How to have an adventure during Semana Santa

1. Buy plane tickets: From Madrid to Amsterdam, then from Brussels (Charleroi) to Sevilla

2. Look up luggage size and weight restrictions for RyanAir and EasyJet to avoid the hefty oversize luggage fees that budget airlines are known for

3. Buy a new RuRuKaDi brand carry-on suitcase at the Chinese store. Never heard of the brand before? Me neither. :) (The airport misplaced my old one for about 4 days when I first arrived to Madrid and brought it back to me with a missing wheel. Plus since US dimensions are slightly different than Europe measurements, and the budget airlines here are EXTREMELY picky about the size and weight, it was probably time for me to get one anyhow.) 55 cm x 45 cm x 20 cm, maximum weight of 10 kg (Thank you, RyanAir.)

3. Book hostels in Amsterdam and Brussels (Thank you, hostelworld.com)

4. Realize that booking hostels 2 weeks in advance is actually too late for such a popular vacation time and decide to add an extra city into the plan after realizing there´s no place in the entire city of Amsterdam to stay for the planned third night...


5. Look up other cities well connected to both Amsterdam and Brussels by train

6. Book hostel in Rotterdam

7. Read something online and in the Let´s Go Western Europe (on a budget) book from 2008 about Rotterdam to see if there´s anything to do or see there

8. Spend an hour or so getting excited reading about the architecture, history of immigration, importance of the port, and student life in Rotterdam (Thank you, google.com and wikipedia.com)

9. Decide maybe missing the 3rd day in Amsterdam isn´t so bad after all

10. 2 days before... Look up weather forecast for Amsterdam, Brussels, and Sevilla for this coming week. Realize that packing for 12 days in a carry on suitcase for places that may be as cold as 2ºC and as warm as 30ºC might be tricky

11. Buy train ticket from Rotterdam to Brussels. Hope for the best and wait to buy the Amsterdam to Rotterdam ticket until I get there since the website only accepts credit cards from Dutch banks

12. 1 day before... Look up ways to get from Avenida de America to the Barajas airport in Madrid to arrive at 5:00 am for a flight at 6:50 am

13. Realize there is no night bus to the airport and come to terms with spending 3 hours tonight in the airport before check-in opens. This is all part of the adventure, right??

14. Spend an hour and a half in the metro frantically writing down sites to see, typical foods, etc. in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, and Liege and reading up on the basic history, art, architecture, politics, and literature of each place

15. Copy down reservation numbers, dates, addresses, phone numbers, price, and directions both walking and by metro from the airport to the train station to the hostel to the train station to the second hostel to a different train station to the third hostel on a green sheet of paper (harder to misplace when it´s green)

16. Fill up travel size shampoo, soap, etc. bottles

17. Pack and hope to fit everything in for the 12 day trip into the 55 cm x 45 cm x 20 cm suitcase.... So far so good....

18. Walk to the locutorio to print out boarding passes and tickets for 2 flights, 1 train from Rotterdam to Brussels, and 1 bus from Sevilla to Madrid

19. Plan for later today... Try to take a nap for a few hrs before catching the last bus of the night to the airport at 2 am, take along the rest of perishable fruits, bread, etc. from the fridge for snacks for the night and breakfast, find a way to kill time or rest a little bit at the airport until the flight to Amsterdam!


We´ll see! For better or for worse, an adventure awaits :)