Madrid - Time to Chill Out...

Our blog is a little out of sync at the moment...the London and Paris stories will be posted later.

We are at Madrid now, and finally have some time to actually write things down. We were basically going hard-out in London & Paris that we fell sick (sore throat and cough...no, don't think it is H1N1 flu virus - we recovered already) and got really tired. So, our three days in Madrid was a bit of R&R...

And what a place to relax! The people here are nicer (a random lady showed us another launderette when the one we were at was closed), food here is cheaper and places were walking distance.

We got a bit adventurous and went out looking for food. Our McD and KFC diet in the last two places was really getting to us.

What's this??? Squid with bread?!!

Bocadillo de Calamares - Squid Sandwich at Casa Rua, Plaza Mayor. This squid is covered with flour and then deep-fried in oil (like deep-frying french fries!!) and then placed in a baguette-styled bread loaf - it was delicious! And we have never had or seen this idea before anywhere else! This specialty is very common here.

A close-up of the borcadillos. We washed this oily stuff with a small glass of Amstel beer (a Dutch beer) - Cost: 3.50Euro dollars only! Brilliant for both taste and price!

Ok, Yih Jia only had a small sip of beer and I finished the rest. I was drinking beer at 11am!! Everyone else in this place was doing it, and I had to follow!

Another sinful food.... Churros - this is a deep-fried doughy treat, usually dipped in chocolate. We had ours for breakfast without the chocolate dip and it tasted really good. It has a texture and taste very similar to "yeow char kuai" back home but not too salty. It was really nice with a cup of espresso coffee.

Me in action...the other 5 pieces on the plate.

Yih Jia - not eating...yeah, right! She finished 2 and I had 2 and a half - so she wasn't far off from me.


We found this food market near Plaza Mayor - Mercado de San Miguel.

It is quite a tourisy place but the atmosphere was brilliant. Check out the pictures below and see what I mean...

Canapes with smoked salmon and anchovy. One Euro dollar each - really nice and looks fancy!

A Charcuteria selling preserved pork meat. They were slicing really thin pieces of ham and we had to try some. Btw, those meat hanging at the back is preserved pork legs and it does not require any refrigeration!

This was the sample of the charcuteria's product - I think it is thinly shaved ham in baguettes. Ok, we are definitely not that sophisticated but the food looked nice and tasted nice! Euro two dollars - cheapest sandwich we have bought so far in our trip and very, very fresh too (I can even hear "oink, oink" as I sink my teeth into the sandwich).

Sangria - a famous Spanish drink with the blood red colour inspiring its name. Usually a concoction of red wine, brandy, fruit juice and soda water.
It tasted good especially on a hot day. We loved it that we went back for more the next day. We had to find some way to quench our thirst in this hot summer weather!!

How can we not have desserts! A nicely made chocolate mousse - which was pretty solid and nicely plated. It was yummy...

And finally, a last picture...

I had to take a picture of this fruit seller. We had to take a ticket and wait for our number to be called out (actually, they had a machine with big huge numbers like some banks in Auckland or Malaysia - I would have had difficulties in Spanish language).

The thing is that the seller will pick the fruits you want - you can't choose it yourself! There is even a warning sign there - "Do Not Touch The Fruits". So far, the yellow apples and oranges (my favourite) are all good.

We will be heading to Italy tomorrow to continue with our journey. This time, we will pace ourself better and not tire ourselves too quickly to a point where we can't even enjoy the trip!!

Will certainly try and post the London and Paris pictures soon!!

The 27 hours flight

It was a great achievement!! The longest ever flight we have taken in our lives.

We used to think that flying back to Malaysia was long - I was looking at a non-stop 11 hours flight to KL whereas Yih Jia had to endure that 11 hours along with an overnight stopover at either KL or Singapore and then a further 2 hours flight to Sibu the following day.

This was the ultimate....but it all started off with a very enthusiastic couple at the airport.

We were still fresh, raring to go and full of energy.

Emirates has their own departure hall on a new wing in Auckland Airport - it was a slighlty longer walk but a completely new area.

The plane on the right of the picture would be our "home" for the next 20 hours - an Airbus 340. Unfortunately the Airbus A380, the newest plane, is not for us - we found out that it flies to Sydney and then Dubai and then connects to Heathrow Airport.

We were landing at Gatwick Airport in London - but hey....the our ticket only cost us NZD1.9k. It would normally cost NZD2.8 to 3k for a return flight to London!!

A quick stop in Brisbane and then a 16 hours flight to Dubai...

Almost there.....I decided to take half an Imovane sleeping tablet after Brisbane which put me to snoozy land for about 5-6 hours, which is the longest I have ever had on a plane. Yih Jia decided the natural way...she will be taking the tablet on our way back to Auckland; one does not need to explain.

Dubai airport - I was accessing the internet to check my Facebook. We were a bit dissapointed with their toilet facilities, or lack of it. All the Emirates flight lands in this airport and yet, we are made to wait in line to use their toilet....geez. They have quite a few fancy shops around but we were too tired - maybe on our trip back.

After 3 hours on solid ground, we were off again. This time it was a 7 hours flight to Gatwick airport and on a Boeing 777 plane - which we definitely found more comfortable.

Overall, the flight wasn't too bad. Food on Emirates was really good - probably the best amongst the airlines we have been on. Only thing - no foot-rest on their seats.

A true achievement for us...27 hours of flight time. We were glad that we took a long 4 weeks holiday to travel in Europe to make it worth our travelling time!