Well, this weekend was quite an adventure. Our trip to Madrid started off terrible but ended muy bueno... so we'll start with the bad and end with the good.
First off, Maddie and I had class until 5:30 so we had to run to catch the tube to get to our bus stop in time for the "scheduled" 6:20 departure time. Fortunately our running was good and we were there by 6:05.. fifteen minutes ahead of the bus. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Until it was almost 7 o'clock. At that point, we weren't sure if the bus was ever going to come and if we waited any longer we wouldn't be able to make our flight, so we rushed back onto the tube to the Victoria train station and made it just in time to take the last Gatwick Express to the airport to catch our flight in time.
We got to the airport with about thirty minutes to our boarding time, so we were feeling okay and went to check in and go through security. At check in they glanced at our boarding passes and just sent us on to security. We got through security and found that our flight was delayed 45 minutes... no big deal and this way we could relax a bit before boarding. So here we are all excited that we made it to the airport and we line up to board the plane and when we get to the front, the lady says we cannot board because our boarding passes have not been stamped. We ask if there is anything we can do and if we can run back to have them stamped but she said "no, it's too late... you will not be getting on this flight". Turns out the guy at check-in was supposed to stamp our boarding passes but obviously "forgot". This happened to seven of us on this flight. We all went to the airport help desk to see if they could get us on a new flight but the guy there said that Ryanair is the worst airline ever and that they probably wouldn't do anything for us. The problem with Ryanair is that they have no representatives that work at the airport. They have one single check-in spot and the guy working there doesn't even work for them. So if anything happens with a Ryanair flight being cancelled or boarding issues such as ours there is no one at the airport to help. At this point I got a little homesick, thinking this would never happen if Mom and Dad were here. The airport people would take Mom and Dad seriously and find them a new flight, but nope... no one was going to take us three young girls seriously. Once we realized we weren't going to be getting a new flight, Lauren, Maddie and I all started crying. We looked ridiculous. Fortunately one of the other passengers who got denied told us this was the third flight that day he had missed and we realized things could be worse. Nevertheless, we were unsure what to do because we didn't know when the next flight out was and how much it would cost and if it would even be worth it since our flight home was Saturday evening. The man who had missed three flights (we nicknamed him Heath since he said he usually takes REAL airlines out of Heathrow) told us his assistant had just found a flight out the next morning at 7:30 and he convinced us to just go ahead and book it, saying we would regret it if we didn't go. Soooo, we went ahead and booked another flight and got ready to camp out all night at the aiport...
Look at them... soo excited to be boarding our flight, completely not expecting that we would be turned down in a matter of minutes...
I felt like a homeless person that night. At first it was all fun and exciting, thinking we would have a grand time playing at the airport all night. But an hour after playing cards and another hour of roaming the stores, we realized it was going to be a long night. It was freezing cold in the airport and so incredibly uncomfortable, but I did manage to fall asleep for almost two hours thank goodness. Eventually, 5 o'clock rolled around and we went to check-in at Easyjet (a much better airline than Ryanair). From there everything went well and we got into Madrid about 11 am their time.
Looking for things to occupy the next 12 hours stranded at the airport...
A lot of candy got us through the night.
Trying to get some sleep... not exactly the most comfortable of nights, but at least we found armchairs!
Here we are after our long night at the airport, about to give this whole boarding process a second try...
It was so strange being in a country where not everyone speaks English. That made me appreciate London much more... I don't know how I would get by in a non-English speaking country for a whole semester. Luckily we had the address written down to Maddie's friend's apartment, so even though our taxi driver didn't speak English (or so he said... I have a feeling he was just acting like he didn't speak it), we were able to just hand him the address to get there.
Upon getting to Madrid, we realized we were in a bit of a bind because we had cancelled our hostel reservation right after we got denied for our flight because we weren't sure if we would end up going and didn't want to get charged for it. Worst case scenario, we could sleep on Maddie's friend's apartment floor... but the hardwoods just didn't look too inviting and we were really wanting our own bathroom. So we set our stuff down at his place and set out to get some food and find a place to stay.
The three of us on Zach's apartment balcony. His apartment was SO nice... I wish we had a nicer room to stay in, let alone an apartment with a kitchen, living room and balcony!
The first hour in Madrid was awful and I started regretting that we came. We walked into about ten different restaurants, not sure where we wanted to eat and looking for something cheap. Everywhere we walked in, though, I felt like I was walking into someone's home uninvited. Everyone would turn and stare at us weirdly as if they were wondering why we had walked in. It seemed as though all the places we went to were very local and had the same people frequenting them or something. Or maybe there was just something we were missing out on. Besides that, not as many people spoke English as I expected. I guess Spanish is almost as much a universal language as English and of the three of us, Maddie could only speak a couple words of Spanish. Either way, it was at about the ninth restaurant whose menu we were checking that there was a twist of fate and luck shone upon us. Lying there on the ground, about two feet in front of me, was a crisp 50 euro bill. That's like finding $75! I looked around but there was no one standing nearby whose money it might be, so I nudged Lauren and Maddie, asking if it was theirs. Lauren slowly picked it up. Since there was no one standing around to ask if it was their money, we decided it was a sign we should use it to find a hotel room. From that moment on, the trip was superb.
Our next bout of luck was that we finally found a good place to eat; and better yet we soon realized it was attached to a hotel that had an open room on the top floor for only 70 euro that night! Our lady at this restaurant was also the first of many other nice people we were to meet in Spain. She spoke English (finally someone we could communicate with!!) and was so very helpful in explaining all the food to us. The Spanish are so incredibly much nicer than the Brits. In Madrid, everyone was relaxed and always friendly whereas in London everyone is always in a rush and so impatient with the world. For example, when you step into the street, cars will actually stop to let you cross rather than pushing on the gas like they do in London. Sergeant Paul told me there is an unusually high death toll in London due to pedestrians being hit by cars. Not at all surprising to me. Anyways, after eating and booking our room, we went back to Maddie's friend, Zach's, apartment to get our stuff and settle in to our hotel. After that it was off to sightsee... Fortunately, Zach went with us this time and it was so great to have someone who could speak Spanish and could show us around. We went to the Palace, a gorgeous cathedral, the Plaza del Mayor, and an extremely awesome market with tons of fresh food. One thing I really like about Madrid is that it has a lot more public places to gather outside, unlike unfriendly London that is all business. This market was the hang-out spot. There were groups of friends all over, snacking on slices of ham and sipping wine and everyone was just chattering away and having a grand time.
At the restaurant that happened to be connected to a lovely hotel that happened to have a room available that night!
The "tapa" I ordered was not what I was expecting... the waitress described it as a tomato puree with bread crumbs, so I was expecting something like bruschetta with crushed tomatoes on top. Nope... instead what I got was a little ball of tomato smoothie-like thing that you can eat in one bite. Oh well.. it was fun to try!
Lauren and I also ordered BACON tapas! This was sooooo incredibly good and was mostly pure fat. But it tasted amazing. Too bad it was so small...
The view from our hotel room! Courtesy of the anonymous owner of the 50 euro bill. We really appreciate your lack of concern for your money.
The three of us at the Royal Palace. The weather was gorgeous this day and we walked through the gardens below.
Maddie and her friend Zach who showed us around and thankfully spoke Spanish.
Walking through the palace gardens.
Catedral Almudena
Cathedral doors
The ceiling was gorgeous!
Outside the Cathedral.
Plaza del Mayor
This market was my favorite. Everything was so fresh and you could eat food there as well.
They love their ham. They even have a ham museum in Madrid!
And fish...
I bought this for 1 euro at the market. It had crab meat and it was extremely buttery, rich and delicious.
Another interesting thing... Madrid has dressed-up characters all over the place. Can you spot what's out of place in these pictures?
Can you spot the Gorilla? He's hiding from me behind the light pole.
Can you spot Winnie the Poo?
Can you spot Spiderman?
I never expected to get a picture with a Gorilla in Madrid.
After the market, we used Zach's computer to try and find a flamenco show that night with dinner, but even the cheapest shows were too expensive for us and we were exhausted. So instead, we took part in the Spanish culture by having a siesta! It's a good thing we did that instead of the flamenco show, because I definately needed a nap to make it through the night after having only slept two hours in the airport.
That night, we ate dinner (pizza) at a small local place for really cheap and had this desert kind of like hot chocolate only thicker. We didn't finish our dinner til about 10:30 that night, which was appropriate because another thing very different about Madrid than London is that nightlife doesn't start until much much later. Zach and some of his roommates took us to a small, local bar first called whatever 2.50 is in Spanish because everything there costs 2 euro 50. We met three students from Germany there: a girl from Hamburg and two boys from Berlin and Stuttgart. We also met a student from Kansas City!! He went to high school at Blue Valley North! Small world. After that, we headed over to the biggest night club in Madrid, Kapitol (Madrid is the capitol of Spain... something I found out just last week). It was extremely fun there... it had seven stories and each floor had several rooms and in the middle of the club it was completely open so you could see everything from whatever floor you were on. They played a lot of American music but dubbed over it in Spanish. We moved from room to room and I thought we made it to the seventh floor but Zach told us later there was actually one more floor above us that was harder to find and hence we never found it. I was well ready to head back to the hotel by the time 3 am rolled around, but Lauren and Maddie said we are only in Madrid one night and insisted we shouldn't waste it sleeping. So I had no choice but to gather up some energy and stay there. Fortunately, they decided some sleep was probably a good idea around 5 am... and yet we were some of the first people to leave the place. I now understand why the siesta is so important to Spanish people. Anywho, we took a taxi back and slept a couple hours before getting up for our second day of sight seeing!
The next morning and afternoon we walked all over the place. We started out in the Plaza del Sol and walked down to their big park (I forget the name). There were so many fun things to see at the park. They had entertainers, boat rides, people roller blading all over and in general just a lot of interesting people to watch. One man was skateboarding and accidentally knocked over a poor little girl on her bike. Another great thing about Madrid was all the green space. London does have Hyde Park, but overall just not as many flowers and green trees as Madrid. After the park, we then walked to the Prado (the big museum there), but we didn't want to spend money on it and we were exhausted at this point. So we got food and then decided it was time to get our stuff ready and go to the airport as we didn't want to take any chances missing our flight. We were able to take the Metro (what they call the Tube there) to the airport rather than a taxi and it was MUCH cheaper. The Metro is a LOT easier to navigate in Madrid than the tube is in London. I think I really needed a break from this huge city and the nice thing about Madrid is that it was still a city without all the hustle and confusion. I think London has around 8 million people whereas Madrid has about 3 million. It was also SUNNY!!!!!!!!! I didn't realize how much I missed the sun. It was in the fifties, so we didn't even wear our coats the first day we were there. I think if I lived in London permanently I would have to take weekend trips once a month to get some sun and a bit of peace. Madrid was great for this. Anyways, here's some more pictures from our sight seeing that day...
Zach said that the guy sad in Spanish that the dog was about to do something spectacular. I watched for several minutes but the dog didn't do anything...
Entrance to the Prado.
For some reason we thought this was hilariously funny at the time. I think we were just delirious from no sleep, no food and from walking all day. Looking back, the sign is not really that funny.
Maddie asked for a smoothie and a cookie... so of course they grinded up the cookie and put it in her smoothie. She was disappointed to say the least.
Hey, what do you know... the guy at the check-in desk remembered to stamp our boarding passes this time... how nice of him.
There were a lot of things I liked about Madrid and a lot of things I was grateful to get away from in London, but it is really great to be back. The sound of an English announcer on the tube ride back was so incredibly comforting and there's nothing quite like London fashion on a Saturday night. As we boarded the tube all raggled up from our flight, I was happy to observe all the interesting outfits of people going out. And now it is so nice to be back in my warm, comfy bed and get a solid 8 hours of sleep (at the very least) before I must wake up again. Buenos noches!!
