Madrid: Words from the Wise

After an amazing, insane and exhausting weekend in Barcelona, I am finally back in my tiny room in Pagrati. My weekend trip, however amazing, got off to a bumpy start the minute that I left my apartment on Thursday evening.

The girls (Whitney, Christina, Sarah, and Betsy) were kind enough to walk me to the Metro station after we had a lovely Sushi dinner downtown (yes...I know, the thought of Grecian sushi made me want to barf at first too, but it was surprisingly decent). So, with my excessively overpacked and uncomfortable duffle bag in tow, my little clan waved me goodbye as I descended down the escalator, and I was on my own.

Now, my flight didn't leave until 6 a.m. the next morning, but I figured since the Metro closed at midnight, I would spend the night in the airport so as not to run the risk of missing the final train and, in turn, missing my flight. Genius...right? Apparently not.

So it turns out that the airport train is completely different from the general train...and I had missed this airport train by a whopping 4 minutes. I stared down the Grecian Metro employee with tears in my eyes, believing that somehow tears would change my unfortunate and pathetic situation. It didn't...however apparently I looked forlorn enough to deserve help from this otherwise grumpy man. He kindly pointed me in the direction of the airport bus which (thank Zeus) was still running for the night.

I believe this is where I left you in my last post...sipping Frappes in my lengthy overnight stay in the Athens Airport. Not fun, but hey, I made it through the night, got on my flight without much ado, and was well on my way to my first layover: Madrid.

Now, in case you ever have a burning desire to go to Madrid, take my advice: DO NOT BRING A HEAVY CARRY ON. It is quite possibly the longest airport in the entire world, and if you have a heavy or awkward carry on, you're toast. Sprinting down the Spanish hallways with my ridiculous, who-knows-how-many pound duffle bag was hellish to say the least. But never mind Madrid, my friends, we are talking about Barcelona here.

So I finally arrive in Barcelona, and I am eager to finally see Yasi and Katie. The challenge of getting to their location is still ahead of me, however. I won't go into detail, but having never taken a day of Spanish in my life made the situation a little bit difficult. Let's just say that a missed train, a broken pay phone, and a heated argument with a cab driver were involved.

Against all odds I finally made it to the apartment where my lovely friends were staying for the weekend, and we had a happy reunion. I must say, I have been getting really homesick lately, so seeing a couple of familiar face was priceless. I realize that this post is getting a little lengthy, and I must say I'm pretty tired from my travels, so I will continue the epic tale of Barcelona tomorrow. Stay tuned my friends.