The End of Our Spanish Adventure ....

Today was an emotional day for all of us since it was the last day of summer school in Madrid. We got up bright and early and walked to uni together for the last time all prepared to present our final presentations that we've been working on. Nerves were high for presenting but we all managed to get through it and Kumba and Danielle's group, NAC even won best presentation!

Couple of actions shots from the presentations. 

After all the presentations and feedback from the lecturers were given we had a farewell brunch with the full class. This featured some delicious Spanish snacks, our favourite being the tortilla espanola! It's safe to say emotions were running high at the brunch whilst saying goodbye to our new friends, however we've promised we will keep in touch! 

The four of us with three of our new favourite lecturers, Teresa, Julia and Pilar. 

After an emotional morning and afternoon at the university, we ventured home via Retiro Park to take in the culture for the last time. - And we couldn't resist taking advantage of a few photo opportunities. 

On the way home we also stopped by a frozen yogurt place which we can no longer remember the name of, however the sight of chocolately milkshakes looked much more appealing than some healthy frozen yogurt. Extremely sickly, but extremely delicious !

After stalling for quite some time, we had to accept it was time to go home and get packed up and ready for going our separate ways - which none of us were happy about. Nikki and Danielle were the first to leave and trigger the first couple of emotional goodbyes. Gillian and Kumba (the ones writing this) sadly leave the beautiful city of Madrid behind tomorrow. 

We can all definitely say this has been a trip of a lifetime for all of us which we would recommend to any fashion and retail students looking for something different. We've learned a lot and gained experience as well as getting the chance to meet some extremely interesting people in fashion and retail industry which we hope to keep in touch with in the future. However, not only that, from coming here strangers the four of us have became great friends and shared some amazing memories. We all plan to keep in touch and stay friends and have many Madrid reunions soon!

Now, for the last time, 

Hasta Luego , 

Gillian, Kumba, Danielle and Nikki 

xxx

Study, study and more study...

Monday morning was spent at a lecture by Julia Urgel on Celebrities and Fashion Communication Strategies. 

This was fascinating as Julia originally was politics based and worked for CNN in America and then (somehow) managed to make the transfer to working for Marie Claire and interviewing celebrities like Olivia Palermeo and the Hilton sisters - we hope we will be this lucky too!

We then spent the afternoon working on our final projects and then having a snooze in the sun in Retiro Park. Not a lot of photo opportunities came about today so unfortunately we have nothing to show you from today !

Tuesday morning we had another engaging lecture from Sandra Manresa who works for the Marketing department of Google and rides a motorbike... could she get any cooler?! This lecture covered a lot of information about online fashion retail, which is a key area for us as our Generation, is the most frequent online consumer. 

Later that day we went to visit El Corte Ingles, their flagship store. This building was amazing and possibly the tallest shop we've ever seen!

We had a tour with a brief history and then were let loose on the store. However as a lot of shopping has already been done this trip not too many purchases were made... (except for Danielle, who may have a shopping problem)

So that's all we've been up to so far... 

Hasta Luego 

Nikki, Gillian, Kumba and Danielle

xx

Gay Pride in Madrid!

So on Saturday the 5th we returned bright and early to one our new favourite spots - the pool in Lago. We felt after our busy week we could do with a few hours of relaxing. This pool visit was particularly ascetically pleasing due to the volume of gorgeous gay men obviously here for Gay Pride which was occurring this weekend in the centre of Madrid ! After our sunbathing... and staring... we ventured off back to our flat to get ready for the nights festivities. 

Since Nikki's family had arrived in Madrid for their holiday, she ditched the rest of us and dined out luxuriously - while we wined and dined at KFC - not jealous at all. 

So Gillian, Kumba and Danielle got their glad-rags on and decided to see what Gay Pride was all about in Madrid. The second we stepped off the metro we were submerged into a mass of glitter and colour. None of us had experienced anything like this before. It's been estimated that 1.2 million people attended the Gay Pride weekend, it was definitely a sight to see !

So on Sunday we felt it was about time we fully explored the beautiful city of Madrid and hopped onto a tour bus. We choose to do the Historic bus route of Madrid to learn a bit more about the city which was also relaxing to get the chance to see everything from the comfort of a bus seat in lovely sun. We decided to do the full route to start of with to see all the sites,  but after travelling through Gran Via (the main high street shopping district) being the fashion retail students that we are we knew what our first stop off would be.

                               

After our semi-successful shopping trip we treated ourselves to a lovely lunch at Cafe & Tapas which we all thoroughly enjoyed. 

Hasta Leugo 

Danielle, Kumba, Nikki and Gillian

xx

Las Rozas Outlet Village

Friday we had another amazing lecture from Karinna Nobbs on a subject close to all our hearts... Social Media. This gave us a great insight into how social media influences fashion and vice versa. Whilst also learning about a few newly launched social media apps... we highly suggest Tunepics - its so much fun!

Basically Instagram with music!

After this lecture we set off to get the bus to Las Rozas Outlet Village. They had a wide variety of designer outlet shops, such as Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Coach and Burberry. 

There was quite a bit of money parted with on this trip... we just can't resist a bargain. A Mr Michael Kors was particularly successful.

 

We shoppped until our purses were empty and then had a Starbucks trip to revive us. Starbucks service of names on the cups does not seem to do so well with language barriers with us having some interesting new names... our fav being Gillian's who is now known as Gely.

We then got the late bus back and had a night on the town. We went for tapas and cocktails and then to an Irish bar called Dublinners and onto a club called Commo. We would recommend Dublinners, despite the serious lack of Irish accents but we wouldn't recommend Commo, strange atmosphere and too many old people.

 

 

Hasta Luego

Tania, Legui, Gely and Kumba

xxx

Loewe and Burgers

Wednesday was a very early start to get to our meeting point for our visit to Loewe Factory. Loewe is a luxury fashion brand that began as a group leather artisans in Madrid in the 1840's.

We were unfortunately not allowed to take photos in the Loewe Factory but we were a tour of the museum in the factory where we saw the evolution of Loewe and its designs. 

We then saw all the materials used in the design process, the cutting room and final stitching process.

Also a talk from a leather artisan, all of these elements have shown us that these products really are worth their high price tag, when you are able to see the stitching done by hand and speak to the people doing this, it makes you appreciate and understand the craft that goes into designer handbags. It really is more than just a bag, so we encourage you to part with your 3 grand because its worth it... and maybe buy us one too. THANKS.

After our trip we headed back to Villanueva to do more work on our final projects.

Then we decided to treat ourselves to dinner out... Which in Madrid seems to be the later the better. We ended up in a Burger and Cocktail Bar not too far from our flat.

Although this dinner was cut a little bit short because it started raining (yes... RAINING. Because we don't see it enough in Glasgow) So this wasn't ideal for our alfresco dining. 

This rain then turned into a massive thunderstorm which continued into Thursday meaning after our lecture with Karinna Nobbs an academic from London College of Fashion we had an afternoon/evening in the flat continuing to do final project work! We are seriously hoping (praying) the weather improves tomorrow...

Hasta Luego

N, K, G & D

xxx

Rebajas!!!

Somehow it's week 2 already although we feel like we've been here for 5 minutes! The day began with a fascinating lecture from Luis Lara.. one of our favourites of the course so far. Luis Lara is an International Retail Expert who has 20 years experience in the industry working for companies such as Zara, Disney and Pronovias. For the first time in our lives a 4 hour lecture flew in and we didn't want it to end... we know it sounds impossible!

The afternoon was spent working on our final projects, which included making mood boards and inspiration boards for our chosen retailers. Danielle and Kumba's group have gone for the Spanish brand NAC while Gillian and Nikki's group have chosen the lingerie shop Women's Secret. 

After this Danielle and Kumba went on a store visit for their project.

 While Nikki and Gillian indulged in their favourite pass time... sunbathing. 

Tuesday began with a lecture from Teresa Perez del Castillo on Lifestyle Branding.

We then decided it would be rude not to visit the first day of the Rebajas (that's Sales for all you non Spanish speakers) so we headed to Calle de Goya. 

Not too many purchases were made as we are saving ourselves for the visit to Las Rozas Outlet Village later this week... we've heard there is going to be 70% discount on Michael Kors. 

Hasta Luego

Nikki, Danielle, Gillian and Kumba

xx

Culture and Fiesta

So on Saturday morning - the 28th of June- we got the metro bright and early and finally got to see Plaza Mayor which coincidentally was our meeting point for our Cultural walking Latina tour ! This day definitely started off at a high after getting a wee sneak peek of a Spanish gymnastic team warming up at Plaza Mayor... 

   

 Anyway.. The walking tour featured many beautiful sights of old town Madrid as well a getting a glance of the newly crowned King Felipe VI and Queen's Letizia Royal Palace - which was quite big and extravagant as you could imagine. 

Before we set off on our tour. 

 The King and Queen's Pad. 

                             

We finished off the tour by trying some churros in San Gines - which is said to be the best place to go for Churros in Madrid, we can all definitely agree with this. 

We felt like we needed some chill time after our busy week - also we secretly just wanted some tanning time! So we headed off to the nearest public pool in Lago - only a few metro stops away. 

After some well deserved rest - and sunbathing- we ventured home to get ready to experience some of Madrid's amazing nightlife. We didn't have to worry about rushing however since apparently these crazy Spaniards don't go out till around 3am - well past our usual bedtime. However we coped well and headed out around 2am to meet some of our new classmates and hit the famous Kapital ! 

Kapital is the biggest nightclub in Madrid with 7 floors and a 6am closing time. We also choose the right night to go since is was Kapital's 19th Birthday which was promoted with dramatic music and explosions of balloons and  glitter - definitely made paying that 22 euro entry fee worth it.... 

We may have not been able to compete with the crazy Spaniard's and stay out till 6am, but we managed till 5 and rounded off the night with a McDonald's. - very classy.  

Since our Saturday night/morning was spent partying, our Sunday was spent sunbathing and snoozing at our new favourite pool. This pool attracts some interesting characters and even more interesting swimwear - or lack of, however it has jugs of sangria for 4 euros, so it does the job for us ! 

Hasta Luego, 

Nikki, Gillian, Danielle and Kumba 

xxx