Anywho, I promised I had a story to tell you. So here we go. I mentioned previously that we had a day trip through ISA this past weekend. It was a trip to some of the pueblos (towns, suburbs) of the Madrid state (or province). We had to meet at 9am at a certain metro station to catch the bus, so Friday night I went out for tapas with some friends, got home around 1am, set my usual three alarms for around 7:30am, and went to sleep.
The next thing I know, the bottom is dropping out of my stomach as I wake up and turn over to look at the clock, which says 8:57am. Of course, my first thought was that it has to be a dream. I'm never this late for anything. I closed my eyes and then looked again... same thing. So. Time to make a decision. These trips are not mandatory, but they are already paid for, so I had the option of staying home and just having a lazy day, or trying to catch up with the trip. ISA gives us a packet before every excursion listing the places we will be seeing, as well as some bus and train schedules in case some moron oversleeps. So I decided to embrace my role as that moron and try to meet the group in our first destination, Aranjuez.
I should mention that things were not exactly stacked in my favor... I was supremely sore because I added lunges to my running/workout routine on Friday afternoon, so walking was a struggle. And the more problematic obstacle was my phone. It was not working, and I could not figure out how to fix it online. I could not make calls or send texts, but I could receive both.
By the time I had considered all of these things, my friends were slightly worried. They know that I am always 5 minutes early for everything, so at 9:05 Neha finally called me. I told her what had happened and that I was going to catch a train to Aranjuez. I asked her to call me when they were done with the first activity of the day, which was the palace tour, since otherwise I had no way to contact anyone. I got dressed, brushed my teeth, and it was time for my adventure to begin!
Luckily one of the train stations is decently close to my apartment, only one metro stop away. I had never taken one of the Renfe trains before, so that was the first challenge. It went very smoothly, I found the ticket machines, bought my ticket for only 3.25 euros, and I got to the platform right as the train was pulling in, around 10:15. I figured the trip would take about an hour, which would be perfect, because ISA's palace tour was set to end at 11:30. I was reading on the train when my phone rang again. Neha said they were done with the palace tour, but it was only 11. They were headed to the royal gardens next, so I told her to keep an eye out for me, and call me in about 40 minutes if I still hadn't shown up. When the train got to Aranjuez the adventure got a little bit interesting. The train station was not directly in the city, it was a few kilometers away. I had no idea how to get where I needed to go. So I found an off duty bus driver and decided to ask for directions. Time for my Spanish work to pay off! He was super friendly, and told me to wait for his route to start in five minutes and he would pick me up at the bus stop at the other side of the parking lot. So I waited, and when he came around I got on the bus with everyone else and the driver only charged me half fair and had me sit in the front seat so he could tell me where to go. As we were driving I told him what had happened throughout the morning and whatnot and he told me a little bit about the city. He told me there was another bus that would get me closer to the palace, but I would have had to wait another half hour. I told him that I totally didn't mind walking (even though my quads were screaming at me!).
So my new friend dropped me off and pointed me in the right direction and I finally felt relaxed. Like everything was about to work out, and my silly mistake would be corrected. I got to the palace and started looking for a map of the area so I could figure out where the gardens were. I decided to just go into the ticket office and ask instead. I told them I was with a group of students and asked if they could point me in the right direction for the gardens. They all started to give me worried looks, but one of the security guards said he'd show me. So we went outside and he pointed out an archway and said that was the direction I should go it. Perfect! So right as I walked away Neha called me again. I told her I thought I was right around the corner! Unfortunately, she informed me that they had in fact taken the bus to some gardens that lay outside the city. Oh goody. So at that point I had no idea what to do. I asked Neha to ask advice from Leticia, the ISA rep who was on the trip with them. Leticia said she didn't know how to give me directions there, but I could catch a cab and ask to be taken to the gardens, or I could find a restaurant called "La Rana Verde" (the green frog) and just wait to be picked up. I was worried I wouldn't be able to find them, so I decided to wait.
They said it would be about 45 minutes, so I wandered the grounds of the palace a little bit. It was chilly, but very sunny, so after a while I asked some people for directions and found the restaurant I was getting picked up at and sat on a bench and read! It was very pleasant and relaxing, especially when I saw the bus pulling up to get me! I had made it! Once I got on the bus, I learned a few things. First of all, I don't think any of the ISA people expected anyone to actually try and catch up. I think that if people oversleep they just stay home, because Leticia and Carmen were shocked that I made all the effort. Second of all, about fifteen people had skipped the trip. Third, my plan should have worked. If all had gone as planned, I would have met up with the group at the palace, but half of the palace was under renovation so the tour was shortened. The ISA people were quite upset, because no one had informed them that was the case when they bought the tickets for the group. But everything ended well and then the day proceeded!
We went to Chinchón next, a typical pueblo outside of Madrid. It was small and picturesque and had a fantastic inner plaza that houses a small market during the afternoons. It hosts bull runs in the summer as well! We were given an hour and a half to hang out and eat, so we wandered the streets, checked out a few artisan shops, and then sat in the sun for about 45 minutes and ate "patatas bravas" which are potatoes with some kind of delicious sauce on them! It was nice and sunny and we didn't want to leave. When the time finally came to board the bus, everyone was rather tired. My adrenaline from the morning had certainly worn off by then. We had about a 45 minute ride to our next destination, Alcalá de Henares, and most people just slept (I finished my book, which I will discuss shortly).
There were two main sights to see in Alcalá de Henares: the (possible) birthplace of the writer Miguel de Cervantes, and one of the oldest universities in Spain. The house of Cervantes (author of Don Quixote de la Mancha) was rather underwhelming, especially since no one really knows if he was born there. The university tour was very interesting, but unfortunately the sun was setting and it was very cold and people were mostly ready to go home.
So that's the story of my Saturday. As I said in my previous post, I had an adventure, made friends, and spoke a lot of Spanish! That was the most rewarding part for me. I was pretty much on my own and I managed to get where I thought I needed to go, get help from native Spanish speakers, and eventually reach my destination!
So apart from all of that I have some random things to tell you all, but I think I will save them for tomorrow, as this post is already rather long. Here are some pictures from Saturday's trip!
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| El Palacio Real de Aranjuez. |
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| The adorable pueblo called Chinchón. |
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| Chinchón's central plaza. |
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| Plaza de Cervantes in Alcalá de Henares. |
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| With my favorites, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. |
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| One of the oldest universities in Spain, and the oldest that made a "University City", with dorms and whatnot. |
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| Main courtyard of the University. So pretty! |
Ok. Well I think that will have to do for tonight. In my next post (tomorrow or Friday) I will give some more details about the university visit, including the story of the university prisons, tell you how I have officially outed myself as a nerd to my friends here (I think it's more of a miracle that I held it in for six weeks!), and discuss our walk through the old parts of Madrid which occurred last week. And I'm sure I'll think of some random bonus facts to throw in as well!
Exciting fact: Mom will be here in less than three days!!
Toodles!
P.S. I figured out why I didn't wake up on time on Saturday. I managed to set the correct time on all of my alarms, but not actually press "set alarm". FAIL.
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