My Travel Adventures

On my second free morning in Madrid, before my friends were up and running, I made a quick tour of the Royal Palace. Since I was not sure when during this extended weekend trip I would visit the palace (if I did visit it at all), I did not buy my tickets online, and they were all sold out by the time I had chosen a date and time. Still, I had read online that I could buy tickets in person if I turned up to the palace and waited in a long queue: I was advised to turn up half an hour before the actual opening time.

My train left Málaga as scheduled at 7:30 in the morning, calling at Antequera and Córdoba before reaching Madrid at half past ten. I had an hour to kill until my friend Victoria arrived from Barcelona, so I took a short walk from the train station, passing by the Lope de Vega House Museum on the way to the Metr ópolis Building. From the eastern end of the Gran Vía, I looped back along the Cibeles Fountain, and we met at a brunch restaurant close to the train station. A long queue, I noticed, was snaking its way along the Museo del Prado, so we decided to visit it first thing in the morning the next day rather than in the afternoon.

This Thursday evening, my friend Barron arrived in Bangkok. Planning his visit, we decided that I would take a week off from work and that we would explore Laos and Cambodia together. On his first day, Barron toured Bangkok by himself while I wrapped up my work and did some last-minute research. I also bought tickets for the train from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng and from Vang Vieng to Vientiane, as these only became available three days before the journey. I had hoped we would be able to take the night train from Bangkok to Vientiane, but these were sold out far in advance.

I spent a restless night at my hotel in Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport. I woke up almost every hour fearing that my alarm wouldn’t go off, until eventually it was so close to the time I had set that I simply got up and started preparing for my flight. My plane arrived in Yogyakarta a little after nine, but the Grab journey from the airport to the city centre took another hour.

The weather forecast predicted rain for the weekend, and although I initially intended to stay at home and catch up on some work, my idle Google searches led me down a rabbit hole that would turn my plans upside down. Looking up the weather forecasts for neighbouring cities, I stumbled upon sunny Turin: With its direct bus connection to Geneva, cheap accommodation, and host of attractions, it was the perfect option. Thus, on Wednesday night, I booked my tickets and an Airbnb, and spent the rest of the week daydreaming about the getaway.

The more people travel together, the longer everything takes. Of the several items on my list, we only visited two today. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, however, my list has been shortened by many factors beyond my control. I had wanted to see Emanuel Vigeland’s Museum, but it is only open for four hours every Sunday and the tickets are booked far in advance. Unusually, the Royal Palace is also open for a few months, but all the tickets have been sold out too. To top it off, several other attractions, like the Nobel Peace Centre and the Viking Ship Museum, are temporarily closed (the latter until 2026).

We had a late start due to my late arrival yesterday. Johnny and I went to the Vigeland Park at around eleven, after which we visited May at her apartment. The Vigeland Park seemed to be very popular with tourists from across the globe, and it truly is a bizarre sight that merits a visit. Abounding in strangely positioned statues of naked human bodies, it is a puzzling, almost unsettling place.

Despite the practically incessant stream of light outside my window on this warm summer night, I managed to sleep until around seven. Rather than the sun, what woke me up was a persistent mechanical noise. My hotel here is on a boat, but I do not think that the sound was of a nautical origin – unlike the squeaking of wood, metal, and rubber that followed the movement of the waves.