iEstoy Viajando con mi Esposa!

We have arrived!!

The day started around midnight on Monday when M arrived at mine, I was busy filling in a job application and watching the Anaheim Ducks win against the Calgary Flames (wooo!!!). We were planning not to go to sleep because we has to get up so very early and spent a few hours settling down with Dr. Quinn on (I've been turning M into a Dr. Quinn fan!), we made it through the first four episodes of Season two (watched in the correct viewing order, not the order it was aired... because I'm a fussy nerd like that!! Despite our best efforts we snuggled down on the bed in my Den and fell swiftly to sleep for an hour!!


We were rudely awoken at around 0430 by our set alarms and wearily piled in for breakfast burritos
(recipe below!) at 5am. Once we were adequately fed and watered we picked up our belongings and went to catch the peasant wagon to the Airport. The only good thing about living near the airport is that its only £1.60 to get a bus right up to the terminal, sadly this also means that all public transport links go to the airport and not through my village, and the bus stops at about 2300 and doesn't start again until 0543 meaning our options for a night out in London are limited to an extortionate taxi fare home!

Felt a bit like The Beatles... but not as much as
when I was in China wandering to a charter jet
 (same as used by private jets) with guitar in hand!

We arrived at the airport at around 0550 and, thanks to some generous fast track passes that were donated to the cause, were through security baggage by 0630! Just in time to have a wander through the revamped terminal. A little tidbit of information here: When I was 18 I had a job working at Wetherspoons airside in Stansted Airport, I LOVED that job and the folks that worked there and had a great time. That was, however, 10 years ago and my goodness how the terminal had changed!! It is entirely unrecognisable and so very easy to lose my barings!! The Windmill Bar has changed completely and looks nothing like it did when i worked there at all, so very strange!!

Memories!!

We stopped in for a drink and then headed down to gate 45 for our flight. Luckily no-one questioned me about my rather large "one personal bag" or the fact that my tripod renders my carry-on bag too tall, so thankfully we were right through and on the plane in no time!

and we're off!!

Settled down in time to hear the Captain state that the journey to Madrid would be "bumpy" and boy was he right! For the entire flight there seemed to be turbulence! I did wave to my house on the flight over (although, truthfully I'm not sure if it was my house!) and I think we flew over Jersey...or possibly Guernsey... or possibly the Isle of Wight?! I can hear my dad singing a song about the IoW right now that I won't share with you!!

Start as you mean to go on: with food!

We touched down in Madrid with a fairly pleasant landing and passed thorough customs in record time (despite having a near miss where my bag got caught on the escalator and almost pulled me over the side!), ready to navigate the Metro to our hotel. We've picked up a tourist travel card for three days that gives us access to unlimited use of public transport in the Madrid area, this will be really useful and, as it runs out on Thursday and we fly home Friday, we're planing on being a bit lazy and hopping in a taxi to the airport Friday morning!

I am so proud of this photo...

Its the first time, as an adult, I've been on the underground service in another country and I was really surprised to note that it smelled exactly like London... minus the piss! It was easy to navigate too, although the Madrid Metro has numbers (line 1, 2, 3, etc) rather than names (Central, Circle, Victoria, etc). Getting to our hotel was a doddle too, we're about a 15 minute walk from a metro station!

I'm please to report that our hotel is LOVELY! We've pad around 30E (can;t find the Euro sign..) a night and were expecting just above hotel standard, but we've actually got a really nice hotel that is above Premier Inn standard! It also has A BATH!! <3

Few hours kip in the hotel and it was off to find some food, what do you eat while you're in Spain? Japanese Sushi of course! It was an interesting experience trying desperately to order from a Japanese lady who spoke Spanish and precious little English, my appealingly bad Spanish helped us through with a lot of pointing, hand signals (the polite ones) and nods... we wont mention the fact that we ordered off of the Valentines menu... We finished off our food by heading over the road from our Hotel to the Irish Pub! Such cultured people we are!!

Back at the hotel by midnight and, after a long day, there was only one thing to do... plug in M's harddrive to the smart TV and watch an episode of Dr. Quinn before bed!

Tomorrow we plan to head into town and see a few of the tourist sights, more selfies to come I promise!!

Buenas noches mis amigos!

We're off to Sunny Spain!

It's 2016!!

2015 was a bit crap for various reasons, with some good highlights, so this year is going to be really awesome.

I've decided to do some more travelling this year, as I feel like I need to see more of the world. You see loads of things across the media about this country and that country and this and that... I sit and wonder is it really like that? Are people really like that? With that in mind I thought now is probably the best time to get up and find out! I figured that, although I'm earning ok, I am never realistically going to be able to move out on my own unless its in rented accommodation, and even that will have to be some hideous house share, and I can't do that again! So might as well put my earnings towards some fantastic trips, only thing to do was to get a new passport, which The Old Lady and The old man kindly brought for me for my birthday!

By the way... I have nothing against Australia,
and do plan to visit...
but it looks like my pin fell out!

Over the next few years (or until life takes another massive change) I plan to travel the world, go to as many different countries and experience as many different cultures as I can. I'm hoping to be able to take photos of different places and get some new perspective. I realise everyone says that but you never know. anything will be new to me and that's what's important!

M booking our trip,
while I watched the ice hockey!
COME ON ANAHEIM!!

With that in mind: first stop is Spain! I know its not a particularly adventurous destination for you seasoned travellers out there, but I'm going with one of my very dear friends, M, and his passport runs out in a few months so we're stuck with the EU and I was told "I have a drawer of Euros, so pick somewhere in the Eurozone". After spending a few hours scouring Google, Trip Advisor, TravelSupermarket and eventually booking with Expedia (never do that by the way, they are liars...) we've booked or trip to Madrid.

I've got half term off ( 13th-21st Feb) off so we're visiting Madrid between 16th-19th, flying home on the 19th and going to visit the Sausages (they know who they are!) at the weekend. Sorted. :)
 Naturally, being me, I've packed and repacked about 5 times so far, and we have no check-in baggage allowance with Ryanair, but I think I'm sticking with this list:

1. Clothes
- undies
- 2 string vests
- 1 pair leggings
- 1 pair skinny jeans
- 1 pair PJ trousers
- 1 t-shirt
- 4 Tops (2 double as nice going out tops)
- 1 pair of flat shoes
- 1 long cardigan
- 4x socks
wearing: skinny jeans, comfy top, hoodie, scarf, & jacket


2. Liquids
(never quite sure how far their "liquids" policy goes, do balms count s liquid? What about solid perfume?)
- hand sanitiser
- face wash
- shampoo
- eye drops (contact lenses, these are essential!)
- lip balm
- solid perfume
- foundation (in a mini pot!)
- solid deodorant (home-made, in a mini pot)
- benefit travel mascara (amazing..)
- first aid balm (home-made, goes everywhere with me!)
- all-purpose soap (Lifeventure, in a smaller bottle)
- blush (Maybelline the mousse one, really nice!)
- sleepy time balm
- toothpaste (in the contact lenses pot!)
- moisturiser (home-made, in a mini pot)


3. Flight Essentials
(its only 2.5hr flight, but I'm not planning to sleep beforehand, so might as well try to sleep on the plane!)
- passport & tickets etc in their own under-clothes-carrier thing
- neck pillow
- eye mask
- earplugs (also in case M snores in the hotel!)
- mini eggs
- Green and Blacks milk chocolate (delicious!) 


4. Makeup & Toiletries
- Gelert giant travel towel (never quite trust hotel towels...)
- make-up bag (from Primark, isn't it cute!)
- MUA face palette (enough for bronzer, highlighter and a few different neutral and dark eye shadows)
- mini brushes (both eco tools and Primark, eco tools are the best)
- bronzer and powder (in contact lens case which isn't shown)
- mirror compact
- make-up remover pads (from Primark, so small..)
- 4 hair bands
- tweezers
- fold down toothbrush
- antibacterial wipes (for the plane...)
- toiletry bag to hold it all, in cammo obviously!


5. Travel Book & Organiser
- Travel book (I've been slowly filling this in over the past few weeks and will continue to as I travel the world)
- Organiser (this is great, has space for notes and a few zip up compartments, data is still expensive in EU so I might have to actually remember to write things down rather than rely On Google...)
- Pink satchel to hold books and pen!


6. Backpack & Bags
- borrowing Teapot's 40ltr backpack as mine was too tall for Ryanair...
- big blue handbag (JUST in Ryanair's "plus" bag size...)
- Tripod (technically too tall for Ryanair... we'll see if they complain...)
- Selfie stick and remote! Had to be done....
- 3 pack down shopping bags (one is a backpack style... this is a hang over from Scotland where bags were 5p, this rule also came into the UK in October... and I'm cheap)
- Water To Go bottle in the pocket (or at least it will be when I can find it...)


7. TECH
(here's where I packed too much I'm sure...I can't help being a gadget fan who hates being bored...)
- Nexus 6P phone
- spare phone (hopefully my Nexus 5, with a sim card from 3 so I can have data connection... hotel has free Wifi and we have the BT wifi password too!)
- 10" netbook
- Nexus 7 tablet
- DS lite & M3 card
- 3.5" Chinese mini tablet (its cute! It also plays video and takes a 32GB card)
- mp3 player (arrived in the post today!)
- 3 portable batteries (2 of which are solar)
- 3 EU travel adaptors
- 2 USB plugs
- 1 USB Type-C plug (for my phone... thanks Google for being such a great innovator that no-one has caught up yet)
- bluetooth speaker
- Headphones
- Moto 360 charger
- a shitload of leads and adaptors for various devices


8. Camera
- Pentax K-50
- 18-55mm kit lens
- another lens (I think its 70-300mm but can't remember. Really lovely vintage manual lens!)
- a few filters
- 2SD cards (32GB)
- remote shutter release control
- battery charger


I am clearly over packed for 4 days... but at least it fits into two bags for the flight!! I've read loads of those "round the world trip in a carry on" crap articles and every time I'm like WHERE IS YOUR TECH?!?

As usual, feel free to comment... and wish us luck!!!