On never trusting your alarm clock.

I´ve gone back and forth about whether or not to tell how it was that I got from Bilbao to Madrid, and why it was that I got into the city a full day and a half earlier than intended, because really it all boils down to me being an idiot. But then again, who doesn´t love a good ¨Janelle is silly¨ story, right?

The plan was to go from Bilbao to a little town called Segovia, which I had visited with my family years ago, and remembered really loving. We found a really cheap flight between the two cities, even though it´s not very far at all, and I made reservations at a little place so that I could have an overnight there and then on to Madrid.

Well...

You see I blame it all on the fact that for some reason, the fates conspired against me, and I couldn´t sleep that night. I laid in bed at 11, and then it was 1, and then 3, and the last time I remember looking at the clock it was 6 am. I must have finally fallen asleep after that, because when my alarm sounded at 8 so that I could leave in time for my 10 am flight, I didn´t hear it. I managed to leave the hotel by 9, but when I got to the tiny little airport they insisted that boarding was closed and wouldn´t let me on the plane. Leaving me with no other way to get out of town than to take a 5 hour bus to Madrid, and then another to Segovia from there. When the bus finally arrived in the capitol I had exactly 15 minutes to make the last bus of the day to Segovia. Of course, after I frantically ran to the ticket counter to by my space I was informed that I was at the wrong station and this left from the other side of town. After an enormously frustrating day, I had no other choice than to wheel myself over to my hostel and pray that they´d let me in a day early. And so here I am. Brilliant, I know.


To be completely honest, I was actually really kind of nervous about this whole hostel thing. I´d heard so may things about them, and I´ve been kind of dreading my first experience with them. But I´ve got to say, my hostel here in Madrid is absolutely incredible. The whole building is centered around an absolutely gorgeous two-story coartyard with seatings of floor pillows all around mosaiced walls and Morrocan archways, all leading to a really stunning stained-glass domed skylight.






It´s actually turned out to be kind of perfect. The location is amazing, and everyone is there wanting to meet friends. I think I´m actually gonna end up liking the whole hostel culture. Maybe not enough to start dredding my hair and not showering for weeks at a time, but then you never know.


The really nice thing about my little blunder is that it gave me a chance to start exploring Madrid early. The capitol has been on of the places I was most curious about... I didn´t really know what to expect, and honestly I didn´t really think I´d like it much. Mainly I was here for the Prado. But just my first stroll around blew my expectations to the ground.





















All in all, I guess it´s comforting that even my stupidity can be redeemed into a good day. :)