India - from England to Delhi (Preface)

Hello and welcome to another blog with the Findlaters as we embark on our adventure in India.

Picking up from where we left off in our last blog we have just moved house and are setting off on our new adventures to India. 
As the last blog started to get a bit longer then we had initially anticipated I have broken it up into this second blog post. 

So here it is! 
After everything about moving house and settling in etc. I am not sure we had time to get super excited about our trip until we were actually sitting at Heathrow Airport waiting for our gate to be announced. 

Start of adventure to India - London to Dubai, Dubai to Delhi

But nevertheless here I sit at 10pm at night in in our hotel in Delhi writing this blog and the beginning of this trip. 

Our first flight was from London to Dubai - A 6 hour flight that induced a mixed set of emotions. On one hand it was a big Boeing A380 with fancy trimmings and an overly generous amount of leg room. It was an Air Emirates flight, and was awesome as usual for the most part.

The flight was basically empty, so I got to lay across three seats and actually get some sleep for a change (I'm one of those people who doesn't usually sleep well or easily on flights). Kyran spent most of this flight enjoying movies as he wasn't tired and was unable to get any sleep.

The other emotion 'anger' as per all of the flights that I book I always specify "Vegan" meals, but only 50% of the time do we actually get one. In this case was in fact NO vegan meal arranged for us! So we had to scavenge salads from the left over crews meals. Strangely enough, the main meal choices were just chicken or beef, not even a vegetarian option you'd typically see these days... I could go on... not impressed Flight Center, not impressed!

Above: A garden type thing in Dubai airport

The second flight was from Dubai to Delhi, with only a 1.25 hour changeover between flights which is pretty quick. The flight to Delhi was only 2.5 hours long which was a saving grace because for some reason we thought that we were in for and other 6+ hour flight. But this short trip was unfortunate for Kyran because he thought he had another 4-6 hour flight ahead to get some sleep... Because he spent the previous 6 hour flight to Dubai watching movies he really didn't get any sleep at all. He was a great leg pillow though!!

We arrived in Delhi in the morning, and landing at the airport is where the culture shock began. 

One runway was half built, there were people in little wood huts in the middle of the air strip areas (see below) and toilets with extra hoses but no Toilet paper, not to mention the toilets that were almost missing entirely!! (see Below)

I mean how are you suppose to use these things (squat toilets)? Do you straddle them forwards or backwards? 
Apparently the correct answer is 'like you would a normal toilet, back to the wall'. Which I guess makes sense after I had done it the wrong way around, and spent my stay squatting while focusing on not face-planting whatever bodily fluid was on the wall. 

We were met at arrivals hall by our private car transfer guys who greeted us with these awesome flower neck things which was a very cool touch!

As we left the terminal, we stepped into a cloud of smog, fog and haze, and were surrounded by armed guards and security police with all sorts of rifles and sub machine guns. Portable steel shields to hide behind, sandbagged machine gun nests, very heavily fortified and a bit of a shock. Is security this bad to merit such a show of force?

We asked the transfer guys about the security and they said it's normal, and because Delhi is the capital they are very serious about security. The government has stationed a special military group at all major infrastructure like airports to provide security, because they did a good job elsewhere in the past.

On our drive to the Hotel, we got our first experience of the chaotic life on the road and city streets of Delhi - which is the Capital city of India. Here are some of our first impressions:

Somehow, Indian drivers appeared to solve the impossible - how to "safely" fit 5 cars wide on a 4-lane highway, with extra motorbikes in between!

Above: one of the may forms of moving produce around the country in a way that we were not used to seeing.  Motorbikes were everywhere, and hardly anyone wearing helmets. Little "rickshaws" of the hand cart, and motorized forms zooming around everywhere like fireflies or drunk bumblebees. People walking haphazardly across the road, weaving in amongst moving traffic and not apparently caring about their personal safety. 

Poorly maintained roads, littered with potholes big enough to cause serious damage. The cars use their horns and high-beams like some form of primitive communications about intent to pass or overtake, signalling oncoming traffic, and generally communicating intent to do something. This is what happens when rules and systems are ignored, weird pseudo-rules which are unwritten, but living and breathing systems adopted by the population and widely accepted and understood by the denizens of Delhi (and wider India as we later found). 

Beggars and people trying to make a quick coin filtered through the traffic in rare situations where cars actually came to a stop at red lights (usually people just drive through them), at one point we saw what was obviously a man but dressed as a woman and with makeup on (red dot on the middle of brow, lipstick etc) begging for money.  

We passed a construction site at one point where a man was dangling down the side of a building from the 2nd floor by holding onto his mate's hand so he could place a brick on some hard-to-reach location! So they really must not have any sort of health and safety regulations!

After almost an hour of jaw-dropping and harrowing experiences on Indian roads for the first time, we arrived at our Hotel - a 5-star hotel called the Suryaa Hotel New Delhi. 

At the entry gate, the car was searched by security guards for bombs by opening the bonnet and checking the engine bay, and by using a mirror on a stick to look underneath the car. The funny part was the dude with the mirror on a stick wasn't even looking at it, he was having a chat with a bloke in the guard house! 

We got to the doors of the Hotel, and had to go through another round of security checks and scan handbags through an X-ray machine, and go through a metal detector and get patted down. 

As we had arrived early and there was a bunch of people waiting for early check in as the rooms became available we decided to get some food. 
At this point we were too tired and in shock to wonder out of the hotel to look for local food so we went to the hotel restaurant instead. 

I (Mercedes) thought I would at least try for an Indian breakfast and ordered some Parathas - depending on what sort of Paratha they are curried veggies (potatoes, caulieflour etc.) wrapped in dough flattened out and pan fried (see Below). 

Kyran on the other hand took one look at the menu saw Mushrooms on toast and he knew what he wanted (see Below).

With our primal needs starting to be met the last thing that was left to fulfill was sleep so I though by this time I could probably go and motivate the reception staff to get us a room asap. 

So apparently that is all it took because the minute I asked them when our room would be ready they issued us some key cards and wifi passwords and we were set. 

Straight to our room to have a shower and bed. 

Below is the view that we had from our hotel room

We woke up just in time for dinner but after paying through the nose for breakfast/lunch at the hotel and with a little courage built up after a sleep we decided that the shopping area right out side the hotel wouldn't be such a bad place to adventure to. 

We set out to get food but we also had a side mission to get a mobile sim card so that we could have internet while we were in India for the 12 days. 

So first we managed to get the sim, which was a weird experience because our transfer guy said to never give anyone our original passport but only a copy, so we had the hotel make a copy. When we asked the sim card guys about a sim they did seem to press for the original passports but settled for the copy when we told them we didn't have them with us. 

Concerning, but it was all part of the overall feeling of being unsafe and being on high alert that we had when we first arrived. 
Another thing, (and you will here me say this quite a bit through out this blog series) Kyran and I stood out like White Rhinos. We couldn't go anywhere without people staring at us. 

The long and the short of it was that we did get a sim that would not activate for 24 hours, I was dubious as to if we were getting ripped off, but in the end the sim did start working about 26 hours later. 

After we sold our first child and our identities to get the sim card with data plan it was time to get some food, and when in India... Indian food!!! woot woot!!!

Kyran got a little excited ordering food, but he was happy and the food was cheap. 
The one food that I would like to mention is the "Soya chop" (see below) it was a sort of doughy/ meaty textured meat alternative that was very tasty. I think that is was cooked on a skewer as all the pieces had holes through them. Very yummy indeed!!

That my friends brings us to the end of this blog and our first day in India. 

The next adventure is a trip to see the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort in Agra. But before we publish that blog we have decided to do a bit of a summary blog so that you, the reader, can get a better feel and understanding of India to give our future adventures a bit of cultural context. 

So thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next blog post!

Moving house and off on another adventure

Welcome to another adventure with the Findlaters

Packing up house, and final days stress before a new adventure! 
This Blog I would like to start a little closer to home first as that is where the adventure really started. 

I write this first part of this blog sitting in bed at 5am in the morning suffering from what could be described as pre-jetlag/post-moving-house-lag. 

Let me elaborate. 

We are about to head overseas again on an adventure that will keep us away for just under two months. 

So from what turned out to be a series of fortunate events Kyran's brother who also lives in the UK suggested that we move in with him and his family. 

I believe that the major motivation for this was so that we could house-sit for him when he goes overseas later this year for an equally long amount of time.

The secondary reason I am sure is so that they have Kyran and I around to look after little Hector when the need arises. Which is fine - if you're an avid reader of our blogs you will see that were are often off on an adventure with little Hector to a museum or park and we do enjoy it!

So while writing this today is Monday the 4th of Feburary 2019, tomorrow the 5th we get on a plane to India and the weekend just gone (2nd and 3rd) was moving day. 
Indeed the whole week leading up to this weekend just passed has been hectic. 

I Mercedes have been finishing up my work contract at the College that I have been working at, and then coming home and packing boxes from 6pm to midnight every night. 

Mean while Kyran has been off mostly living away from home installing one of his robots in its factory and doing hand-over to one of the other guys to take over while he is gone. 
At night he has also been working on his invention, putting the finishing touches on it so that we can get all of his prototypes sent off to his "Beta Testers" before we leave the country. 

For those of you who do not know what his invention is you can learn more from his website: www.kytechindustries.com

I hope all this back story helps to paint a picture of the level of pre-tired we were, even before moving day. 

Friday the 1st  - My last day at work- the day to say goodbye and try not to cry (I always cry!) was cancelled it was a snow day! School was cancelled!  
On one hand it was sad to not be able to say my goodbyes on the other hand it was lucky as I still have lots of packing to do so it bought me some extra time. 

Side story: For those of you who do not know, I have been getting into Victorian fashion - or at least that is what people are telling me. I thought it was 1890's but I guess I got carried away. 

The reason I tell you this is that for the last week at school the ladies at work asked that I wear a different one of the dresses that I made each day. 
So on Friday I was all dressed with the dress I was going to wear that day.
The dress was to be my best one that week, but as school was cancelled and I was already dressed I decide to wear it out and about on the street as I went about my daily tasks. 

Now I don't know if it was the weather or pension day or what was going on, but the local English people were loving my outfit. They were beeping their cars and stopping to ask where I was going all dressed up like that. 

I even had my bank teller ask to take a photo with me and another shop attendant ask to take a photo too!! 

Fun stuff!! 

I think it was the hat that made it! It was a fedora that Kyran bought when we were in Mexico (about this time last year actually: mexico blog post featuring fedora ) that he had spilled coffee on and hadn't worn much since. So while cleaning I asked him if he still wanted it or if I could get creative with it. He said I could have it!



So I finished staining it all over with coffee to give it a more natural organic look and to re-set it in the shape that I wanted. I also cut the top bit in half and the re-sewed it a little lower and stuck some flowers to it. 

I was all dressed up and at the local supermarket and an older lady chased me down and said that she had seen me walk down the street and she just had to come over to say hello and say how lovely I looked. 

Well I am the type of person that finds it hard to take a compliment so I said "geez thanks but I just made this hat and it keeps moving around my head, I really need a hat pin but you can't get those any more". 
So the lady replied, "I have one that belonged to my mother!". 
Interested, I inquired if she would be willing to part with it.... long story short I now have two hat pins!

It is a little short for this hat but I think it will do nicely for a few other hats I have in mind!

So that was very nice and I am super happy about it, now I can try to reverse engineer it to see if I can make them myself!

But I digress. I was trying to introduce our pre-holiday chaos.

 
So Kyran got home on the Friday and we spent the night putting the last touches on his inventions and packaging them. 


Saturday was go time!! 
We had a hire van booked for the day so we picked it up at 8 am and it was go go go after that.  
Inventions to the post office, first trip to the brothers house, second trip to take the cupboards to a friends house, third trip to the tip/dump and finally fourth trip to the brothers house and to bed. 

On Sunday we had to get the hire car back before 8 am - then get home nearby to finish cleaning before a 10am inspection by the landlord. 


Then the brother in-law picked us up and took us back to his place/our new home where we then had to spend the day putting everything away.

 Above: Bye bye old house!

If you have not heard me mention food up until this point it is because there was none. Poor Kyran reckoned that he was so hungry he was going to pass out! But we did manage to work all the way through to 4 pm until almost everything was put somewhere out of the way and we could go and eat. 

Below: Here I have photographic evidence of the sugar hitting Kyran's Blood Stream!

The Turkish restaurant down the road served up an epic meal and we scoffed it all down. 

After this it all went to the wind, we got home so full that we had a shower and went straight to bed - at 6pm. 

So it is that at 4:30 am I am awake and writing the beginning of this blog before we set off on the next massive adventure - TO INDIA! For a traditional Punjabi wedding! Stay tuned for our exciting adventures in India and the culture shock that we experienced for parts of it.

Back to the UK, Thriller Concert and Korea

Hello and welcome to the final blog with our guest Mahina. 

If you have been reading the rest of this blog you should have a good idea of exactly how huge this trip has been and how utterly tired we were by this point!!

Kicking off from where we left off last blog we have just arrived back in the UK after a very stressful detour buck from Poland via Madrid. 

Above: So ready to board the plane to get back from our adventures abroad. 


So we are back but we are not done. 
When Mahina said that she was coming to visit there were two things that she said that she wanted to see.
1. Harry Potter tour
2. Thriller concert

To make sure that she had something to look forward to I booked us for the Harry Potter Tour at the very beginning and the Thriller concert at the very end. 

We arrived in the UK the day of the concert. We feared that due to all the detours etc that we might not have even been back by then, but we were!! YAY.... at about midday we got home and then had to shower and get dressed ready to go straight out to London that night.

Above: Here we both are waiting at the train station to head into London.

Once we were in London it was a matter of trying to enjoy ourselves and catching the photos that we had missed before. 

Above and Below: Us taking photos with the iconic underground signs

But alas, we still had to get the the concert yet so we had to get to Piccadilly Circus and then walk to the theatre.

Below: The iconic Piccadilly Circus and a double story red bus. According to Mahina they filmed some of Harry Potter here (I don't remember watching that bit).

Finally it was theatre time:

For me personally it was only my second time in a London theatre so I was pretty happy just to be going to the theater. For me to see a Michael Jackson tribute concert was not actually that exciting to be honest. 

I'm not a mega fan, I mean I know his songs (some of them) but I was keen just to be going out to the theatre and have a night out with my friend. 
When we actually got into the Lyric Theatre I was impressed by the architecture (Below).

But then I became more and more impressed with the show. 

The show was amazing, I have a huge respect for the arts and performing arts. The actors and dancers were on point. The structure of the show was clear but the songs that they played left you realising that they had missed some of the top greats which left you a bit disappointed until the very end when they hit you with all of them, and then BAM! the crowd goes wild!!!

Well that is it really. It is a short blog from me as after this adventure it was just a midnight snack (below) and the train home to bed ready to take Mahina to the airport the next morning. 
So this is where I will leave you with Mahina who went on to Korea and she will tell you all about her impression and adventures there. 

Mahina it's all yours!

OK! So firstly... the amount of relief I felt just to be back on UK grounds again was a whole lot of weight lifted off my shoulders! We both had so much anxiety having to catch another Ryan Air flight, but finally there was no delays. With all my Madrid goodies jammed packed between both mine and Missy's carry on baggage, we made it! 

After forgetting where we parked the car, finally making it home, it was party time! Filled with Vodka and tea we journeyed back to London for the Thriller tribute concert. 

I was worried Missy wouldn't enjoy herself as the ticket was 45 pounds each but we both had a blast! With me blasting Mercedes ears off with my screams and awesome singing (lol). She then had to endure me crying during some songs haha. The singers were so talented with perfect harmonies and the dancers were amazing! Extremely talented and even if you weren't a huge fan, it was an awesome experience. This was definitely my highlight of the trip. 

But sadly all good things must come to an end. With a quick morning trip to the local grocery shop to fill up my luggage with food goodies to take back home, farewell hugs were done. I was so sad leaving the UK, it was all a last minute trip and vastly exceeded my expectations. The memories and fights we had, I know that we will be annoying pains to each other always lol. 

Had to ditch most of my clothes at the airport because I was over the weight limit by nearly 10kgs. Had more issues just getting through security which spiked my anxiety up and I was just over being in another airport. HOWEVER Jesus must've felt sorry for me at this time and thought 'she's gone through enough, lets upgrade her' because I was upgraded to Business class from Heathrow to Korea! The flight alone was so luxurious and relaxing. 

I was only in Korea for the day but because I am a huge fan of Korean culture, music and TV shows, I was not going to miss out on seeing the place. I can also speak Korean at a beginner level, so I felt at home here as well. Made my way out of the airport, hopped on a day tour bus and went into the city. I already knew what shops I was hunting down, what I wanted to buy and where I needed to go so I was on a mission. 

I think there is a lot of prejudice with Korea that it is a scary place to be in due to North Korea. However you wouldn't even know anything like that was going on. Everyone was so friendly and helpful. Walking through the city and seeing all the elderly still hardworking and hustling for their families, cooking street food, selling handmade goods, was inspiring. I visited Myeongdong, found the shops I was looking for. Then went and visited the markets, there was a few Filipino girls on the same bus as me, so I just asked them if I could join them for Korean BBQ and made friends with them. After gaining another 5kgs worth of shopping I was back on the bus by sunset, heading back to the airport. 

Anxiety filled once again as I only had a carry-on with me which was already full enough. I put my Tetris skills to use, squeezed everything in and just prayed that no one weighed my carry on. I had weighed it before I lined up and it went from being 7kgs right up to 12kgs. And I was not willing to part with anything! But they were so kind and didn't bother with it. 

Below: Here are some of the photos that i took while I was in Korea

As I reflect back on my holiday and all the wonderful memories, I realised a few things. 
1. Travelling is the best source of education. I never thought I would be into history but I couldn't get enough of it. (Much to Missy's shock as I spent too much time reading and soaking everything in lol). 
2. I got out of my comfort zone, made friends with strangers and experienced things no one in my intermediate family has seen. I am grateful that I could go back home, share my stories and tell others that there is way more out there then just working and making babies. 
3. That Missy and I even though we are two very different people, but she will always be one of my closest friends. We fought battles together. Nearly getting arrested in a foreign country together changes you haha. I'm lucky to have a great friend.

Thanks for an amazing journey. May we have many more! 


Wooottttt!!! What a trip! I hope that you have enjoyed reading our blog as much as we enjoyed the adventure. 

Don't forget that if you are thinking to head to the UK or would like a travel buddy in the general area of Europe / Canada/ Australia and would like a personal Photographer capturing each and every moment on your adventure, Findlater Tours are now offering personalized, fun and out of the ordinary tours that can be at your own pace. I like to think that we are specialists in 'drive by tourism' - meaning that you get to see everything that you wanted to see in the limited time that you have. I mean we did 4 countries in 4 days on this tour. But we are also totally OK with taking it slow and really taking in the sights. 

Unexpected Detour

Ok folks this blog starts stressful and ends well. 
So lets just get straight into it.

Picking up from our last blog we (Mahina and I) were sitting at the Krakow airport waiting to board our flight any minute after a beautiful couple of days in Poland. 

Soon, we worked out that we were not going to board our plane and in fact our plane had not even left London 2.5 hours ago. There were no staff at the terminal and no announcements made, only the TV panels changed to indicate that there was a delay sufficient enough that food vouchers would be provided (no audio announcement of this either), at this point, very late in the evening, the majority of the airport shops were shut and the remaining ones didn't have what I would identify as "food".
Then one staff member appeared and started handing out food vouchers and word of mouth spread that that is what was happening so people started forming ques to get their vouchers.

Mid way through handing out food vouchers they decided that the plane that had not left London was never going to arrive and that they would cancel the flight. 
At this point the air carrier's policy changed - they no longer had to provide food vouchers. So the lady with the vouchers put them away. Only some of the passengers had got the vouchers and they then scurried away to get food. 

By this point our 9 pm boarding time was now 11 pm, and sitting around waiting for anything useful from the airport staff shortly turned into 12-1 am due to lining up and being processed through customs again. We went through customs again as we needed to have our flights rescheduled back out at the customer services area that was manned by two useless people that couldn't say anything useful in any direction. 

Above: You can see on our faces how impressed all the passengers were about the whole situation at well past midnight.. All hungry and thirsty and thoroughly pissed off.

This is where my blood starts to boil and I would like to mention that the air carrier was RYAN AIR and I wish them nothing but bankruptcy and hope that they step on a lego or some other such inconvenience (I Mahina second this statement) 

I can not describe to you the following occurrences except to say I was prepared to go to a Polish jail and was provided the opportunity to do so by 3 big customs officials. 
3 am was when we finally got served. They told us the next available flights to London would not be for 2-3 days (Around the same time Mahina had to be on the plane to Australia) . They were already redirecting people through Germany etc. and even they were all booked up before we got to the service desk. 

I had a hire car parked in parking back in the UK that I was paying for that would continue to cost money and we were going to miss out on our planned trip the Cambridge and Dover.

Note from Mahina: So while all this was going down I completely trusted my friend and left her to fight all the battles. I stood in line with our luggage and she was off! I have known Mercedes for a very very long time, so I knew when it came to things like this with legal authority and a persons rights, there is nobody I would ever trust more than Missy at this moment. So tbh I felt calm, a little distressed but mainly calm (if I was not with Missy though, this would not have been the case).

I was busy documenting everything, looking after peoples bags. Then went to rest my ankle and a group agreed to look after our luggage. I returned only to find one guy (around the same age as us) moving Mercedes luggage so I told him off and he replied back with a smart comment. Around this time Missy returns to find me in a foul mood with headphones on and after she asked me what was wrong and heard what had happened, that was it, she told them off. Few moments later those same guys then buggered off to the Pub in the airport and left there luggage in line for someone else to look after. But by this stage we were near the front of the line, otherwise we would've moved his luggage out. 

Missy had also had not eaten, the airport customer service team or Ryan Air team had not walked around and even offered anybody bottles of water, or anything to drink. So if there is one thing I know, you don't mess with an angry Spaniard that is hungry and on top of that thirsty! We had no bottles of water packed in our bags or food. My poor friend was on the verge of tears due to how badly we were being treated... so I decided to chip in after she was nearly arrested. And like 2 peas in a pod, we were off!  

There was no way I was going to let Mahina miss that plane home, so I had to get creative. 
An idea struck! Madrid! - they had not thought to funnel the redirections through Madrid so there were still flights available to London from Madrid in the timeframe that we needed. 

As you all know I have family there, so that would save us some money on accommodation that Ryan Air was suppose to provide but refused (I hope their toilet paper tears vertically!). Also if I am going to be so inconvenienced i'm going to make a holiday of it! So i will ask to redirect through Madrid with a day to look around and will get the night time flight (which had better take off!).  

This my friends is where this blog gets good again. 
By 4am in the morning we were in our hotel in Krakow very ready to sleep!! 

Our flight to Madrid wasn't until the afternoon that day which served us well as we need to sleep in and relax a bit. We ended up starting up a lobby party with some of the other disgruntled inconvenienced passengers that were waiting for their rerouted flights etc. 

Below: I also took this opportunity to raid the hotels' first Aid kit and wrap Mahina's ankle from all her encounters with old mate gravity.

So we arrived in Madrid. Lets take it from here. 

My wonderful Auntie picked us up from the airport in the evening and took us home. We were hungry and managed to have a late night cook-up before we went to bed for yet another night of much needed sleep. 

Note from Mahina: OMGOSH I AM IN MADRIDDDDDDDD!!!! I still can't believe I got the opportunity to step foot in Spain! Everything happens for a reason, even though I was really devastated I didn't get to see Dover or Cambridge (I had watched many documentaries in preparation for it). From the moment I landed this place felt like home and Missy's aunty felt like my own. I'm so grateful to my friend and her family for looking after me, giving me clothes and even underwear since we had next to nothing on us. 

This is where we can now start to laugh about the whole thing again! 
Because we had not planned to be abroad as long as it was looking like we were going to be. We need to start to wash our clothes in the shower an hope that they would dry by morning. So this is what we did in our Polish hotel but unfortunately not all out clothes were dry so we had to bundle them all in wet. so at who knows what hour of the night I had to ask my Tia (aunty in Spanish) if we could put on a load of washing then we had to stay up long enough to hang it out to dry. for the second night in a row we went to bed hoping that enough items of clothing were going to be dry enough to wear. 

So the joke was that what if the clothes would not be dry enough in time? What would we do tomorrow. 

Well when you put heads together with my Tia we always end up with some funny solutions. 

The Plan B ended up being... We will wear our bed sheet like togas and get on the bus that runs from her front door to the entrance of Primark (a very cheap clothing store) where we would obtain replacement clothes. 

The idea of us two weird travelers that do not look Spanish traversing the middle of Madrid butt naked in our bed sheets and nothing else was the comedic relief that we needed after the trauma inflicted on us by Ryan Air (I hope they start pooping in a public bathroom and then realise too late there's no Toilet Paper).

Note from Mahina: I was laughing at this and thinking to myself ahhh yep they are definitely Mercedes family haha! 

So in order to make the most of the the time that we had in Spain we were up at a reasonably early time and caught the bus into the the center of Madrid. 
The plan was to have breakfast which was to introduce Mahina to the real chocolate and Churros. The problem was as soon as we got off the bus the first thing we spotted was Primark. 

That was it all plans were canceled (my eyes lit up like a fat kid looking at a doughnut)  the Harry Potter Tour I had told Mahina not to buy her souvenirs there as they are too expensive (best advice ever) but that we would get them from Primark. 

Here we were faced with a mega Primark so it was shopping for us. The problem is that we had the rest of the day ahead of us and anything that she bought now we would have to carry all day. 

So she did her best to leave some of the Harry Potter Merchandise in the store for other people and we were finally on our way!



Above: Me keeping occupied while carrying some for her shopping!

Once were were done shopping Mahina needed her coffee fix

Then it was my turn to do what I needed to do... and that was to visit the area of Madrid where it was made known to me by my creative Tia that there is a treasure trove of materials, ribbons, zippers, hooks, clips etc.

I found my favorite ribbon shop and set about getting 1 meter lengths of what ever caught my eye. 

Left: The zone that all the creative shops are in.

Above: Mahina in my ribbon shop... I am not sure what that look on her face says... " damn that's a lot of ribbons!"

By this point in our adventures to say that we were extremely tired would be an understatement, so the following sequence of events may be out of order but here it goes. 

I remember walking to the very center of Marid where they have the statue of the bear eating from the strawberry tree (it is on the coat of arms for Madrid) ... I think we did this on the way to the ribbon shop. Then by this point I think it was rightfully lunch time and having missed out on breakfast we were certainly ready for food. 


So we walked through this over-priced market meant for tourists and rich people to drop their money. But Mahina couldn't take it any more and had to eat something! She bought 1 olive... I don't know what it cost here but I remember thinking I would rather go hungry!

I wanted to get out of the center a bit and away from the touristy places before finding a place to sit down and eat, so as a result I think we also wondered through the 'Plaza de espana' (Plaza of Spain) heading toward the royal palace and Tia's home. 

Above: The illegal street vendors that were displaying in the plaza. When the police come they will grab the strings on the corners of their sheets and run.

Halfway there I think I remember Mahina threatening a strike from exhaustion and hunger so we found a place that was cheap enough but not too touristy so we sat down to do our best at trying all the traditionally Spanish food. 

I personally love the fried "padron" peppers but I had to make sure that she tried as much traditional Spanish food as she could eat so there was tortilla and paella as well. 

Note from Mahina: The fooood oh man. One thing that Missy told me from the moment we landed was get ready for the food because Spanish people do not make bad food. And once again she was correct. The Paella, those fried pepper things, Missy ordered some Spanish ham for me (sorry mum and family, I keep hearing delicious things about it from my work mates so I had to try), the croquettes and everything else. Even just the fact I was drinking Sangria in Madrid was overload for me! I get super excited and grateful at even the smallest of things so just this one meal alone was enough for me to think to myself 'I am so blessed in this life with everything around me.' I still to this day miss this meal I had and the whole vibe of the place. Madrid you have won my heart. 

After this it was a walk to the royal palace to have a look and see if Mahina could get in. Thanks to Mahina's urge to deprive the rest of Primark Madrid of anything Harry Potter (haha woohoo) I made the journey back to my aunties house to drop off the purchases and was going to meet Mahina back at the palace later. 

Back to me: So before I explored the Palace and Cathedral I walked with Missy back to the shops and we decided to have a girls afternoon and get our hair done!  

(Mercedes: oh yeah I forgot about this!)

Missy went a bit lighter with layers and after much convincing I got my hair done as well. I was really scared though because I have very thick, coarse, curly, Polynesian hair. Whenever I go to a salon back home in Australia they constantly talk about how thick my hair is and others don't even know what to do with it all. So I stay away. However Missy says "This is Madrid! Look around you, you fit right in here! They have the same hair as you and trust me they are used to it!" After the others in the Salon all agreed with her I felt at ease and was excited! 

Missy then told me after it that some of them thought I was rude because they were talking to me in Spanish but I was not replying until she had to tell them I was not Spanish. So we got our hair done, with fresh cut, colour and blow out. I was off to walk back to the palace alone and Missy went to drop off my goods to Aunty's home.  

When I arrived though I had missed the time cut-off for entrance and wasn't allowed in. So I just explored, took photos, vlogged and just took in the whole atmosphere. The guy playing some kind of instrument (accordion), the gypsy in the corner outside of the church begging for money, the students, the couples... it was magical to me. 

When I got back to the palace it seems as though there were about to close so I had to wait for Mahina at the exit until they kicked her out/ she reappeared. 

With sleep in in the morning and the days adventures the last thing left to do was head back to Tia's apartment and relax before the rest of the family arrived for a last minute organised catch-up party while we were in town. 

All in all it was a pleasant detour if we don't consider the reasons why we ended up there. 
I can not stress enough how happy it makes me when I read in the news that Ryan Air has lost $20 million and is in financial turmoil. Good! Karma! 

Mahina: Sorry this is a long blog but I just want to quickly chip in again. Before Aunty dropped us off to the airport at 6am in the morning she hunted down a Churros place for me! By 7am I was sitting drinking an espresso (still the best coffee I have ever had) and eating fresh Churros and chocolate (all the weight I had lost in the UK I put back on in one day in Madrid lol). The sun was not yet up, the guys were hot and all speaking Spanish, I was loving it lol. 

Oh and we had dinner with Missy's cousin and two aunties! I felt at home, I tried pipas for the first time, the dinner was so yummy and the atmosphere was warm. These are some of my best memories and what I would have wanted from Spain. 

Thankyou so much to the MalaxEtxebarria family, you have imprinted on my heart and even though it was probably nothing to you, it is a special memory for me. Muchas Gracias. 

Well that is the clinchers that I had left you all hanging for last blog I hope it did not disappoint, but I also would advise never to book with Ryan Air... unless you like this sort of drama!!

Ok well I think that is it for this blog and for Mahina's trip to the good old UK. By the time we got back to the UK it was time to get her on the plane back home, and hope that she didn't have any other flight cancellations. Well if she did, she can fight that battle alone! I'll be buggered if I could do it twice in a lifetime let alone twice in such a short period of time. 

Thanks for reading and I am sorry that it has take so long to publish... the trauma was still too real and even now I am glad to be done with this blog. 

The next series of blogs though are definitely well underway as we are off on a massive adventure to India, Australia and then Thailand. In fact I am writing these finishing touches from India where we are days away from a pretty awesome Punjabi wedding. 

P.S: 
Nah just kidding! There's more! Looking for photos for this blog I saw that at some point in our beyond-tired wanderings around Madrid some things were purposefully blanked from my memory... We somehow ended up herding ourselves across the city to see the Madrid Bull Ring - Another institution that I hope crumbles and falls.... and be damned with culture and sport blah blah blah! Bull fighting needs to go the way of female genital mutilation... HISTORY... 

Here in India where I am finishing this blog, cows are sacred and holy and then to look back and think what the Spanish do is barbaric! The same animal, two different cultures!

Ok now you can go! See you in the next blog and thanks for reading!
From Mahina, Ciao! (I need to learn Spanish..)