December: Almost New Year!

Hey Guys! It's December 27th! Christmas Day has been and gone and so has Boxing Day. Hope you all had a great holiday, ate lots and drank yourselves silly. New Year is fast approaching and I, for one, am totally excited to check my Facebook and Instagram on the 1st of January to the #NewYearNewMe posts. I might even contribute!
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I began writing this blog post on the 21st, which was last Wednesday. The process began on my flight from Madrid to Dublin, on my way home for the holidays. The day started quite late, to be honest. Waking up late after having a few friends over for some farewell drinks! That turned into a late... or maybe

an early one. But after a late start, packing had to be finished and everything finalized before leaving. The flight was at 17:35 so we left at 15:30 for the metro. Living in the area that we are, it took us the guts of 50 minutes to reach the Terminal 1 station, traveling up line 9 towards Columbia and then switch to line 8 towards the airport. Getting through the airport was simple enough. Once you get off the metro and go through the barriers, you go up the escalator and literally keep walking straight and you'll arrive at the security gate. The lines weren't that tedious either. Simply made it up to the detectors quickly, passed through. However, I was stopped. Random frisk search and all that.
The other side of the security gate, it was then 16:45. After a quick look in the duty-free in the airport, we moved along towards the gate. As usual with Ryanair, the terminal wasn't so close but not incredibly far. Good way to burn

off anything you ate in the morning! We made it to the gate at 17:15, with boarding expected to start soon. In the end, after getting our bags transferred to the holding, we boarded at around 17:45/17:50. Take off time was then, in turn, 6pm. No complaints however, the flight itself was relatively smooth!
We landed in Dublin at around 8pm, Irish time. The disembark was quite quick also. They had us out of the plane not 15 minutes after landing. It was great then to come to Irish Immigration as you could see everyone coming home for Christmas and passing through the border to get onto Irish soil. It was one thing I was excited for, to be back on Irish soil, even if it was for a few days. Baggage claim was quick enough too. Then it was up and out through arrivals. As the doors opened into the public, a choir of singers were caroling outside the door, making the welcome home feel very warm. With no time to ponder the singers or anything else, I walked out to the bus station which was out of the terminal building. From the bus stop, I took the GoBus from Dublin Airport to Galway Coach Station, which took 2.5 Hours exactly. Departing the airport at 9 and arriving at 11:30. At just €20, it was well worth it, with free wifi and charging stations on-board.
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So enough of my day of travelling and more about what I experienced over the past few weeks in Madrid, right?
Since my last post talking about how another month has been in Madrid, its been quite a crazy time with exams starting from the 1st of December. With my few days of freedom, I headed back to Ireland for a few days as I want to ring in the New Year in Madrid and have a little while to myself to do some independent exploration and get some work done.
Over the last month, I mean, as an Erasmus student, it wasn't purely study time

of course. I had to keep enjoying myself and my experience in every aspect possible. The last month or so saw a lot of exciting and amazing experiences. One of the things to happen at the end of November was the release of another movie in my favorite film world: "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" as part of the Wizarding World of J.K Rowling. It was, and I dare say, a magical experience. Obviously, going to a movie in Spain, you're hoping the movie will be in English. Thankfully, I found and came upon a theater "Cine Princesa" near the Plaza España and Gran Vía (Line 3 on the Metro). This cinema, you pay €9:20 for the ticket but expecting that it is the original version of the movie in a Spanish theater with Spanish subtitles, it's quite an okay price. The movie itself was fantastic. I grew up watching the Harry Potter series of movies, so with more exploration into J.K Rowling's world of magic, it's safe to say that I am delighted!
More exploration was done throughout Madrid. One of the most therapeutic things to do in Madrid is, considering I have my transport card which works on bus, metro and cercanias train, is to pick a random metro station and to travel and walk around that area. Coming across cool stores or fun things to do. In the past few weeks I've visited and found some nice places which were: Nuñez de Balboa, Puerta de Arganda, Bilbao, Avenida de la Paz, Callao, Goya and

Velazquez. Madrid is a fantastic city to get lost in. No matter which way you go, you're never too far from a metro station. One of the biggest tourism niche markets in Madrid is shopping tourism. The city has a magnificently vast variety of stores from International, national and local brands and retailers. Exploring these or any area randomly, you discover these gems. One of my favorite places to meet with friends is a place called "Casa Parrondo". An Asturian Sidreria. Sidre is a type of apple wine. At first, admittedly, I was apprehensive about the taste of apple wine but the taste, atmosphere, the consistently good company, the friendly waiting staff and FREE TAPAS! As I have stated in many blog posts, food for me is an emotional experience. We went so frequently that the staff put a picture of me and my friends up on their wall, You know, next to the famous people. #Famous

In the last weekend, on of the cool things I went to see was the Christmas Market at Matadores in Legazpi, a former slaughterhouse and now a cinema

center. This was an International market and what was so cool was that it had stalls from all different countries and nations. I'm talking Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Vietnam, Philipines, South Africa, Columbia and so many more! If there was ever a reason to want to travel the world, this market would kickstart it. I filled my belly with Gluhwein, Belgian lager, Danish cookies, Soutg Africa Amarula, Greek pastries and Italian panettone and so much more. There was a stage which displayed dances and artistic pieces of local tradition from different countries.
These were some of the great things I discovered in Madrid over the past month. Writing this, I'm close to finishing my packing to head back to Madrid for another semester! So much more to come. For now, time to enjoy the New Year festivities!
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