My Experience in Spain

Spain was the first European country that I visited and Madrid was the city that I supposed to spend 3 months there. I reached Madrid on 11-Apr-2016 and left on 20-May-2016. As much as I did enjoy my stay there, however, the one and half month time there was a waste of my professional time.

I supposed to support a project but that project got cancelled during my second week. I didn't really get upset that time because my mind just focused on the trips that I had planned earlier. But as time went by, I wasn't assigned any task, merely assisting a local colleague on some issues. I got fed up eventually and the project weekly reports that I sent to my department bosses were awful. Then my RDM told me that I should go back to Malaysia after my current resource period expired. I agreed to that. It was interesting to stay in Madrid, but I do not enjoy to waste time sitting in the office and act busy. The local team did "try" to ask me stay. But they didn't "try" hard enough. I tried to approach them, wanted to discuss the situation with them. But they didn't make the effort to at least meet me. So, in the end, I gave up as well. Maybe it is better off for me to do something else now.

Before I left Madrid, I did ask myself if I have done everything I could to make the business trip good. I would like to think that I have done my part to help and to communicate. But if there was no response from the counterpart. So, why bother?

Now, let's let go the not-so-good experience and embrace the memorable one.

During this period of time, I have visited 5 cities - Madrid, Toledo, Valencia, Seville and Barcelona. I enjoyed most of the cities but did encounter some bad experience during the process. The best experience would be Barcelona while the worst would be Valencia. Barcelona was best because of the places that I visited and bonus events that I encountered. Sagrada Familiar was awesome and I want to revisit when it is done on 2026. As for the bonus event, I participated in the victory parade of FCB. FCB won the La Liga cup the night the before (14-May) and had the victory parade around the city (15-May). I was so excited to be part of it despite I am not a football fan (at least for now). That experience is something you can't buy with money. It was about timing. On the other hand, Valencia was worst owing to wrong travel companion. After the Valencia experience, I have understood the importance of travelling companion. A good one will make the trip enjoyable. The wrong choice will just turn everything sour. This experience has taught me to find good travel companion or else it is better off travelling alone.

If I am to use short sentences to describe each city, they will be:
Madrid : It will be more fun if I could speak Spanish. A lot of events going on every weekday night.
Toledo : A beautiful ancient city but I did not have enough time to enjoy it.
Valencia : A nice coastal city, but wrong travel companions. The beach is nice but not as good as Bondi beach.
Seville : A rushed but enjoyable solo trip. I found the tapas there are really special. Not just patatas with mayo.
Barcelona : Encountering unexpected events are fun.

In nutshell, Spain is a good country to visit and it will be more fun if I know the language.