I might have been Alice, since five days ago, losing in Murcia land with full of wonderful new landscapes, weather and people.

Enthusiasm was the most precise word to describe Spanish people in my very first step to Murcia. I felt so happy to see the warm greeting smile of my local friend who passed the heavy rain to pick me in the late evening in the Alicante airport. It takes around 1 hour to ride from Alicante to Murcia by car and the last bus stops working after 7pm. So I definitely would be smarter to fly straight to San Javier airport next time. 

This time in Murcia, I can tell it has four separate seasons per day which gives the cold atmosphere at the dawn, turns to hot Summer around 12pm and cool breezing Autumn comes in the afternoon. Adapting that hot and cold mix, summer clothing inside a thin coat seems to be an ideal option.  

What is the most difficult thing to live here?

It must be the language. “I went around when I misunderstood the explanation of a Spanish girl in tranvía station”, my homemate Trang told me. Fortunately, a guy was kind to turn his head to escort her afterwards. I was right to buy 4G sim card costs 10€ in the airport to use Google translate to actively talk with the locals before developing my Spanish.

Things to do

Some student's compulsory stuff such as admission procedure, tranvía (train) card, NIE cards and bank account must be the priority things to do. It just takes one day. Grabbing the tranvía card, it was time to explore the city.

I begin my new life with food. I tried tapas at first. I did not know it was my chance to drink 3 glasses of water at the same time because they are all salty fishes. I prefer the unknown food in Wok restaurant in my first day here.

The Weekend is called “Market time” by students because markets simultaneously discount all products at that time. Mercadona and Carrefour supermarkets are suitable to buy in weekdays but it is better to catch train to Al Campo  mall and Nueva Condomina to get anything you want at weekend with much cheaper price.

Places to go

1 km walking from the Plaza Circular station, the Cathedral of Murcia in the centre area is chosen to be the first destination to visit due to its typical European architecture and designs. It is the complexity of Gothic interior, Baroque facade, Valencia architect. Stepping inside, I have become of a detective looking for the Da Vinci code in the same name movie.

Leaving the Cathedral, we could not take our eyes off some parades. There were uniformed members of re-enactment societies to relive from the times of Ancient Greece to the Second World War. I was so lucky to take part in this annual historical re-enactment weekend which is held in the second weekend in October. Following the parades to a big Main Street called Gran Via, another part of this city was found. “ Gran Via  is considered to be the very important  Social and Financial Street of Murcia including shops, office, apartments”, proudly explained a local guy, Alfonso.

At the end of the Street is a bridge that leads to the other half of Murcia but I still got some works to do. Thus, I just left that new land with new things to explore in the next few days.