  Spain, the land that is famous for many things, things that I am yet to find out. But as many of my friends have been telling and also based on the very less knowledge about Spain that I have, I was sure to discover new and interesting things. My journey started from Hyderabad on September 13, 2003. I am undertaking this trip for business reasons. Hence the time to “discover” Spain is very limited. Around 500 years back Christopher Columbus set off from Spain to discover India and now I am moving to “discover” Spain.
Hyderabad – Mumbai I had to travel by the 9:15 flight of Jet Airways. It was a Boeing 737 aircraft and unlike my previous experiences and that of most of my colleagues, the journey was very smooth and not like traveling in an Auto through the lanes of Chennai. To top it all the Airhostesses were too good and caring. There was this hostess, Swati, who caught my attention for most of the journey.
She had a different hairstyle that made her forehead look like the “ohm” symbol (if you drew the line along the boundary of her forehead skin and hair). The one factor that I would appreciate in this whole journey to Madrid is the waiting time. The waiting time was just appropriate to refresh yourself and make the move. Earlier there used to be so much waiting time that you would get totally bored waiting for a flight that would take off only after around 6 hrs.
Mumbai – Paris Charles De Gaulle [CDG] On landing in Mumbai my first job was to get a reliable transit service from Mumbai – Hyderabad. The experience of Jan Westrate at the Mumbai airport during transit was fresh in my mind. But to my joy I found an Air France representative waiting for me and other passengers. Even though I managed to find the Air France representative, She (Yes it is a She and her name was Rupali and She couldn’t be better) couldn’t find my name in the list of passengers. After searching for a while in the list of names, we finally managed to dig out my record using the point of destination (Madrid), as I was the only passenger in that list traveling to Madrid. Air France had arranged for a separate bus (similar to KLM). As I boarded the Air France bus, a well-known face was staring at me.
It was Manikandan, ex-colleague who had worked in my team earlier. He was traveling to London via Paris. He said that he was going for “short-term” which was 3 months long. I basically felt the need for re-defining the terms “short-term” and “long-term”!! I was probably one of the very few who didn’t have a hard copy of the ticket but still had a ticket that was re-confirmed.
I met Clara (J) at the Air France counter and she too was a bit surprised that I didn’t have a hard copy! However because of the help of Rupali I had already managed to get an early check in done and hence all I had to do was collect my boarding pass and return tickets. The Air France flight (Airbus 340) was decent but not as good as the Austrian Airways flight for several reasons. - The push back was very limited. Austrian Airways had a much larger scope for “push back”. - There was lot of (relatively) dust in the aircraft.
- The blankets had lot of cotton dust. - There was a movie of Esha Deol and Sanjay Khan’s son!! Most of the other movies were not that great. Still the flight was a very pleasant one. The landing at the CDG was one of the smoothest landings. During the last 3 hrs of the flight I once again got the sneezing problem because of the cotton dust. I had only 4 hours of proper sleep. My company through out the flight was Gopi, a Malayalee from Palakkad.
He was going to a university in France for doing some post Ph.D research. The CDG is a very big airport. But I felt that Amsterdam was better. Probably I haven’t seen much of CDG. However the airport Architecture looked good. Everything that you need was within 15 min of your reach if you take the proper means and for that you need to properly interpret the signs, which I did not do initially.
Paris – Madrid Bajaras It was again an Air France flight and this was much better, with very good food, beautiful Airhostess and a sleeping babe for company, who slept throughout the 1.5 hrs of flight! There was one food item that I liked a lot. A Croissant with Apricot Jam stuffed inside. It was “delicious” and I loved it. Need to check out if I can get one here somewhere. Else need to wait for the return flight. The Aueropuerto De Madrid Bajaras, is not that great compared to Schipol or CDG or even Mumbai.
It was a simple airport with the basic needs. Marcelo Cury, my host in Spain, was waiting for me and we took a cab to the hotel. HUSA Chamartin This is where I am staying. It is a four star hotel and has a mini bar, a safety box, blah blah. The hotel is pretty decent. The Metro runs right below the hotel. Infact this hotel is a property of the Railways of Spain. First look at Madrid The city is a very calm city. It was also a Sunday and nearly every shop was closed.
In Spain, most of the shops are closed on Sundays and the Saturday of the first weekend of the month. Some of the other features of Spain are, 1. Lunch is taken for 2 hours unlike the 0.5 – 1 hr period back home. 2. Restaurants are open only from 1 – 4 for lunch and 9 – 12 for dinner.
3.
Shops generally close early at around 8:30. There was one aspect that caught my immediate attention. There were posters stuck on the walls very similar to the film posters that we would find in Chennai or Coimbatore or any other town / city in India (except Hyderabad J ). Madrid looks more like a costly City to live in. The minimum charge for a decent dinner is € 10.00 and everything is costly.
Probably it is more to do with the place I have visited today. May be things are cheap in other parts of the city. The time now here is 9:00 PM and the Sun is just setting down. Have to prepare for a busy week ahead. Closing down, September 14, 2003 20:55 
