This was The Monday of Possibilities, the day when I finally could get the tickets I had reserved on Saturday. First I tried to print them from a machine, only to realize that I would need to pay the full prize for the reservations. Thanks to a assistant/worker I didn't do it. He told me to go to a normal cashier, and so I did. Then I experienced the finest part of Renfe's system.
Still remember when we couldn't go to Sevilla because we should have made the reservation and get the tickets printed 24h in advance? Now in Barcelona the worker behind the desk just looked at me when I gave him my pile of booking numbers and said:
- Your reservations for the train to Madrid today has been cancelled because you should have gotten your tickets printed yesterday, 24h in advance.
What?
The office was closed during the whole weekend. Also yesterday. But luckily there were some seats left and the problem was solved. I got the rest of the tickets without any problems, double checked them and everything was settled and done.
The train left on time. Can you believe that? Our bags were screened and all the tickets were checked carefully before boarding the airplane, sorry, train. The crew gave us earphones (for free!) and a movie was shown on the screens. The system might be all dizzy but the service on board is the best I've ever experienced!
"Dear passengers, we are arriving at Madrd central estation"
The subway in Madrid though was interesting. When buying a single ride ticket you were supposed to pick on which station you are getting off at, the shorter distance, the cheaper.
You can only imagine our happiness when we found a huge map of the subway painted on the floor. After five minutes of trying to find our connections and stations we realized it was a map of the regional train network.
The subway trains are driving on the left side.
I don't how to say this but when I saw the subway of Madrid I understood the economical difference between Catalunya and Spain.
The next problem was faced at the Hat, our hostel. My booking hadn't reached their system. What. The receptionist had never heard of hostels.com. I don't know how long this kind of luck will last but there were some beds left.
The Hat has a bar on the roof. Need to say more?
During these hours another friend of mine arrived from Turku. We two are going to continue for 10 days more and my other friend is flying home the next day.
The evening was spent by walking around in the center. The streets were full of happy and loud Spanyards, blocking the way as well as they could. There was a 50m line to a cafe that was specialized on churros. I also saw several fake Christmas trees with intense blue blinking lights.
I might have been a mistake wandering around aimlessly without lookind at the street names or the map, but eventually, after a lot of similar confusement as in Barri Gotic in Barcelona, we found our way back to the hostel.
The travel plan looks like this from now on:
Madrid-Granada-Madrid-Bilbao-Barcelona-back North
This was an evening when I realized that I had forgotten my towel to Barcelona.
And that there had at some point been a misunderstanding at the ticket office in Barcelona because we had seat reservations for a train from Barcelona to Bilbao, but not from Madrid to Bilbao. I thought double checking would have been enough.
F
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