My heartfelt condolence to victims of Madrid plane crash

I hardly, if not at all, blog about disasters or accidents. But when I first read about it on the CNN website this evening, my heart stopped for a second. The pictures of the place looked very familiar simply because I've been there. Yes, I've been to the Barajas International Airport in Madrid, Spain.

Then, I saw the name of the airline. Although I flew with Vueling Airline instead, my cousin and her hubby were on Spanair, when we were flying to Barcelona, the last city in our Spain tour last spring.

I know, I know... I'm a bit (a bit? hehehe) overacting here, but when you come to know such terrible news like this, I just can't help to feel saddened, touched and a bit emotional. On top of that, 90 passengers have been officially declared dead and according to a report by CNN+, "26 people taken to hospital are the only survivors, and that two of those survivors are children".

A survivor told a reporter from Spain's ABC newspaper that she and other passengers heard a loud explosion as the plane was taking off.

According to CNN, this is the first fatal accident at the Barajas International Airport since December 1983, when 93 people were killed as two Spanish airliners collided while taxiing for take off.


Oh, my...


p/s: Please pray for my safe flight home next month. Thank God, my adik-adik have arrived at the KLIA safely. And congratulations to Najid and Fendy, two freshly graduated engineer who will be starting their first jobs on 1 September 2008.

Pictures of Madrid

Hola! from Puerta del Sol, Madrid.

@john lennon liverpool airport
Alhamdulillah, I've safely arrived in Madrid at about 12.25pm. Since Nurul and her husband were flying from London and they arrived at Terminal 4, instead of Terminal 1, we had a litle bit kelam kabut at the beginning of our Madrid Trip 2008. Poor Nurul... because this is the first time she's traveling in backpacking style and I can image her nervousness.

"Hi cuz... make sure you don't switch your phone in silent mode when at the Madrid airport tau!"
"We're about to board the plane."
"We're just arrived and at the immigration counter."
"We're waiting for my luggage."
"Are you sure or sure I take the connecting bus and go to Terminal 2 instead?"
"We've bought the tickets and about to board the train".

"Oh, cousin!!!" I can see her true happiness when she saw me at the T2 metro station. Sign of relief too.

Our hostel, Hostal Oliver is in the central of Madrid, in a place called Puerto del Sol. But I had a difficulty to find it in the first place because its signboard is so small and is placed way, way above our ordinary sight i.e. on the fourth floor! And it has the old name, which is Pension Oliver! Aiyo... untuk orang pencen ke?

Well, the owner is an old pair of husband and wife. Hehehe, the way I describe them as if I was talking about shoes or pants. Sorry... no offence to orang-orang tua ya... And the best thing is we don't get double deckers. I got a single privado room whilst Nurul and Wan are having the double bed room. They provide towels too, unlike majority of hostels in Spain which provide towel with a small charge around 2-4 Euro.

We've yet to cover the whole Madrid but so far we managed to visit the infamous Plaza Mayor, where Wan got a body massage. Aiyo... sempat kau, ya! We also visited the Catedral de la Almudena and Palacio Real (Royal Palace). I've uploaded the pictures on my facebook account since I'm not in the mood to spend most much time uploading them on this blog because it takes me ages since I can't use their uploading tool. Means that, I've to upload 5 pictures at a time.

Okay, guys... got to go and will provide more update tomorrow. Oh yeah... we're going to Toledo tomorrow since we were informed that Toledo is a small city and a day trip will do.

Adios...