Hey all, its been a long time I have written anything and right now I am on a long bus trip to Cartagena, Murcia and better than writing blogs to pass the time and tell you all what all happened in the last three months.
DECEMBER
December was a quiet and a normal month until the time of the month comes. Yes, you guessed it right, Christmas!!! Well not only was it my first Christmas away from home but my first actual one (yes, I am not a Christian but I celebrate Christmas, surprise hahaha). So this was a Spanish Christmas and the most weird thing I experienced is that you don’t get presents on Christmas Day. Weird, right? I had woken up in hope of some good gifts but I couldn’t find any under the tree and anywhere in the house, so I ask my host mom where she has hidden them and she says “oh, we don’t give gifts on Christmas, we give it on a different festival called ‘dia de tres Reyes’ ” and I was like WHAT??!! What is Christmas without presents but no pasa nada. The days till new year’s passed quickly and I didn’t have any idea what day was it and what was happening.
NEW YEAR’S DAY
The New year feeling was setting, I was going to have dinner with my family and then go to the ayuntamiento for the new year’s party. The atmosphere there was phenomenal with so many people, tonnes of beer bottles and music. Also there is a tradition in Spain that for you wear red underwear and eat grapes one per second for a good and lucky next year. I met up with my friends, we roamed around, did stupid stuff, danced Salsa and finally went back home at around 4 in the morning.
JANUARY
I am such a person who will wake up at 8 in the morning the next day after partying till 4. So I go down, make myself some tea and drink it with nice music(with the headphones on of course). That my friends is true heaven and then at around 10 or something my host mom comes in the kitchen and says “We are going to Madrid next week, start planning.” There friends was my reward for wearing red underwear on new year’s dinner. So I start planning everyday to do everything I cant do in India like visit estadio Santiago Bernabéu, go to the Harry Potter exhibition in Madrid.
So we leave on Friday morning for Madrid and it was like we were the only ones going there because we were almost racing to Madrid with an average speed of 110-120 kph . We reached there in about 3.5 hrs, roamed around, then I went to the Harry Potter exhibition all alone using the metro’s which I almost mastered in a day. The exhibition was super cool featuring the actual props used in the movies and all, I also bought some cool stuff like the elder wand, dark mark blazer pin, tattoos and Bertie botts every flavour beans and I would just say one thing they literally mean every flavour.
The next day I went to Parque Retiro to meet some friends in Madrid, we hung around in the park and went to a Mexican restaurant and a cool ass rolled ice cream place in Sol. We then went to some more places whose names I don’t remember, we even had strawberry flavoured Fanta and finally went to 100 mountaditos for snacks. Also I would recommend 100 mountaditos it is a kind of snack-bar where you get montaditos (mini sandwiches), sandwiches and a lot of stuff for less than 3 euros.
It was our last day in Madrid and I went complete one of my dreams to go the Santiago Bernabéu, those who don’t know what it is(how???) it is the home ground of Real Madrid and did the stadium tour. The feeling was brilliant, I saw all the trophies they have won and I realised that this is the reason they are the best. I went into the press room, sat where Zidane sits, went to the changing rooms and went to the pitch, stood where Zidane stands, sat where Bale sits. It was just amazing, from there I went to my hotel and returned to Valencia after having lunch.
Soon enough it was 6th January ‘día de tres reyes’. Its a Spanish festival about three kings, its also the day you get many gifts and I was excited for that day since a long time. We had a big family lunch with chicken, fish, veggies and all, I also had made an Indian sweet for them. We then played bingo and finally it was time for gifts, I gifted my sister some earrings and a wall art, to my host mom, aunt, grandma I gifted a wooden carved elephant, the elephant was carved in such a way that there was a baby elephant in side the bigger elephant and all of it was made from a single piece of wood. As for me I got Real Madrid mobile cover, Champions League limited edition perfume and deodorant, a jacket, a watch and a Real Madrid pouch.
The next weeks went as per routine but on 27th January, my dream to watch Real Madrid play live in the stadium. I had the bought the first sector tickets for Valencia vs Real Madrid behind the goal which costed about 90 euros. It was so thrilling to watch them live and that too from so near, the atmosphere is great and you just sense the great rivalry between them the moment you go in the stadium. Also just before the match many people were criticising Ronaldo for not scoring and said that he should be dropped. Well, the match was tight slap in their face as Ronaldo scored twice followed awesome goals by Toni Kroos and Marcelo winning the match Valencia 1- 4 Real Madrid. That was honestly the end of month I could have asked for.
Also tune for the next blog. Hope you all are having a good time.
