Spring break; Madrid first.

Hello, everyone!

I hope April has started as well as mine. I am now back at the UN quarters in Turin after taking a small spring break. I am two weeks into my training course in here and absolutely loving it. It is nice and warm in Northern Italy and we are all enjoying the colourful gardens at the campus. The course has been very hectic but a lot of fun and it has been great to be back in Italy and to get to explore it with some new people.

Let me tell you a bit about my spring break. So after our little trip around North Italy, I thought that maybe our training course was not going to take place and it was time to head home. Having all this time and Europe wide-open I thought that I should take advantage and take my time on my way home. One of my best friends is in Madrid on Erasmus exchange so that was my first choice for a visit. Out of Venice towards Milan and a flight from there directly to Madrid.

Spring has already reached Madrid and we kicked our time together off with a picnic at the Retiro park. The park is a lovely place for a day out and you can take advantages of the many cafes and do some rowing in the pond in the middle. We continued our evening on the city hall rooftop with some tapas and wine. Sadly, some Erasmus students do study hard so I had to spend the next day strolling around the city by myself. Madrid is a very walkable, beautiful city. You can easily get by with very little Spanish skills and the people are very welcoming.

Because I was in Spain during the carnival season, we had signed up for a trip down south to Cadiz for the weekend to go for another celebration. After a long dragging bus journey, we had a fabulous, fatty buffet and filled our bellies with some sangria. Then we headed out for a ‘warm-up’ night out at a local salsa club. The atmosphere was great and we danced until we couldn’t feel our feet anymore. The city was quite quiet at this time so there weren’t many people who weren’t university students.

The next day was the main day. We slept a little, got ready early and took the bus to the city centre of Cadiz. The carnival was fun, a lot different from the one in Venice; it was quite concentrated, filled with alcohol and full of the most inventive costumes. We totally lost our whole group and spent an hour trying to re-find our bus. Overall, this was all very fun! Luckily, we made it back and got to spend another day on the bus.

Three more lovely, chilled days in Madrid. I spend one of the shopping and ticking off the local sightseeing spots out of my bucket list. There are plenty of magnificent, old buildings as well as lovely parks and museums. I would definitely recommend the walk on the outside of the city centre, checking out some beautiful cathedrals, the national museum, the royal palace and its gardens as well as the Egyptian monument.

My next stop was Barcelona! I hopped on a train in Madrid and two hours later I was in Barcelona. The train was quite expensive (65e) but very comfortable and handy.

Barcelona was fantastic, I spent my first day getting to know the city and the night in the gothic quarter. There are plenty of lovely restaurants around and if you stick to the Spanish tapas culture you can test quite a few of them. I finished my night by checking out the Arch the Triumph.

It was so hot in Barcelona that the next day just had to be spent on the harbour eating ice cream and enjoying the views. I also attempted to climb up to the princess castle overlooking the city but I chose the wrong way up and ended up on the other side of a huge void just admiring the view of the castle. The way up was absolutely stunning, the view over the entire city was perfect. Exploring the hills just kept a huge grin on my face for the whole day.

And off the Geneva!

Chao,

Mira Luoma