Gosh, I love Madrid …BUT…I absolutely abhor traveling with luggage. Having to lug 40-50 lb. equipajes around a metropolitan city (regardless of how amazing the public transportation is) requires more muscle and patience than I currently have. Thankfully, I found my flat within a day and am settled in and conversing with my flatmates today. They’re the nicest people ever; they’ve cooked for me, are extremely obliging with everything, and work hard to understand (and fix!) my sub-par Spanish.
Before all that loveliness, though. I made a couple of bad decisions–for my health at least. First, I decided against going to bed at a proper hour (the best way to combat jet lag) and signed up for a pub crawl that my hostel had organized. I figured, due to the 7 hour time difference, 1am in Madrid would be around 6pm in Houston, and that was certainly too early to be going to bed. Instead of staying hydrated with water, I decided to consume bebidas of a different sort, causing an early morning downing of Fanta after a particularly physically taxing night (Bad decision #3). Then, instead of staying in bed, I decided to get an early start on moving in and whatnot. With all my muscles protesting, I slowly trudged (luggage in hand) the 5 minutes to the Metro Station and the 10 minutes to the flat in excrutiating pain. Thank goodness all is now well and settled.
I have had a great time so far regardless and still can’t believe how easy it is to make friends here.
Here’s a pic of the hostel room where I stayed (if you ever come to Madrid, stay at Cat’s; they’re so nice and se habla ingles).
Stay tuned for more Madrilenian updates!
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