I've decided that I love Madrid as well. Today has been a pretty good day, despite a serious lack of sleep. We checked in for our flight at at 5 am. I'm not a fan of the Milan-Malpensa airport. There is a lot of walking involved, and the "organization" confused me. I was able to get a chocolate croissant, and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice though, which made me quite happy.
I attempted to sleep on the airplane, but that failed as much as the airport. The airport was too cold--I couldn't fall asleep. And on the airplane, the lady behind me was obnoxiously loud. She talked the ENTIRE time--what a lovely 2 hour flight. I was not pleased. Plus the plane hit some major turbulence as we reached Madrid--I've never been shaken so much! The flight attendent buckled herself in next to me, and looked way too concerned.
After landing safely at the airport, we walked forever to find the connecting metro station. And the Spanish metro is the most confusing metro yet. I'm still not quite sure how it works. We tried a few different trains until we got to the right metro stop. We didn't have directions from the metro stop to our hostel, OR a map. We looked at a small map posted inside the metro, and kind of winged it.
Finding the hostel was pretty easy. It's AMAZING. There is an exercise room, and a living room, complete with a sound system, a pool table, and a tv/dvd player. There is a multimedia room, with about 6 computers! We were able to get on them earlier, but I don't know how often that'll happen. There are quite a few people here!
We checked in around 11, and dropped off our stuff. We had to leave so they could clean the hostel, until 2 pm, but that wasn't so bad. The receptionist gave us a great (albeit HUGE) map, and circled places we should go. She was very nice. So Melisa and I wandered t a little stop for lunch. Then we found Starbucks (there is one on almost every block, it seems) and just chilled until 2. We were too tired to do anything else. It was cold, and a tiny bit rainy, so we didn't want to stay outside.
We went back at 2, and went online. Because of the 7 hour time difference, there were very few people online. I did send my parents a nice long email though. I'm hoping to be able to get back on tonight, and actually instant message my dad. These computers all have skype, but I'm pretty sure I'd need to actually buy a microphone. Oh well. Being able to instant message people will be nice.
Then Melisa napped, and I finished my book. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It was alright, but I didn't like it was much as I thought I would. There are books in the living room that I am use, but I'm not sure that I'm interested in the few English ones.
At about 7, we decided to find dinner. They do late dinners here, so we knew we definitely couldn't go earlier than that. We were hoping to find authentic Spanish food, but we're not sure what exactly that'd be. We kept finding pizza, pasta, and sandwiches. We gave up and had pizza at this restaurant. The waiter was definitely confused by our "early" meal. I am glad that Melisa and I both speak a little Spanish, because it makes everything a little bit easier.
After dinner (at about 9) we went back to our hostel. All of the computers are taken, but I'm hoping that the other people will either go to dinner, or maybe just go out. I don't really care much about the nightlife here--I'm here to see the sights, and relax. There is one nightclub that I've been told I should go to--it has like 7 floors, and each one supposedly has a different theme. It sounds really cool!
One last thing I love about Madrid--the stoplights. In Bangor, when you are supposed to cross, you get the green "walk" sign and a fast, angry beeping noise. Here, the noise is much more interesting. It goes "pew, pew, pew" like toy guns. It sounds like a little kid is pretending to shoot a gun, and it's hilarious.
I might go back to the living room and try to find a book to read. I'm tired, but I'd really love to talk to my parents. Ugh. If the computers are all still taken at 11, then I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted as it is. Sleeping at the airport was an epic fail. I'm so excited for this bed tonight! I have a nice warm blanket and everything. Honestly though, I couold probably sleep on the floor and be happy. If I'm tired enough, anything will do. After getting up early two days in a row, I'm more than ready to crawl into my bed!
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