(Spain) Vacation Day 1 | From Saudi to Madrid

Hola from Madrid, Spain!

It’s now around 11:30pm, and after nearly 24 hours of traveling, we’re finally tucked into our hotel room, ready to call it a day. Before sleep completely wins, I wanted to document our first day because I’m hoping to keep up with daily blogging and/or TN journaling throughout this two-week vacation.

Yesterday, June 4, was the husband’s last day at work. After enjoying more than a week off for Eid Al Adha, he only needed to work two days before we headed off for this trip. Not bad at all!

As for me, I spent the day cramming Design Team projects due while we’re away, finalizing packing, tagging our #CruisingDucks, and making scrapbook titles for the trip. Naturally, this was also the perfect time for my Cricut Maker to start acting up. Thankfully, I still have my Cricut Joy for basic cutting, but Print Then Cut projects definitely tested my patience. I think maybe I'll make a separate blog post for my Cruising Ducks and travel crafts and link it here.

On the bright side, my Cricut Explore finally made it to Saudi! Our friend Ambi generously gave me his entire 23kg luggage allowance from Manila to Saudi, telling me to just fill a suitcase since he didn’t need one anymore. Because of that, my Cricut Explore 5 and some crafting supplies successfully arrived. But the funny part is that they arrived on the very day we were leaving. So my Explore and I will have to wait a little longer before our reunion. 

After work, Ton picked up our cat sitter, Leonard, and we all had dinner at Baytoti. We went home afterward and squeezed in a little rest - which basically meant about an hour of sleep before our two-hour drive to the airport.

Of course, the hardest part about leaving for any trip is leaving Lucky behind. Leonard is wonderful with him, so I know he’s in good hands, but I already miss my fluffy kitty cat.

Mandatory fam pic before we drive to Dammam Airport

We left for the airport at around 10 PM and arrived 12:30 AM.

Bus from the Park and Fly to the airport

Checking in was quick, but we had a brief scare before immigration. After scanning our boarding passes, security suddenly asked everyone on the Dubai-bound flight to step aside because they had “stopped operations.” My brain immediately started calculating missed connections, delayed flights, and worst-case scenarios. Thankfully, after a minute or two, they reopened the gates and everything continued normally. A tiny panic attack for absolutely no reason.

Security was entertaining too. I was asked to remove my Crocs while the husband got to keep his on. Apparently my Harry Potter Jibbitz from Kaye contained enough metal to make me suspicious. Then my bag got pulled aside because I completely forgot I had my tiny scissors tucked away in my journaling supplies. Sorry and thank you again, Kaye! I really liked that cute pair of scissors!

Thankfully, immigration, security, and waiting for boarding all went smoothly after that.

The flight to Dubai was only about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, I dozed off right when they started serving food, so the crew skipped our row. By the time I woke up, everyone else was already eating. Tragic. hahah.

Our Dubai layover was short - only about 30 minutes to get to the next gate - so there wasn’t enough time for scrapbook title photos. With our return flight connection being even tighter, I’m not sure I’ll get one then either, but we’ll see.

The flight from Dubai to Barcelona was about seven hours, and I spent most of it asleep. I woke up for breakfast and lunch, of course, because priorities! Surprisingly, though, I wasn’t a huge fan of the food this time around. Emirates airplane food is usually one of my faves, but maybe I just wasn’t feeling very hungry.

Breakfast

Lunch

Being asleep for most of the flight meant I didn’t use any of the journaling supplies I packed. No watercoloring. No journaling. No reading. Apparently my hobby for the day was sleeping. Hehe!

When we landed in Barcelona, immigration took over an hour. It was slow when we visited two years ago, but somehow it felt even slower this time. The queue was incredibly long, the area was warm, and by that point my patience was running thin.

I joked that if I had to wait this long, the immigration officer better at least ask me every possible question and make the wait worthwhile. Instead, he looked at our passports, stamped them, and sent us on our way without saying much at all. hahahuhu 

From there, we took a cab to the train station with plenty of time before our train to Madrid. Naturally, our first meal in Barcelona was… McDonald’s.

Yes. McDonald’s.

Very cultured travelers, clearly. hahahah

After eating and while waiting, I even managed to finish some Polkadoodles blog deliverables because yes, I brought my laptop on vacation. hehe! Oh, and I also finished my Eid Al Adha blog!

The train ride to Madrid was lovely. I initially set up my table and planned to work more, but the Wi-Fi was spotty and sleep sounded much more appealing. So for another three hours, I mostly slept.

The views, however, were beautiful whenever I was awake. Endless green fields stretched outside the window, while the husband insisted they were green and yellow. Either way, they were gorgeous.

Once we arrived in Madrid, we walked to our hotel, Latroupe Prado, which was conveniently close to the train station.

One fun surprise was discovering that the Front Office staff member who checked us in was Filipina and her Spanish was incredibly fluent. It was amazing listening to her switch effortlessly between languages.

Our room is compact but really pretty, and after unpacking and resting for a bit, we headed out to explore the neighborhood.

For dinner, we made another excellent culinary decision and ate at Taco Bell.

Again, very cultured travelers.

I was excited because we don’t have one near us in Saudi, but the portions were a little disappointing. So after some more walking, we passed by Culto Kebab and decided to get food there too.

Yes. Kebab. In Spain.

Not in Saudi Arabia, where we live and are surrounded by kebab shops.

In Spain.

The logic was simple: it looked like the kind of flavorful food we’d enjoy. Plus, they're kebab doner! We ordered takeaway and ate on a nearby bench, and it turned out to be one of the best decisions of the day. It was delicious and far better than Taco Bell. We should have gone there first.

And now we’re back at the hotel.

The husband has already informed me that tomorrow’s sightseeing plans include churches, which means apparently I should avoid wearing shorts. Good thing I packed actual clothes and not just vacation outfits designed around comfort and snacks.

So that’s Day 1.

No journaling tonight because my tiny scissors are no longer with me, and of course, sleep is calling louder than any creative project ever could. But I'm sharing my collected junk from today for (maybe) tomorrow's journaling! While your at it, check out my Travelers Notebook Pocket blog in Traci Reed's blog published last night! It's so cool and I look forward to filling it up with more travel bits and pieces as the days go by. You can read about it here!

Madrid is waiting for us tomorrow, and after a very long journey, I think it’s finally time to rest. But before that, here are some photos i took while we were walking around:

Goodnight from Spain - and hopefully Lucky is currently sleeping peacefully, completely unaware that his humans miss him way more than he misses us.

Photo sent by our cat sitter!