We left Badplaas, South Africa Sunday morning to begin our longest travel “day” of the race. More than eighty-two hours later we arrived in Costa Rica at the YWAM base. It was a looooooooooong trip, but it came with several perks. One was an extended layover (for eight of us–we were split for the flight from Zurich to Madrid) in Zurich, in which we were able to go out into the city for a few hours. The other major perk was a full day in Madrid. It would be impossible for me to try to describe how amazing everything was in both places, so I thought I’d just try to take you on a photo journey of some of our travel “day” adventures.
Our morning started rather early [for me] with some last minute packing. Traday was one of my roommates for debrief.
After a full day of travel including a five-hour drive and an eleven hour flight, we arrived in Zurich, Switzerland.
A few of us did our own tour of the city including the typical tourist photos.
In front of a local statue
With Swiss Chocolates
The lay of the land
Swiss Army Knives
More Zurich streets
And Starbucks–not quite a Swiss Mocha, but I was happy.
We returned to the airport energized and ready for our brief flight to Madrid.
My first reaction to the city was awe. I could not believe how beautiful it was. I mean, you see stuff in movies and photos, but I just assumed those were only parts of the city–not so. The entire city is this quaint little place with bright colors, murals, and beautiful signs.
We walked a few blocks to our hostel for the night–Mad Hostel.
We quickly threw our things in our rooms and headed out–daylight was burning, and the rest of the squad already had a head start on us. We started off at Plaza Mayor, only a couple of blocks from our hostel.
The eight of us that were in Zurich together forgot to get a group photo there, so here we are in Madrid, trying to make up for it.
The plaza was beautiful, and a prime photo spot.
We wandered around the city some more, looking through local shops, and finally grabbed some dinner.
The sun was setting…
…but with only twenty-four hours in Madrid, even the dark wouldn’t stop us. There had to be some night life we could participate in.
The following morning, after some croissants and juice, Traday and I headed back out to see a bit more before we had to be at the airport.
The buildings were beautiful!
We wandered through this enormous park that sits behind the Prado Museum.
Eat your heart out, Central Park.
Not enough time to go in, but there is the famous Prado Museum.
And here are some of those stunning murals I mentioned.
After another flight, we arrived in Bogota, Columbia at like 7pm local time–for us it was after 1pm for us.
Many of us crashed.
Nothing like a long layover at night.
Tuesday morning–gearing up for our final flight from Bogota to San Jose, Costa Rica. I’m not sure about Aaron, but I’ve obviously caught another wind after sleeping on the airport floor all night.
