Day 1: The Journey to Spain

Thursday May 15, 2008
9:55am: We arrive at the airport in Madrid
-Everything seems ok. We get off the plane, get our luggage, use the bathroom which is surprisingly neat and clean!!

10:30am: We begin our trip from the airport to the train station
-This is supposed to be a simple endeavor. We are supposed to take a taxi to the train station and buy a ticket to Seville. WRONG! Instead, we get the bright idea that all our luggage won't fit in a taxi, plus we thought we'd get ripped off, so we decided to take the subway.

10:40am: Riding the Metro
-After talking to 2 information desks, we finally find out where and how to buy metro tickets.
-it was a long walk to the automated ticket kiosk and i was beginning to regret packing so much as my luggage was a tad on the heavy side (understatement!!-I had 1 large rolling bag, 2 duffel bags, and a backpack). Once we bought tickets for just 2 Euros, we realized that we were going to have to ride 3 different lines to get to the train station Atoche. This meant getting on and off 3 separate subways, going up and down 6 different sets of escalators, and much to our dismay, up and down REGULAR sets of stair, ALL with our luggage!!!
-This subway journey was probably the most difficult part of my trip (so far at least). I had an incredibly hard time dragging all my luggage. Fortunately, Brittany and Kokila switched off carrying my lighter duffel bag so my weight was decreased a bit. Some help was better than none! i also got lucky because a few times random people helped me take my luggage down the stairs.
-On top of this, the subway was sooo sketchy!! The information desk attendant had advised us to wear our backpacks on our chest rather than our back in order to be more cautious of pickpocketers. We did this and looked like class A tourists lol. Here we were, 3 students with massive amounts of luggage, backpacks on our chests, and crappy clothes (sweatpants/t-shirts) basically screaming "rob me!" We had meant to change clothes at the airport but figured there would be enough time at the train station to change.

12:20 pm: We arrive at the train station Atoche.
-By now my shoulder was aching like crazy! Especially my left one because my backpack strap had been uneven. Due to this, I had been dragging my luggage with my right hand which had now formed 8 blisters! They hurt a lot :(
-We found the counter to buy train tickets to Sevilla and it was annoyingly similar to a DMV office. We had to get a ticket and wait until our ticket # appeared on the screen in order to go to the counter to buy a ticket.

1:15 pm: Our ticket # finally appears on the screen.
-We go to the counter expecting to get tickets for the 2 pm train (they come every hour) but find that everything is full until 7 pm! It was a holiday in Madrid and no one told us! This was a disaster! We were supposed to be at the hotel by 5 pm for orientation and now we couldn't even leave Madrid until 7! This meant we'd only get to the hotel by 9-completely missing everything! This was a major dilemma, but our best option was the 7 pm train. It was too hard to go back to the airport to try and find a flight, and there were no other trains, so we grudgingly bought the tickets.
-Now we had to figure out how to contact our program coordinator to inform her we would be late. None of us had phones or phone cards, and there was no internet service anywhere near. All of a sudden, a miracle happened. We heard a girl on a cell phone say "Donna Wright" Donna Wright was our program director!! We hurried over to her and found she was in the same problem as us, only she had a phone! We had company now! Her roommate was currently trying to get an earlier ticket, and was able to buy 1st class tickets leaving at 4 pm. We followed this example and bought 1st class tickets for 5 pm because 4 pm was now sold out. The 2 girls we met took our names and would inform our director we would be late. A wave of relief came over us.

2:30 pm: Waiting for the train.
-Yes, we were now all relieved, but I was now very upset. I just spent 120 Euros for a first class train ticket. That's basically $210., and I could have easily just had a flight to Seville with that money. Also, this problem could have been avoided if we ordered tickets early online, but Donna specifically advised us not to do this because there was "no way tickets will sell out" Yeah right! They sold out, and we were still going to miss orientation, plus we had to wait around the train station forever, which is not safe! but what do we do? There were no other options. We were just stuck...waiting...waiting

5:00 pm: We board the train.
-We were now in the 1st class section on a high speed train to Seville. I was glad we were finally getting somewhere, but felt bad because everyone in first class was dressed well, and we looked like we were homeless hahaha The seats were only a little bigger than coach seats, but whatever-we paid for the time, not the quality. It was funny how the attendants was speak to all the passengers in Spanish and switch to English for us. The scenery was also beautiful. i took pictures instead of sleeping.

7:30 pm: We arrive in Seville.
-We got off the train and picked up our luggage. i almost didn't get one bag because they switched my bad sticker with someone else, but I got mine. i got to use Spanish to describe what my bag looked like and they understood1 This felt like an accomplishment.
-We now had to get taxis to our hotel. I went on my own beacuse we would not all fit, but it was fine.

8:00 pm: We arrive at the hotel.
-We made it! We got to the hotel and found that everyone had trouble with trains! in fact, many students were taking the 6 pm train so we were there early! they had even cancelled orientation for that day beacuse so many students were late so we were perfectly fine! Life felt better!
-I was still worried becuase i couldn't call home to tell my family I made it, but i knew the next day would be better :) I had a nice shower, dinner, and finally went to sleep.