Good times, bad times

This morning I got up at 6:15, beating my alarm by half an hour (good thing, too; I would have likely not been on time otherwise). I said goodbye to my roommates, finished packing, and set off. My bag was kind of a pain to get down to the subway, and that was pretty much a constant for the rest of the day.

I lucked out and walked right onto the bus to Ciampino at Anagnina. When I got to the front of the line to check my bag and get my boarding pass, I threw my bag on the scale: 24 kg. Aaaarrggh: weight limit is 20. I need to drop 9 pounds of stuff or pay for my sins. The lady behind the counter was nice, and said she'd let me off the hook if I got 2 kg out. I quickly opened up my suitcase and grabbed the first big group of stuff I could get my hands on (a bunch of shirts and one shoe. Yeah, it was a bad situation). It was about 2 kg. I made some room in my already stuffed backpack; my back is killing me right now. I was carrying laptop + electronic equipments + books + other stuff, plus the clothes on top of that. I still had some clothes left to find room for, so I stuffed them in my jacket. I probably looked like I had a disproportionally large upper body today.

The flight was pretty painless. I kind of napped on the way. In getting into Madrid airport, I didn't really have any idea what to do. The directions on my printout were from a different terminal, which was nowhere near where I was. The metro is not at that airport station. I found a bus that allegedly was to go somewhere near a metro, and jumped on. I lucked out, and got off at a stop near a metro. 1 metro change later (and about an hour from the airport), I found myself at the right place. Okay, that oversimplifies greatly: with my hurt back I was lugging this 50 pound bag up and down stairs for way too long. I was miserable and cursing my decision to stay after instead of going home to Charlotte. So anyways, I checked into the Cat's hostel, which I had to get a space for because the hostel I will be at tomorrow didn't have any room when I tried to book. It's pretty nice, and it has wireless. I can't complain so far.

Madrid is a really cute city. Everything worth seeing is within walking distance, which I love. I went down to the modern art museum (the name is not coming to me now, and I could do a google search, but I am too lazy for this) to see Guernica. Free entry to the museum on Saturdays, so yay for that. After about an hour in that museum (and an issue with my camera and the flash going off unintentionally- seriously, I wasn't even taking a picture- leading to some workers accosting me) I headed out, and walked around a public park area behind the Prado. It was nice to stroll around with the iPod on, just chilling out. I guess I'll have a lot of time for things like that in Zurich, Milan, Florence, Rome when I am by myself.

I then went to the main center city area, the Plaza del Sol and Plaza Major. They were cool to see. It's a very pedestrian-friendly area, with shops and Christmas markets set up right now. It was a nice stroll. I also had a delicious sandwich (I can't remember the names they call them here) just south of Plaza Mayor. They sell these baguettes with some type of meat in them. I got a fairly large fried calamari sandwich for all of 2.30 euro. I couldn't believe that deal, especially considering walking around all the restaurants seemed a little pricy. It was the magic of price competition: there were 4 small little greasy food joints right near each other, and their calamari sandwiches (and everything else) are dirt cheap. Yay.

I'm back at the hostel now. It's early, especially by Madrid standards (they like to stay out late, from what I understand), but I am really tired and sore. I only got 5 hours of sleep last night, my last night in Medag. I got all sentimental when I said my goodbyes to the room. It was a good semester.