MADRID ESPANA!

24th March 2007
Regente
Day 23, 24, 25

We´re here in Madrid and at the moment we´re in an internet cafe close to our hotel. It´s noisy and smokey (everyone seems to smoke here!) and we´re here because our hotel´s internet isn´t working! Anyway, this is the closest we´ve got to internet since Johannesburg airport so here we go..

Where do i start?

The flight from Joburg was LONG! We left at 22.10 and arrived in Madrid at 7.30am tired, but excited! It was so weird landing here...from out of the window in the plane it looked like something out of a science fiction movie! The airport had stainless steel constructions everywhere. Very new. I wondered when it was built.

And as we disembarked we realised we were in the middle of the newest airport technology too! The sign system is fantastic! We were ushered in and just followed the signs to find our baggage which was easy. Much better than other airports where we´ve struggled.

After we collected baggage...we wondered what to do! So! It was too a McDonalds to have coffee and wonder! We didn´t have accomodation and we had our luggage tying us down. Backpacks are heavy! Especially when you have a big one at the front and a little one at the back! The reason why we didn´t have accomodation is because we delayed our trip in Africa so had to cancel and we couldn´t rebook because there was nothing available.

First. To a Bureau De Change. But where? We trundled around first and second floor to find a bank. None. All closed till 10am! What´s that all about? At an airport! We waited. We had time.

We used our telstra card to attempt to ring some hostels. All booked out!

Then it was off to the Tourist bureau at the airport. The lady looked cold and offered us an explanation. The place where she was situated had been bombed in December! And it hadn´t been rebuilt. It was our first taste of COLD! Out came our jackets!! She offered us accomodation for over the amount we were willing to pay. How about around a hundred Euros we said!

She finally found us a hotel. There was a big EYE convention on in Madrid. And a SHOE convention! Everything was booked. Like Cape Town. We thought we were missing the tourist season but it seems the ´business´season was on!

We found out the taxi was 30 Euros so we caught a bus! Cost us one Euro each. After the bus to the second stop we got to the Metro (Train station) and caught a train to our hotel, the Regente. Backpacks aboard. We met a couple from Columbia who offered us some directions and a card. His name was Daniel and hers Abigail and they were into 4life - a multimarketing scheme. We decided they must have been good seeing they were at a conference in Madrid. Still, not sure it´s our thing but we were grateful for their help anyway. That´s what we´ve found - people have been very forgiving of lost tourists! (Thank goodness).

By the time we got to our hotel we were totally exhausted but the rest of Madrid wasn´t. There were people everywhere. Until really late! We looked out at our window at 10pm and there were people still shopping, eating, busking. Walking the cobblestone streets.

So we joined them. For a late dinner. At McDonalds. Twice it a day! Our justificatiohn was that we´re trying to budget and the accomodation ate into that budget so McDonalds it was! Tapa´s later!

What an entrance to Europe. I cried as we walked these late streets. We were finally here. I´d waited a lifetime it felt to come here and it´s all i expected!

Just a note. We watched CNN the night we arrived to realise why our two beers in Zimbabwe cost us 25,000 ZAM! Inflation was at 2000% according to the news and Magabe´s government has just about forced the locals to starve. The only thing intact was their beautiful smiles and glowing teeth. When we questioned why on earth beers could be 25,000 ZAM the friendly Zimbabwean barman said, ¨You get 96% discount! All we could think was that the tourists paid an equivalent of US$4 for two beers and the locals paid that astronomical price. I hopè Magabe is overthrown.