Madrid

Madrid

This weekend was one of the most insane weekends since I've been here. I have a friend currently studying abroad in Madrid and I had plans to go see her this weekend. Her name is Espi and I knew her in high school but haven't seen her in years. So, I bought a bus ticket to leave from Sevilla at 8am on Friday. I was unable to fall asleep until around 4:30am. Sometimes you just toss and turn and find no sleep. I woke up at around 11:30am and quickly realized I had missed my bus. Instead of just not going I looked into alternatives. There is a company that is very popular here in Europe called Bla Bla car. The idea is this: if you are traveling by car to another city you can offer your other seats to people needing to go to the same city for a certain cost. So I bought a spot in a car leaving from Sevilla at 3pm going to Madrid. Using my host brothers phone I was able to call the lady that was picking me up in order to make plans for a meet up spot. I went to this spot half an hour early and stayed there until I had waited for an hour and a half. She never came... So I go back to my house, defeated. When I got back Ale (my host brother) was on the phone with her. She claims that I was never there but Ale went to the spot I was supposed to meet her at when I was supposed to meet her and saw me there. Needless to say I was destined to not go to Madrid. Ale then proceeds to give me a jarring and inspirational speech. I will keep what he said to myself but I was no longer defeated, I was determined. I went to my room and bought another bus ticket that left for Madrid at 6pm. I bought the ticket and made it on the bus fine (shockingly haha). The buses are high class here and cheap. I was hesitant to ride the bus with New Mexico's level of bus safety in mind but this was way different. I ended up making friends with a Columbian lady that was sitting next to me and talked about pretty much everything we could for 2 hours. I then made it to Madrid at 12:30am. My new Colombian friend was able to point me in the direction of the metro as well as which lines to take in order to get to my hostel. I switched metro lines a couple of times and made it to my hostel at around 1am (with the help of about 5 other people along the way). I was supposed to meet Espi at a club at 12 so I got dressed and left the hostel almost as soon as I got there. I got to the club and told the bouncer the name for our table but they didn't have it on the list. This was a 7 story club so I was not sure how I was going to find her at this point. I got inside and was going up and down the floors in hopes of running into her. Between the 4th and 5th floors, I ran into her and her boyfriend miraculously and had a great night after that. I was just relieved to be in Madrid at that point.

The next day, we made plans to meet in Plaza del Sol so that Espi could show me around Madrid. We had planned to meet at a bakery that she said was a very popular one although she couldn’t quite remember the name. I also don’t have service over here in Spain so I can only contact other when I have wifi. I went to the plaza and waited at the only bakery I could find for an hour and a half. I couldn’t find them so I decided to buy a map and explore Madrid on my own. On my way to the first monument I was visiting, I ran into Espi and her boyfriend again miraculously! We were all so excited that we went immediately to start walking around Madrid. They showed me everywhere and also took me to a great Chinese restaurant  where I had duck for the first time (I promise, it was not mallard). I had an amazing experience from then on in Madrid and was so happy that I was able to see my friends.

I caught the bus home the next day and it was a monumental effort to find the correct bus station, but once I found it, everything was fine. I rode the bus for 6 hours and walked about 40 minutes from the bus station to get home. It was a long trip but it was also one of my favorite. My friends and I are currently trying to plan our next trip and we are thinking of either going to Barcelona or Bilbao but haven’t decided yet. Funds are running low so we will have to see!

Until my next one!

-Ryan