TR: IRL

Spain was the go-to holiday destination for my grandparents and that generation of my family. As a child, I would flick through their photo albums and think how exotic and exciting it looked. When I eventually planned my own trip to Spain, it was s very different kind of holiday (not counting my first ever trip abroad, to the Spanish Canary Islands, which I imagine was very much like the sort of holidays my grandparents took!) 

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Visiting the Andalucía region, in the south of the country, my biggest surprise was discovering that Spain had megaliths and that Malaga had its own Roman theatre ruins. And that I was staying within travelling distance of the Antequera Dolmens - a World Heritage Site, no less. It didn't take long to find directions. And as with Rhodes, being the height of summer, I had the joy of exploring mostly by myself (again with a reluctant friend). I found odd similarities with megalithic sites back home, in particular Newgrange in Ireland. I also had time to tour the giant caverns at Nerja Caves and take a day trip to the scorching city of Córdoba, with its stunning mixture of Roman and Islamic architecture. On a different trip, to southern Portugal, I managed to get a day trip to the beautiful city of Seville, where I would love to return, as well as a quick jaunt around the enigmatic rock of Gibraltar, which of course is British territory but, still, closer to Spain.

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For this compilation, I've used another piece of music from the first game that competes with Longing For Home as my favourite - A Friend Since Gone; the revised and extended version, as performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the debut Tomb Raider Suite concert.