IV: Unexpected Spanish Host Family (a.k.a this is the trip that never ends, and it goes on and on my friends)

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Monday, April 19

As we were checking out the next morning, guess who came to see us off? You guessed it! The angry Spanish lady. While we were giving the keys to her husband, she dropped what she was doing to come yell at us again, except this time we were being accused of "dos horas" of water usage. We just walked away, as PJ kept saying "claro" to her inane babbling.

We met Cyntia and Payardo at the airport. PJ's flight back to Murcia was that afternoon. And Cyntia and I wanted to see the Ryanair people. There were rumors. Lots of rumors. That Ryanair was organizing extra buses for stranded customers. That the French government was sending trains to bring back the French, despite the strike. Unfortunately, none of these whispers were true. It was even said that Sarkozy was stuck somewhere due to the French train strike!

Cyntia and I had come to grips with the fact that our amazing vacation was going to be extended a few days. At first we were stressed about money and missing a week of class, but in the end we decided to look on the bright side and enjoy our extra time in Madrid. Juana's said that of course we could stay with her until we left. What a relief!

Seeing PJ off was really hard for me, since we'd become so close in the last twelve days. I saw him to security and then slumped off somewhere to have breakfast (it was 1pm, very Spanish of me).

At the airport, we waited in line for two hours but then found out that they couldn't do anything for us. So, since we weren't getting home anytime soon, the best thing to do was to keep our re-booked flight for Thursday and go and enjoy Madrid!

But Cyntia and I were pooped, so we went to Juana's house to check our email and the news. In the early evening we went out and visited the Rene Sofia, a top art museum in Europe. They are known for having Picasso's "Guernica", which was impressive. They also keep a slew of his other works, and works by Miro, Dali, and other 20th century Spanish artists. Oh yeah, and they have a bunch of Goya, too.

Afterwards, we strolled around Madrid as the sun set. The nightlife here is always going (as in the rest of Spain). We went to a pub that Juana told us about called Cerveceria Alemania, where Hemingway used to write. Around 10pm (or 22:00 in European time), we took the metro back to Juana's house, where I actually met her and her daughter in person. But we didn't speak long before it was off the bed!

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Photos

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Rene Sofia

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Cyntia doing her surprised face in the Cerveceria Alemania