Bienvenidos a Madrid

Wow, the past two days have been a whirlwind. I’m completely drained but I have had so much fun!

Danielle and I met up at the Charlotte airport on Monday morning and sped through security no problem. We walked around the terminal for an hour or so catching up about our summer jobs, sharing excitement about our upcoming adventure, and exchanging tips on life in a walking city. When the time came to board the plane, everything went smoothly – up until we were taxiing for takeoff! The left engine needed some repair work so we sat on the tarmac for about an hour. After the engine was fixed, the pilot also informed us that we were about 150 gallons of fuel short for the flight. Lots of people lost their minds at that! I wasn’t super upset, we had left plenty of layover time for ourselves at JFK. Luckily I was also seated between two flight attendants on their way to New York for work. They were calm and didn’t really express any anger. I was actually really happy about our plane’s tardiness because we got to see the golden sunset light above the clouds inside the plane. Much better than sitting at an airport in my opinion.

Once we landed at JFK, Danielle and I collected our checked bags and took the airtrain to the international terminal. Norwegian airlines had a huge line and we were so relieved to make it to the baggage check counter. Little did we know that the TSA line easily dwarfed the Norwegian line, it took us almost an hour and a half to get through!

The flight to Madrid went much smoother than the first leg of our journey. Danielle booked and aisle seat and I booked a window seat in hopes that nobody would sit between us, but we made a new friend on the plane. Gerry was on his way to Spain to visit his niece in Chueca, one of Madrid’s most vibrant and bohemian neighborhoods. I slept a few winks on the plane in between the in-flight meals but really didn’t get too much shut eye. My seat was beside the big Rolls Royce (anyone get that Producers reference? Anyone?) engine so it was a bit loud for me to sleep.

Before Tuesday I have never used a staircase to the tarmac while deplaning. I felt like Marilyn Monroe or George Harrison, waiting for the camera flashes and applause. Sadly all that was waiting for me was a large bus that took us passengers from the plane’s stopping point to the customs office. Danielle has an EU passport so she breezed right through – I went through Spanish customs completely alone. I was so nervous to talk to the customs officer, that was the first time it was expected of me to speak in anything other than English. Everything went well though, I got my passport stamped and nobody came to arrest me! Horray!

The Metro has a line that extends all the way to the airport, but we decided it would be safer and quicker to order a taxi to our hostel instead. I loved watching the outskirts of Madrid as we zoomed downtown. We arrived at our hostel right as our beds were ready. We set our bags down, washed our faces, and met up with Frank for the first time!

Frank is a friend of a friend that has graciously agreed to help Danielle and myself find an apartment this year – he’s been sending us videos over WhatsApp for a few months of different pisos, but sadly up to this point everything has fallen through. Landlords don’t usually like renting to tenants sight unseen– who would have thought?

Frank helped us purchase SIM cards for our phones (and in Danielle’s case, a new phone altogether), walked us through the Parque de El Retiro and saw the Palacio de Cristal, showed us a few local spots for paella, sangria, cervezas, and tortilla española. We finished up the night at a cute bar in Chueca before Danielle and I finally decided it was time to head to bed. We had been up for over 36 hours. Needless to say we slept in quite a bit on Wednesday afternoon.

We relaxed a bit more on Wednesday: Danielle and I walked around Madrid and found a book store, grabbed some bocadillos in la plaza del sol, and saw two apartments for rent. Thursday presented a bit more of a challenge, as our reservation at our hostel ended and we still didn’t have a place to live. I’m actually very impressed with us though; in the span of an hour, we realized that our checkout time was earlier than we thought, we packed up and bought a small breakfast, searched for and booked and Airbnb, and hailed a taxi across town. For the rest of the day Danielle and I visited the top floor of El Corte Ingles, I purchased my first clothes in Europe, and we viewed another apartment. We are happy to be relaxing and having an early night. Here’s to hoping we aren’t homeless again when the weekend comes!