Erasmus:Tips for the First Two Weeks in Madrid

What's up, guys? Hope you're all doing good and have stuck to your New Year Resolutions, I know I haven't 😊. It's coming up to Valentine's Day, expensive time of year to travel, right? But you know whats not expensive? Chicken Nuggets. 
So university has started. So right back into the thick of it. Group work, assignments, exam pressure, deadlines and my all time favorite university activity -> Procrastination. 
Over the past couple of weeks, it's been a bit of a mess. Sorting out timetables, budgeting money, making friends, making sure classes are all good and planning some cool stuff for the summer too.
As well as making friends, a lot of Erasmus activities revolving around making friends have gone on and gave me the incentive to write a post about the first two weeks of the Erasmus experience in Madrid and my advice on how and what to do in this time period, a handy hints sort of thing!
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Erasmus isn't ONLY about studying, attending classes and being under pressure about college. It's about living your experience to the fullest. So here is how you can get the most out of your first few weeks!

1. Before and When You Arrive: There are some things to take into account when moving to Madrid. 
• One of the main priorities for a student before getting to Madrid is to get accommodation. Accommodation is a big thing in Erasmus. You could look too late and end up living from Airbnb for a few weeks.
  
  Speaking to other Erasmus here, the main accommodation advice they can give is to find suitable accommodation near the main centers of Madrid. Sure, you may have to travel a bit to university, but for your social experiences in Madrid, living closer to places like Sol, Gran Vía, La Latina, Malasaña etc. For study-orientated students, close-to-campus accommodation can be cheap and convenient. For those considering Erasmus in Madrid, check out these sites for accommodation: http://www.aluni.net/en/ - Aluni offers good, close to campus accommodation. And https://www.uniplaces.com/ Hopefully these sites help you guys! 
• Arriving in Madrid, it's quire scary actually. One of the most
  
  important things that will help you on your Erasmus and that will save you a lot of money, is the Transport Card. For any prospective Erasmus, the transport card works on the metro, overground renfe trains and buses. For anyone under the age of 26, travel to outer areas in the region of Madrid has no additional cost. To acquire your card, it costs a total sum of €4! And then €20 per month for a full month of unlimited travel. This card will be a live saver and also save a few pennies in your pocket also!
2.  Welcome Days at University: This semester, the Welcome Day fell on the
   
   Friday the 13th of January and in the semester beforehand, it fell on Tuesday the 6th of September. On this Welcome Day in the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, you receive the welcome package, in which, you will receive your matriculation form and your certificate of arrival. The Welcome Day, you meet new Erasmus students attending your classes and you feel less lonely and realize it's a new experience for everyone in the room. The documents given are what the Erasmus student needs to fill in with their subjects, ID numbers and information about the degree you study. This Welcome Day is super informative and a great social opportunity!
3. Join an Erasmus Network: In a number of universities across Madrid, there exists an Erasmus Student Network (ESN). The ESN are a group of volunteer students who, between their classes: Organize Trips, Promote Erasmus events in some of the top nightclubs in Madrid, offer advice to Erasmus students and they also like to just make friends with people from all over the world! A great part of this is they offer SIM cards for those who need to change to a Spanish number! Joining the ESN group in your university, you'll never feel out of the loop in Madrid. Every week there is an activity or trip for students to participate and integrate in. For me, I am with the ESN URJC, and I have been with them since Fall 2016. They've provided us with the opportunity to travel and make the making friends process a whole lot easier! 
4. Join the Integration Activities: Whether you join the ESN or you're going at Erasmus solo, one of the key pieces of advice for the first couple of weeks of your Erasmus experience, is to participate and go on the integration activities you may happen upon. For me, last weekend (20th of January -> 22nd of January), my friends and I joined ESN on their integrational weekend in Mohernando, Guadalajara. They brought us to
   
   this place with cool views, close to a pet farm and no exaggeration, but over 125 people went on this trip, both student and ESN coordinator. These weekends, no matter what opinion you have about the activities, is one of the best way to make friends, meet people and party! For us, we had activities like: Make your own sangria, Spanish food workshops and awesome themed parties (80's and a Toga Party). I went to the parties dressed as a cow. Because every party needs someone who dresses in a onesie! Also included was a trip to the cool town of Segovia (Blog post soon!), One of the key things I recommend is to totally go on these integrational weekend, find friends and then you'll never find yourself to be bored! Besides ESN, I recommend giving Citylife a look on Facebook!
5. Budget: It can be hard on the first few weeks. Your friends are going partying, there are a lot of trips to pay for, you want to experience Madrid and not be the boring person, really. But you also have to survive, buy
   
   groceries, pay rent and all those other "adult responsibilities". Budgeting is probably the worst thing ever. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a trip so you can pay for something else. Or maybe worry about paying for something because you have a lot to pay for. But as I said starting this post: Erasmus is about living your experience to the fullest. You don't have to go to EVERY party or go on EVERY trip. But make a system where you can balance your social life as well as those awful adult responsibilities!
6. Find your places: I've actually come to realize just recently that finding your "local" is quite a difficult thing to do in Madrid. Every place is
   
   different and everybody has different tastes. An advisable thing to do on your first few weeks is to go with friends to different restaurants, cafés and bars. Look on tripadvisor. Yelp. My blog. Anything with information on where to eat and drink with friends. Currently, my friends and I are still searching for a place where we can have a chill drink, a place where we can all enjoy the party, a good place to have lunch, We're trying to find a place for everyone! And that's something all students should do. Discover Madrid through different restaurants and cafés!

All of these things are an important thing to consider and I know a lot of them are "most important". But the best tip, and I'm sure Erasmus/Exchange students past and present can back me up with this is to ENJOY! To follow the quote:

"Erasmus is not a year in your life, it's a life in a year!"

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I hope this is some useful tips for students now and in the future! And if you have any other questions or if any Erasmus/Exchange student has other pieces of advice to offer, please feel free to comment, tweet, IG or email me!

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Remember to Read, Comment, Share and Enjoy 

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And thanks to my friend Max for his advice for you guys! Give him a follow: immonenmax

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Second Semester: Trips, Plans and Advice

Hey there, people! It's been since before the New Year that I last posted. You know, I had to do some fun and interesting stuff to share with you guys and I'm also not the best at time management. It's been a fun couple of weeks! I've had a few weeks to discover some stuff in Madrid and time to look over some of my previous posts and instead of #NewYearNewMe, I'm going to try my best to

continue the format of my posts i.e Personal experiences, Bucket List locations etc but also add more travel tips, student travel advice and helpful hints for prospective travellers.
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Let's start where the last blog post left off. So in my last blog post I was packing up and getting ready to leave Ireland and get myself back on Spanish soil once again, After what can only be described as an eventful first semester, the excitement for the second semester was building, to say the least. As with travelling home for the Christmas period from Madrid to Ireland, the whole day of the 29th of December consisted of travel. From Tuam town to Galway Coach station by car, from Galway Coach station to Dublin Airport by GoBus (http://www.gobus.ie/). Then into Dublin Airport where the time to wait for boarding to begin was spent drinking water and a caramel frappuccino in Starbucks because you know, a healthy balance and all. Boarding didn't take too long and the time it took to board and then take off was quiet quick and it wasn't long before we were speeding down the runway and hitting the air. The flight was easy enough with very little turbulence but nothing a bit of sleep couldn't fix.
The first day and a half in Madrid consisted of finishing up some work for university. And on the 31st, spent the evening deciding what my plan was going to be for the NYE celebrations. So much to do in Madrid and my Facebook notifications filling up with promotions and offers for the many different clubs and parties that were happening all over the city of Madrid including Joy, Le Boutique and Teatro Kapital, Madrid's biggest nightclub and also some invites to house parties with friends to ring in the New Year, My actual plan consisted of travelling to Plaza del Callao, just off the Gran Via where one of the huge, brightly lighted Christmas trees stood high in the center. I arrived at the Plaza and stood at the head of Calle del Carmen, looking down to Sol, at the

Real Casa de Correo. It would have been near impossible to go to Sol, as so many people lined the square and streets I arrived at 10 minutes to Midnight, met a friend and waited patiently for the chime of the clock striking 12. The countdown went by and the Real Casa de Correo was lit up with the lights from the fireworks being let off from its roof. The fireworks were fantastic and really something I'm glad I experienced it. After the firework display, it was a quick rush to the metro to make our way to Villaverde Alto, the end of line 3. The rest of the night was spent in the suburb of Getafe with friends and friends of friends, And let me tell you, it was quite a late one!

That was my New Years Eve, spending time with friends and enjoying the friendly celebrations for the first hours of 2017. From then until the weekend of the 15th I spent primarily alone as the people I had spent the first semester of my Erasmus in Madrid with were with not back in Madrid, were in Madrid studying or left the city for good. The time spent on my own however made for some much appreciated solo travel time in which I got to look around different areas of Madrid at my own pace and really discover the city I've been living in for months. One of my more genius ideas of exploration was what I describe as "Seeing the world without leaving

the city" or also know as Embassy Hunting. As the capital city of Spain, Madrid hosts the embassies for a plethora of countries from every continent. So I took it upon myself to start a self-guided walking tour. Transport card in hand and the street/number of the buildings, I made my way to town, got myself a coffee at Faborit (One of my favorite cafés in the city) and walked up and down the

streets of Madrid, browsing in stores, spending time looking around different areas, finding great places to relax and eat and also find as many flags and emblems of international countries I could manage.  The tour brought me mostly through the area of Salamanca which plays home to big name brands like Versace, Valentino, Armani etc. and is close to the Plaza de Colon, a fantastic plaza from which you can possibly the biggest Spanish flag I've ever seen. Italy, Bolivia, South Africa, Albania, Luxembourg... the list of embassies goes on! This walking tour, "Seeing the world without leaving the city" is an amazing idea to workout, see Madrid and feel like you're seeing the world. I took my time looking around and it took up a good few days.
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That was what I had done, tourist wise, up until the weekend of the 14th and 15th. The welcome days for new Erasmus students was on Friday the 13th, so obviously there was a lot of new Erasmus students and considering that a majority of my friends from the first semester weren't back or weren't gonna be coming back, I decided to join the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos' Erasmus Student Network's trip to Toledo and make some friends. 
The Erasmus Student Network or ESN for short, is and has been one of the best parts of the Erasmus experience as it is a group of volunteering students who organize trips and events for the erasmus students, which is amazing on the first couple of weeks as it helps students integrate with each other and is

probably the best way for the students to make friends. The first trip organized was to the town of Toledo, about 40 to 50 minutes outside of Madrid, in the Castile-La Mancha province. Toledo is infamously named the "City of Three Cultures" as it is famed for the co-existence of the people of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish religions. Toledo is also a famed town for its metal works and most notably its production of bladed weapons, which, from walking around the city, are now very popular items on sale.

The trip to Toledo was priced at €15. And on the morning of the 15th of

January, the students who were going gathered at the Ministerio de Agricultura, near the Atocha Renfe station. It was an early start at 8:30 am which meant that I had to leave my area of Madrid at 7:30, and pray that the connecting Metro's in which I had to switch at were running on time. I made it there for 8:20-ish and we waited in the cold morning air until 8:50-ish when the bus would arrive. Spain Bus provided the double decker bus that would seat the amount of students going. So in the half-an-hour period we had waiting, it was as you would expect in a group of new people. Everyone glancing around at the new faces, huddled in the groups of the people they knew. 
I can't quite recall who said it to me, but it's a statement I find to be very true: "Making friends as an adult, is probably the hardest thing" and because I was Mr. Billy No-Mates, not knowing anyone at the meeting point, I was nervous

about talking to the people.
The bus journey wasn't so bad and didn't take too long to get from the Atocha meeting area to Toledo. It was quite nice on another note, that when a majority of us arrived at Atocha, it was just coming into the dawn and as we were getting on the bus, the sun started to come up. So it was nice to see that on the first ESN trip. The bus hummed with the sound of people getting to know each other, with a faint sound of people snoring. It was an early start, after all!
We got to Toledo at around 10am. And the sun was up at this stage, so it made the views all that more amazing. 

The first part of the trip consisted of a panoramic view of the canyon that surrounds the town of Toledo. As we drove around the canyon, looking as the sun hit the landscape, the bus driver explained in both Spanish and English the significance and some history surrounding the landscapes, as we drove past. It was quite interesting to see and at one point, the driver let the whole group out to look at and take pictures of the landscape. In the cool air, it was quite amazing to look out at the town, the canyon below and the river cutting through. It was enough time for our individual pictures and an ESN group

picture.
The next part of the trip, the bus driver let us out at the bus rank just outside of the town. After what felt like an endless amount of escalators cutting through the landscape to bring us to the town, we arrived in Toledo. Most people were devoid of breakfast, considering the early start, so the first stop was to the Plaza Zocodova to the McDonalds for a coffee to keep us awake for the day. We were on a 15-minute schedule for the coffee break. Then the tour started. The first stop was the Museo del Ejercito, which was sort of a military museum, showing how the police were uniformed and other stuff related to the law enforcement like weapons and ancient structures. 
Moving on from the Museum, we made our way around the town, to the different neighborhoods, related to the Jewish, Muslim and Christian religions, the visits of the monarchy and the Pope. The rest of monumental visits included visits to the Synagogue of El Transitio, a 14th century synagogue, the Museo del Greco and then to the grounds of the Santa Iglesia Cathedral, one of the most important Cathedral's in all of Spain. The significance of the architecture and

buildings in Toledo holds a lot of significance in the history of Spain, according to the tour guide. It was really a great experience to see this place. The trip was fantastic as during the walking tour, we would all start talking with each other and making friends. Starting the trip as Billy No-Mates, I ended the trip with Billy With-Mates. 
The rest of the trip consisted of eating pizza with a group of friends, drinking coffee and making friends with the new group of friends, talking about how we all found the trip and what was to be excited for in the semester ahead. I guess making friends on the trip makes this current semester less of a lonely adventure as now there are people to share the experience with, travel with and live the Erasmus life with!

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The new semester has now begun, it's the first week, so we're all walking around a little lost, making sure we're in the right class and confirming the classes we wish to take. It's a great time as well for us students to mingle, take part in integrational activities and make friends!

• Toledo ✔

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This year, keep watch for tips and advice on different tourist topics

Until the next post; Read, Like, Share and Enjoy

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