Yesterday I started mulling over when exactly would be a good time to visit Madrid [the capital of Spain] for a few days. I thought of two weekends in April, but tonight I spontaneously decided to check for cheap flights for the second week of spring break and surprisingly, flights are actually cheaper than for those two weekends in April [okay, only by €10, but still, €10 are €10!]. Then I started looking for a good [i.e. cheap] hostel to stay at. After a lot of searching I finally found one that was affordable and available for that time period!

And what can I say, I just booked my trip tonight! I will be flying to Madrid on March 25th, and stay at an affordable hostel for four nights which should give me plenty of time to see Madrid. My flight back is booked for March 29th. I had first looked a the hostel I picked out through one booking site, where it said the hostel was not available anymore for that time period, but I was able to book through the Lonely Planet site. I hope my booking will be fine [though I did get a confirmation, so I don't think I would have been able to book if there weren't any beds available].

In total, I am paying €155.96 for the flight [with Vueling, a cheap Spanish airline, €85.96 for the round trip, all fees included], accommodation & breakfast [at Los Amigos (Opera), €70 for four nights in a six-bed dorm room], which is not bad at all! I will of course have more expenses, but it helps when you are not spending a fortune on flight & hostel.

I am really excited now! I had not planned to book the trip already, but seeing as the time period is during spring break I wanted to make sure I would not end up paying a lot more. And I do know myself. There is a good chance I might have ended up not going at all. Living here, I tend to put off all the touristy stuff, and sometimes fall [too much] into a daily routine without realizing how my time in Spain is passing by.

The fact that I will be traveling during spring break means that I will be able to stay a night longer for essentially the same price, will not have to skip any classes, and it will be all-around less stressful as I come back on Saturday, and my classes start on Monday. In the first week of spring break, my parents will be coming to Barcelona, so I will definitely not get bored during the holidays.

And something else I am looking forward to is my friend Julia’s coming to visit me this Saturday, in just a couple of days! She will only be able to stay until Monday, but I hope I will be able to show her most of the beautiful places in “my” city.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 1:26 and is filed under Friends, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.