Landing MAD in Madrid

When you are in the Madrid Adolfo-Suárez Airport (the MAD) I highly implore you to look up. After landing from a very long, turbulent flight, I was exhausted in the airport. I took a moment to take a breath and look up at the ceiling. I was shocked I hadn’t noticed earlier, the ceiling was covered with beautiful wooden panels shaped to look like waves. As you walk through the many floors you may notice grand lighting structures and fun artistic additions. My favorite part is the glass bridge you look up at baggage claim. It is frosted so as people walk over it you can only see their footprints and the wheels of their luggage rolling beside them.

My flight and arrival! Note the ceilings in the video

This trip for me is all about pushing myself out of my comfort zone. Traveling alone to a foreign country is already pushing the boundaries, but I will continue to push and make the best out of my trip. Every day I find myself doing something sort of scary, either speaking Spanish or taking the metro, I am always on the edge of doing something new and exciting.

View from gardens at El Escorial

My first week was a perfect example! My Program took us ziplining at Adventura Amazonia park, about an hour from the center of the city. Full of obstacle courses and ziplines, the park challenged me. I had never done anything like this before and was surprised that there wasn’t going to be an instructor with us the whole time, they only gave us a short tutorial before sending us up into the canopy.

Our day at Adventura Amazonia

It was hard to be too worried in the most beautiful forest of pine trees. My friends and I started on a midlevel course and after that, we decided to head for the hardest one we could find. We started on a tall vertical rock wall, the first obstacle, which ended even higher than any part of the previous course. From there the obstacles took us higher up until we hit the first ziplines. Around the middle of the course, I started to feel that maybe I had pushed too hard away from my comfort zone, but the end was worth it! To finish, you had to attach yourself to a rope and swing Tarzan-style into a net and climb down. It was such a fun experience, and I highly recommend anyone traveling finds a similar activity, something unique that is totally different from all the other tourist activities.

SU-Sponsored Program - CIEE Open Campus - Madrid, Spain - Fall 2022