathedral of Toledo, built in the 13th C

Walking through the streets of Toledo...good walking shoes advised!

View of the river and the new city of Toledo

Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes, cloister.

The Chains on the walls were hung by Christians after they had been released from the Morrish prisons. They made their way back to Toledo and hung their chains as a prayer of thanks that they were freed.

More Madrid pictures: what I found interesting about the street names if that they all came with pictorial representations of the names as well, which added more character to the city of Madrid itself.

Monastery + shops along Puerta del sol.

Spanish Tapas dinner + Sangria with people I met in the hostel...


Christmas lights at night in Madrid... The atmosphere is very engaging... crowds of people doing last minute shopping, families with children admiring the lights, adults having a drink at the local bars....

21st Dec 2009: woke up in the morning to find Madrid covered with snow and heaps and heaps of Slush on the roads.... despite that, I still went walking along the streets to take some snow pictures.... but let me say snow is best viewed inside, not outside..

Prado museum: Took a private tour inside with British couple (Peter and Sally) from the tour....

Visit to the Real Madrid stadium Santiago Bernabeu, where you get to see the stadium, trophy room, interview room and even roam around the turf.... wish my brother had been here, he probably would have loved it more than me :P


Night dinner before leaving Madrid, visit to the San miguel market where we had seafood dishes together with wine... kinda classy tapas market vibe...

Signed up for a Cosmos tour to Spain Portugal and Morocco as a means to escape the harsh Hungarian winter. Never one to waste any time, I opted to fly to Madrid a couple of days earlier so that I could see the city as I knew that we would not see much of Madrid on the tour itself. Flying over to Madrid was a hassle in itself. The plane was delayed and we had to sit in the plane doing nothing for 45 mins before the pilot was given the go ahead to take of, due to the "chaotic Europe airspace". Arrived at my hostel close to midnight, after narrowly escape a pickpocketing attempt on the train and tumbled into bed. I was quite lucky during my days alone there because I made some friends in the hostel who invited me out to lunch/dinner with them and with them I was able to experience some real Spanish food (it really helps to be with people who speak the language!). Pictures below!

The bear statue at Puerta del sol, the symbol of Madrid.

Sofia museum where Picasso's famous Guernica is kept. You can take pictures of any other painting except that Painting!


Plaza Mayor where the Christmas markets were being held. It was so crazy here!!!! It was literally elbow to elbow... so chaotic..

Lunch at the world's oldest restaurant, according to the book of records. Set menu of 40 Euros gives you a soup, classic spanish main of roast suckling pig and dessert including drinks. The pork was very well done, but too much!!! Couldn't finish it.

Lottery buying in Puerta del sol. It's a very popular ritual among the Spanish apparently. Museum del Jamon is a popular tapas place, there's like a chain of them all around the city.

The Palacio Real (Royal Palace) is an enormous palace, with scorching plains of concrete around it and the Real Armorial (Royal Armory), a two-story collection of medieval weapons and armor. The palace not the residence of the current royal family. The Royal Palace is considered to be one of the most emblematic and beautiful buildings in Madrid, not only for its location but also for its architecture and the artistic treasures to be found in its rooms.

Cathedral de la Almudena. Finished in the end of 20th century, it is where the Princes of Asturias Felipe and Letizia were married in 2004.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and New Year Celebrations. I myself spent my birthday in Spain, Christmas in Portugal and New Year's in Morocco. It was a blast and I was very lucky to have met similar like minded people on my tour which allowed me to celebrate these 3 occasions very well. Now I am back in Budapest before heading off to Lyon to visit Lily, and fingers crossed, to Genoa to see my ex Junior College teacher.
I'm still in the midst of getting my head together after this rather exhausting SPM (Spain Portugal Morocco) trip. Exhausting but really well worth. Have made some sweet memories from the tour, so will definitely be thinking about the them for a while. So pictures will take a while, I'll probably be slowly uploading and blogging about them in Lyon.

I suppose that now is a good time as any other to let you guys know that this blog will close down soon, because yes, I am leaving Europe soon to go home. It's been a wonderful year, and I have truly satisfied all my wonderlust and am feeling rather homesick at the moment. When I look back on my blog, it's been like wow, even for me. I've been to so many places, seen so many things this year, I can't blame my friends who asked me whether I truly worked haha... which I do have to say that I really did! 1st Feb is the date that I leave and till then... I'm just counting dwn. Finally can I say that the saying, there is no nothing like home.... with feeling.

Till then: Sneak preview of my SPM Trip...
Rabat..

Fatima

Seville

Lisbon

Fes

Marrakesh

Granada