At the beginning of my Year Abroad it was hard to imagine it ever coming to an end, but here it is and it’s flown by in a heartbeat. After one more crazy week in Murcia, my Year Abroad is now officially over.
When I woke up on Monday morning back in my room in Murcia, I had time to unpack, do my washing and organise some of my things before meeting my friends in the afternoon. We’d decided that this would be the best day to do all the touristy things in Murcia we’d not yet got round to. We wandered around the sunny streets, taking photos outside the theatre, the cathedral, the town hall and in the Plaza de las flores.
We stayed together all day, and in the evening we went for tapas at the chic but cheap little bar underneath Alicia and Lina’s flat. They’d both gone on about the tortilla española there for ages so it only seemed right that we all give it ago. So immense was our disappointment when the waiter related the news that they were all out of tortilla, that he phoned a nearby branch of the bar and got it personally delivered for us.
After dinner it was already getting quite late and we went up to the flat for a sleepover - which, by the way, you are never too old for. We were fully prepared for a huge film night, with piles of snacks and sangria made from some very posh red wine Lina “had to finish” before leaving - the only thing lacking in the end were the actual films. We hadn’t considered that the Internet connection in the flat would be so pathetic that it couldn’t even buffer a film. We were forced to choose from the films we already had on our hard drives, and only ended up watching two.
The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed at 10.30 to make the most out of the day. Ali and I ran back to our flats to change clothes and grab what we needed for the day before meeting the other two at the tram stop a little later. We’d decided to buy tickets for Terra Natura, the zoo and water park just outside town, by Espinardo. The €25 euro price was pretty steep but you did get two days for free, so it seemed worthwhile since the alternative would be a ten-euro trip to the beach every day.
In our usual chaotic way, we ended up going around the zoo in the wrong direction and missing out half of it by accident, but by this stage we were in the mid-afternoon heat and all we really wanted to do was chill by the pool. It was at this point that Lina realised she had forgotten her towel yet again - just in case we hadn’t made fun of her enough the last time. You’d be surprised how many jokes can be made out of one forgotten towel.
Since Lina’s belly bar from a few months ago was looking, in all honesty, fairly disgusting, she decided to sit out the water slides whilst Ali, Alicia and I went to try them out. I’m not really sure if Terra Natura, with its eight slides, really deserves the title of ‘water park’ but we did have a good laugh going down them a few times. This is despite the fact that you must have to be at least ten stone to avoid stopping before the peak of the white, second-highest slide, and that the very highest was more like a violent irrigation of the aerodigestive tract than an enjoyable adrenaline rush. Once we’d got the hang of really pushing ourselves off, the white one was good fun, but the blue ones in the middle were best because we got to go down together (and I even managed an accidental somersault off the end which I couldn’t repeat if I tried).
We left the water park in the early evening and went our separate ways to sort things out back at our flats and get ready to go out. I was expecting a visit from my landlady at 9 (which really meant 9.30 in ‘Spanish time’) so decided to skip tapas and meet the others afterwards. Typically, just as I was serving my dinner at 8.30, who should arrive but my landlady. Not only that, but she had a baby boy on her arm, her relation to whom is still unknown since, when I asked if he was her grandson (a legitimate question, since she really is quite old) she simply said no, not giving any alternative explanation.
After I’d payed some extortionate electricity and water bills I got ready and met the others at Los zagales, the tapas restaurant we always seem to go to. Then we went for a drink at Revolver, sharing tankards of sangria which, bizarrely, seemed to be having no effect whatsoever. Then there was time to pick up the alcohol we’d bought earlier from Ali’s flat, which was just around the corner, and go to the botellón in the park La fama, which Ben had somehow, amusingly, claimed as his own despedida.
The botellón was amazing because it seemed like all the Erasmus people who hadn’t left yet had got together for it. Alicia left earlier than the rest of us, and at some time in the early hours I left with Ali, Lina, Lambert, Nacho (yes, his real name) and some other guy to go to Badulake. At some stage we must have got bored of this because we decided it would be an amazing idea to walk to Plaza Circular and paddle in the fountain. It actually was a fantastic idea until the guys started picking me up and threatening to throw me in.
On Wednesday we went to Terra Natura again, this time actually going around the zoo in the right direction and seeing everything we’d yet to see - including an angry-looking emu and some male lions having some kind of threesome. We even found a domestic cat in the bird house, which we warned the nonchalant staff about but were told that it went in all the enclosures and pretty much lived there.
That evening we had a huge rush to meet our language exchanges for one last time before going out. I met José in Santo Domingo just after 9. He bought me crisps and sangria and we talked for over an hour before I had to go. We had one of those awkward prolonged goodbyes which just seems to go on and on without anything significant being said but neither party quite knowing how to bring the conversation to a close. We agreed to keep in touch and talk on Skype when we could.
After that I had to rush back to get ready for our last big night out in Murcia. We started pre-drinks at Alicia and Lina’s flat, which was now empty, and had the not-so-fantastic idea of using sangria as a mixer for the disgusting rum we’d had left over from the day before. Needless to say, it was a mental night. Everyone was in Badulake, including a certain someone who gave me an overdue but kind and sincere apology, so we were able to part on good terms.
On Thursday it was getting a bit like Groundhog Day when we got the tram to Terra Natura yet again. The only difference was that this time, Alicia had had to go back to bed and was joining us later, and that Lina had managed to forget both her ticket and her passport, which she needed to get in. Fortunately we realised there was no security guard on duty at the zoo entrance so we were able to sneak in by doing the zoo trail yet again (which seemed pretty hilarious in our slightly delirious state).
When Alicia finally did arrive, she’d managed to forget her towel as well, but for some reason she just wasn’t as fun to tease as Lina, so it was easily forgotten in favour of Lina’s error instead. I don’t know what it is, but every friendship group seems to have to have one person who always gets picked on, and in ours, it’s definitely Lina. It’s a shame really as she has some of the worst come-backs known to man; it’s kind of like kicking a puppy. Poor thing.
As soon as I got back to the flat I finally began my packing, which I’d been putting off all week. The most I’d managed so far was to take my suitcase down from the top shelf, which had felt like enough emotional upheaval for one day. Then, since that evening was Lina’s last one in Spain, of course we had to meet at Smöoy at 9.30, just for old times’ sake. Unfortunately Ali got a little bit over-emotional and broke down slightly in Smöoy, much to the staff’s bewilderment. After all, it is only frozen yoghurt.
Then, in case our livers hadn’t taken enough of a battering that week, we’d planned to go to a bar, but all the bars were so busy because of the football match that we couldn’t find anywhere to sit in Principe de Gales, The Bar on the Corner or any of our usual bars. In the end we had to settle for El rincón de los faroles in the university square, which actually turned out to be quite nice, and cheap. Shame we hadn’t discovered it earlier really.
The next day we all had to be up at the crack of dawn to see Lina off. We met her and Alicia at their flat at 9am to help carry the bags to the station and then had an awful half-hour wait until she had to get on the bus. Then it was finally time, and we did all our goodbyes and hugs only to discover that there was some kind of delay due to the passenger in front and we just had to stand around awkwardly, tears streaming down our faces.
Then it really was time to say goodbye, and we waved her all the way down the aisle to her seat and then until the bus was out of sight. The three of us just looked at each other, completely lost. I decided we had to do something so suggested to Ali to come to university with me to hand in my identity card, and then to come back to mine to use my Internet, as hers has already been turned off.
It was nice just having her in the house whilst I booked my flights home for July and did odd jobs on the laptop, since Giorgos was still asleep and I couldn’t face the idea of being alone. It took me ages to find a half-decent price and I eventually decided to use the Spanish site Rumbo, which ended up screwing me over just the same anyway. The airline hadn’t been specified, and it wasn’t until after the booking had been confirmed that I was informed that I would be flying with Ryanair, which only gave me a 15kg luggage allowance. There was no way I would manage to bring six months-worth of belongings back to the UK on a 15kg luggage allowance, so I would just have to pay £50 for an extra bag.
When Giorgos eventually woke up, the three of us sat at three sides of our tiny kitchen table with our laptops. Giorgos offered us a Greek yoghurt each and we had a little Greek yoghurt party before Ali had to get back for lunch so we could meet Alicia in the park a bit later.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the shade of the park by El Corte Inglés, only getting up to go for a tinto de verano break in one of the nearby cafes. The truth was that none of us wanted to be alone, and we only split up to go back for dinner and to finish off the last bits of packing.
A bit later we met up again, this time for our very last Smöoy (that is, in the unlikely event that I don’t go and find one of the four Smöoys in Madrid). We were just heading to a bar when the guy from our usual shisha place handed us a tiny piece of paper advertising a belly dancer at the shisha bar. On a whim, we changed our minds and headed there instead. We shared a peach shisha and a vanilla tea, and with the belly dancer as well, it turned out to be a really good night.
Going our separate ways and finding myself back at my flat alone, I suddenly felt a profound emptiness, wondering what would await me next. The next morning I woke up at 8am to make sure I had plenty of time to get everything organised and make my way to the station. When it was really time to go, the emotion stuck to the back of my throat and I knew I was going to have to work hard to keep it together.
Giorgos helped me carry my monstrous case down the stairs along with my other smaller case, my beach bag and my bag of bedding. Then it was time to finally say goodbye, and we both stood in the doorway, hugging and crying, until I had to tear myself away and began the long struggle to the station, holding back the tears as well as I could.
When I was on the final stretch, a guy walked past and commented lightly on the amount of belongings I was dragging along. At that point my arms gave way and I just stood there for a few seconds, looking despairingly at it all, like some unconquerable opponent. It just so happened that the guy glanced back at that moment and, seeing my hopelessness, walked back and offered to take my suitcase for me. After a moment’s hesitation, considering all the things I’d been told about never trusting strangers, I decided that there was nothing really worth stealing in there, and that it would be quite difficult to run off with, especially in broad daylight on this busy street. I made the right decision; he wheeled it all the way to the bus station for me, right to where Ali and Alicia were standing waiting. I felt better in the knowledge that, wherever you are in the world, there are always kind people who will go out of their way to look after you.
We had a bit of a task sneaking our mountains of luggage into the hold of the bus, which was already heaving. We were each carrying three items over the permitted limit, so we would have been in big trouble had we got caught. Luckily the driver was new and didn’t seem to know or care about the luggage allowance, so we got on with no problems at all. Before we knew it, we were driving away from Murcia and all the memories we’d made there, and on to Madrid, where brand new adventures were waiting just around the corner.
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