I made it! Finally arrived in Madrid at about 8:30 local time this morning (which was like 11:30pm Pacific Time). I couldn't sleep on the plane (surprise, surprise), so was pretty pooped when I got here. Fortunately, the last flight (Philadelphia-Madrid) somehow went by pretty quickly. I watched a couple movies, including Date Night (note-when you watch a funny movie on a plane, you feel pretty ridiculous when you can't hold back the laughter!), tried unsuccessfully to sleep, listened to some music.....And then here we were!
After going through customs, and realizing I'm dumb and had forgotten to get my phone unlocked to use over here, I had to find a pay phone to call the hotel to come pick me up. Which meant first going to an ATM and getting cash, then going to a currency place to get coins. THEN I called and spoke to the super-sweet front desk lady (all in Spanish, thank you very much) and told her I was ready to be picked up. Then I walked out to wait for the bus. Where I realized I had told her I was at the wrong terminal. For some reason, there are no pay phones outside of the airport, and the only ones INside the airport were on clear opposite end of the terminal. So I ran over there and called her back, then told her the correct terminal. Sheesh. That's what sleep deprivation will do for ya. I was so nervous that they weren't going to let me check in yet since it was only like 9:30am when I arrived at the hotel. But they were getting a room ready for me when I got there! Love this place! Super cute (but small) room, very clean, modern, with a little fridge, free wifi, free shuttle to/from the airport, nice free toiletries (including a toothbrush and a razor!). And a bidet. If you're into that kinda thing. Plus its only a few minutes away from the metro stop. Anyone traveling to Madrid should check this place out.
After getting checked in, I showered all the airplane grime off of me and took a nap......But then I didn't want to get up. I really, really, didn't want to get up. See, my brain thought it was like 1:00am. So it wanted to sleep. I finally dragged myself out of bed at like 2ish and decided to check out Madrid. I took the metro to the city center (I got off at the stop the lovely front desk lady told me to) and wandered around. But a combination of a sleep-deprivation and hunger headache almost killed me. I did stop at the tourist information booth to get some maps, then stopped at the phone place to get a SIM card. Since I thought that's what the problem was. Well that wasn't the problem, I'm just dumb. Hopefully I can sell the SIM card to someone else in my program :) Then I headed back to the hotel. After trying in vain to make the SIM card work, I thought I was going to die I was so hungry so went to try to find a grocery store. I looked up online and found one that was relatively close. But on my way there, I stumbled upon a little tiny market, that would do just fine. So I bought some sandwich fixins and returned to the hotel. Well, tried to return. I may have gotten a little lost. I think I walked in a giant circle about two times before I found the right street. I even had a map, geez. Fortunately the neighborhood is cute and quiet, so it was actually a nice little walk. Except for the fact that I was slowly dying of hunger.
So now I'm back in my hotel and, after eating a delicious turkey sandwich (it's very Spanish, trust me...) and some yogurt, and watching some Spanish MTV ("Kiss TV"-which plays only English songs apparently), I'm ready for bed. It's 7ish. That's late enough, right?! Hahahah we'll see how much longer I can make it.
P.S. I'm doing pretty well with my Spanish so far! Spoke with the front desk lady, the information booth guy and the phone guy (who told me I speak very well) all in Spanish. Feeling much more confident about that now!
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