Last Days on the Road

So this is what I did on my last day/s in Madrid (1.8 & 2,8 ?)

Sry can't write captions or anything because this fucking writing tab is DRIVING ME INSANEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. wtf srsly. I've had enough.

anyhoo. ps. that bearded guy is Ray.

Stumbled upon a book store that was filled with just and only gay literature !

STUCK in Madrid - hey, how bad can it be!

31.7 Madrid



I had been TRYING to do the walking tour my whole time in Madrid but I just couldn’t bring myself to wake up so early. Today was no exception + the Chilean girl Pia, who had been studying in Madrid for six months, told me, Tamar and Dominic that she could take us around to see the city. She had to pack though so me and dominic left to see the city.



It was kind of a bummer that we only had so little time. I think we only had like 1,5 hours to discover the city before we had to meet up with Pia. We were on a busy schedule since I was leaving that day and of course just then when you don’t have time, you get so  inspired with all the little random shops you find in each corner!  E.g. we went to this book store across our hostel and I got Mia her ”random” birthday present :D



We saw all these cool places... Temple de Budon (the place which Pia had been talking about = the place to be on Friday where people drink) it was absolutely stunning ! It was not like that lame Jardins da Sabatini park which is too neat for me. Temple de Budon was full of all these kinds of trees and it had a lovely city view and a fountain.. I really enjoyed that park :)



We also saw the Real palace...



...and Plaza de España (meh)...



...and went to meet Pia for food. We got some Paella and i’m not even lying when I say that I had o gobble up my food in 7 minutes... fucking hell. Food ready in 15 minutes, yeah right.. more like in 40 min...



I was in a hurry to make it on the train.. and oh boy, if only I would’ve  known that the station I headed to, was the wrong one... So I left for the 17:20 train to Valladolid where my plane would take of from to Brussels. I would’ve been in Valladolid at 18:30 and my flight would’ve left a little before nine. I would’ve been in Brussels a bit before 12 at night and my plan would’ve been to sleep at the airport... but things didn’t go as I had planned...



I swang my backpack on my shoulders and left my hostel with a really hyped up feeling. I was listening to good music and I felt pretty stoked. I went on the subway, gave some lady a couple of euros for a metro ticket and gave my public transport card away to another random person since it still had 6 viajes left. So overall, I did some good karma. Karma wasn’t as generous in return though.



I had been dumd enough not to book my seat in before-hand so I had no other option that to stand in the long line 15 minutes before the take off of my train with my heart beating like a drum in my chest. I kept glancing at the clock every 2 seconds. I could feel myself starting to panic when there was only 10 minutes left for me to get my seat booked, find the right platform and run to my train with my backpacks.



8 minutes before the departure I was sure I was going to miss my train and thus also my flight, if I wouldn’t make a move. I started asking people in Spannish whether I could go before them since my train was leaving in 8 minutes. People were kind enough to let me in front of the line but it was enough – when I finally got to the counter I came to realize something absolutely horrific.

The counter guy told me the train was leaving from the other side of Madrid,  not this main train station, but the other one............... I felt my stomach drop. ”Pero... no esta algún tren?”. He told me that another one would leave at seven and that I would be in Valvidoid 20:45. I could feel myself start to shake and like there was an invisible fist clutching my throat:
 ”Pero mi avion.....it leaves at nine....”
”Lo siento.”

I left the counter with tears streaming my face. People were probably looking at me, the crying backpacker, but I just couldn’t give a fuck. I had just missed my flight. I walked pass the people, out of the ticket sale office out to the lobby and threw my backpack on the floor next to the wall. I sat down and started crying with my hands holding my head. I was so incredible upset and dissapointed and hopeless. I had never missed a flight. I felt a bit lost. I cried for a bit before deciding that I’d better call dad.



After something that seemed like an endless hunt for a phone booth (couldn’t understand those stupid instructions) I finally realized the phone booths were inside this photography store. The counter lady told me I could pay as I go so I stepped into the booth and hit the numbers of my dad’s phone. And started crying again. After a lot of crying and swearing I managed to calm down a bit and my dad told me to call my airline whether they could change my ticket.
”Ei niit kiinnosta, mä lennän jollai paska halpisyhtiöl. Eikä mul oo muutenkaa ees kännyy enää”
”Miten nii, mis sun känny on?”
”No mä hukkasin sen...”
”No niinpä tietenki  :D”

Made me laugh a bit 8) Pretty Standard... what, my third phone this year?

At the end of the phone call I was actually feeling overly ridiculous about the situation: hey wtf, I just missed my flight to Brussels (and thus also to Helsinki) and I’m stuck in Madrid... HOW BAD CAN THIS BE? MAN I AM SO GONNA GET WASTED TONIGHT



I left the phone booth with a big grin on my face. Just as I left the photography store I bumped into this man who comes up to me and asks for 1,6€ to call back home Greece.  I looked him up and down and kinda wondered how the fuck didn’t he have any money on him since he clearly was travelling too (backpack etc).
”Yeah, sure, hahaa wtf I just missed my fucking flight!”
”Really? I just lost over thousand euros.”
”Wtf?? What happened?”
”I don’t know.. well I mean, I slept for a while on my backpack and when I wake up someone had stolen 1000e and 3 visa cards off of me.”
”Here, take all my change, it’s all I have on me now.”
”No really, you don’t have to-”
”Come on, take it, you need it more than I do.”

Although I had lost myself some 500e that day (missed 2 flights + had to buy another one back home) and wasn’t extremely rich anyhow, I knew how fucked up he was. I know that if I was in the same situation I would want people to help me. So I have him some 10 euros or so. Hope that guy did get home but srsly, who the FUCK carries 1000€ around ?! _WTF_ The MOST I’ll take out at a time is 250€ if that... Common sense isn’t forbidden...



Ps. Check out how cool the train stations was from inside ! A FREAKING GARDEN or something out of the Jurassic Park !


so fuken prettyyyy

So I got on the metro (swore under my breath for giving away my travel card 8D) and listened to Sofi scream to the beat of Deadmau5.. That was how I was feeling, slightly  furious & insane. It was the best coming back to the hostel. Andreas and his mate, these guys from L.A I had JUST met an hour before leaving, were like ”WTF SANDRA ARE YOU DOING HERE” :D I also saw Tamar and was happy to be her roomie again :) I went online and booked another flight from Barca – Helsinki. Cost me 170€ goddamnit........ I had been thinking that I’d have a nice amount of money when i’d come back home, but no... I guess not. FFS. It cost me 500€ to come back home all together !!! Oh and next time i’ll know not to book any returning flights since you never know how you’re plans change (who you meet, where you decide to go etc) and besides, if I would’ve just bought this flight from barcelona – helsinki, instead of the tickets before (valladolid – brussels - helsinki) it would’ve still been cheaper ! only the flight from brussels – helsinki cost be the same amount (170€) as from barcelona – helsinki... YEAH BUDDY.



So i got some rum and coke, the Americans fed me and I also noticed tha the ("NORTHERN") Irish guys I had been checking out at the train station (:D:D:) were in our hostel. We went to Templo de Budon, the place which Pia had told us about. It was soooo cool at night ! Heaps of people, some guys playing drums and a good feel to it :) Ana, the cool Brazilian girl was there, too. We bonded over Aussie men... haha :D

Madrid's nightly customs

Madrid 30.7



Went for some hungover breakkie to Maccas (yeah buddy!) with Stew, Luke and Dominique – this Austrian guys who was cool but wa bit odd since he kept giggling in this weird way : D The sound of it always made me smile!



We then decided to head to the outdoor pool since we hadn't managed to go there the day before.  Luke and Stewie were leaving that day so we only had some couple hours to chill. Something funny though happened – I had been taking photos of the pool area and the boys and when I was looking through the photos I noticed somethin super ridiculous:

”WTF DOM, where you changing your pants there?!?!”
”yes...”
”In the middle of everyone?!”
”yeah...”
”And you had no underwear on???”
”...yeah...”
”Wtf DOM :D:D:D You strip butt naked and there’s people sitting behind you” 8DDDDDD



EPIC

Ps. Yeah you can't see, but there were actually people that had visible access to where he was standing. . . : D



When we left and got on subway Luke gave me his travel card which still had  6 viajes left (: yaay. Me and Dom just continued to our hostel. The whole day went somewhat like this:



I was thinking of going to go visit the uni where I would be studying at but I bypassed the idea when I found out thanks to google maps, that my uni was a 30 minute ride away from the centre... no thanks, too knackered!



Later on in the evening, me, my lovely Chilean roomie Pia (which I had met in pretty awkward circumstances hahaaaa) my other roomie Tamar (another lovely girl, though from Israeli) and Sune, this blonde Danish guy that I kept referring to as ”Denmark” and he in return called me ”Finland” went to this bar where they would give you food for buying a beer (1,7€) :) The food was potatoes/sausages/finger food like that, but it was still nice. Pia had been living in Madrid for the last 6 months due to her exchange year and she was telling us some insider info on Madrid :) She told us, that in those kinds of bars (where we were at right then) there’s a habit that the customers throw their wrinkled napkins on the cloor as a sign of appreciation and good food. It was kinda weird noticing that the whole floor was filled with little napkins!



After this Pia took us to this square. I just loooove the habit of Madridians sitting in the square late at night and socializing with their mate over some canned beer that the Asians keep selling you for a euro as they go around, looking for customer in the square. There was a lovely little humm of chatter and the square’s concrete floor was super warm from the hot sun that had been shining on it the whole day. Just sitting there in the middle of ”the humm” was really hypnotic and relaxing. Probably one of my favourite things in Madrid I got to experience in my short stay. :)

We ended up having  five beers and going back to the hostel at three AM. I got a nice little reminder of the lack of privacy when I walked on my roomies ”getting it on”... haaahaaa

Madrid

Madrid 29.7



I arrived to Madrid in the morning by train and I was really excited to see the city in which I would be living in two years ! This is because of my degree program in school: it’s compulsory to go to a parner uni on your third year. So basically, I can choose the the uni in Berlin, Urecht (the small town where I was during my Holland visit), some town in France, UK or Madrid. It’s obvious for me to choose Madrid so that I could learn to speak Spannish properly, although, after seeing Berlin this summer, it was also a very tempting alternative. SO yeah, gonna be living in Madrid in 2013-2014 :)



Yet again, I had no idea where my hostel was. I just asked whether someone knew, where in part of town my address was located in. Someone told me to get on a bus to Sol. And that I did. When I got off, I probably walked like 2km... just wandered around with my backpack that was starting to kill my shoulders :D Finally I gave in and took the subway and found my hostel!



Oh yeah, when I was looking for my hostel, I came upon this ad (it’s actually the first picture I took in Madrid :D)



After unpacking I was in the dining area/common room sussing out some shit on my laptop when I started to talk to this guy Luke from Melbourne.  I decided to tag along with him and his mate Stewie since they were about to go sightseeing. We went to get some ”churros” which were just alright, in my opinion. I wish the chocolate sauce would’ve been sweeter ! I laughed at Luke and Stewie who kept calling them ”Spannish doughnuts”.. How can you call a Churro a Doughnut when it’s not even shaped like one? :D



We saw this protest in the middle of the puerta del sol: if I understood correctly, they were protesting against the unemployment rates? Note the Alien -figure! We also walked to the Real Palce’s park, but I really didn’t like it since it was too fancy pancy for me with it’s clean cut bushes and neat little pathways. We chilled at this other park for a while eating fruit and playing footie (I sucked). Since it was soooooooo hot (+30, middle of the country = no sea breeze = death) we looked for una piscina (swiming pool). We found one but then I realized that the undies I was wearing were maybe not THAT suitable for an outdoor pool :D So luckily I got the guys to change their minds, although we had been looking for the pool for some 40minutes underneath the hot sun.





 

 

We came back to the hostel and started to make dinner of the food we had bought together. We made this massive pasta meal with salad and sangría. During our dinner I met this super cool guy called Ray. He was 40-50-years-old (couldn’t really tell exactly how old, since he had a massive beard) English-man that had been biking for 2 months in Spain and was going to do 3 months more. He bikes around 70km a day and thus has to eat 4000-5000 CALORIES _A DAY_ ! Holy shit. So he is eating all the time and actually he says he is so bored of eating but he just has to do so to be able to survive the biking. He told me that he had been traveling the world for 5 years now. The story went so, that he was about to buy this house in France and so he sold his house in England. But just on the final moment, the deal went off and suddenly he was sitting on top of this huge pile of money and no idea what to do with it. He decided to quit his well paid job, sell all his stuff, besides his snowboard and bike and some random stuff, and go traveling. And that’s what he’s been doing ever since :) He was truly insipartional: Ray was just so happy all the time. Each and every time I saw him, he was just all smiles :) We had some really good conversations with him.



I also met this weird, quiet Israeli guy that was waiting for his friends to come to Madrid. He had been waiting for them for a couple of days already and he had just passed the time buy drawing in his sketch book. He had these really abstract pencil sketches, but if you looked closer, you could see female forms appear. It was pretty incredible.



Anyway, me, Luke and Stewie had a good time just drinking Sangría although we wished that my room would’ve had air conditioning! Later on we decided to go look for this rock bar that our receptionist had told us about, but that night there was no live music, only cockroaches crawling on the wall!! :s We went to this heavy metal bar that was packed with goths and metal heads to get a free beer. I might’ve had a feeling slight feeling of not fitting in!



Afterwards we ended up to this funk bar. Stewie was starting to get all lame cause he missed his girlfriend so me and Luke decided to get him drunk. When Stewie went to the bathroom, I went to the bar and asked in my poor Spanish whether the bartender could make 3 ”vodka” shots, but just fill one of them with vodka and the other two with water. Me and Luke were pretty drunk already so we just wanted to get Stewie on the same level as us and make him a bit jolly : D Unfortunately the bartender wasn’t agreeing to put water in the shot glasses. Damn. Anyway, fun night, although we failed getting Stewie on a party mode and I can’t remember coming back home!