The first city on our itinerary was Madrid. We started our trip with a three-legged train journey from Montpellier to the Spanish capital, but during the transfer to the second leg, things went awry. Three of our five travelers made it through the ticket checkpoint to the platform when we realized we were missing two others. I left my stuff with my two friends on the train and went back to see what was up; when I didn’t see them anywhere, I went back to check if they had made it to the train. However, as I got up to the platform, I saw the train doors closing and it pulling away from the station. Yes, there I was, no passport, ticket, wallet, or clothing besides what was on my back.
As it turned out, one of our friends had lost her ticket and another had stayed back with her as she searched, leaving the three of us to see the remaining two off as they continued our vacation alone. After speaking with several train station officials, making a few calls to our friends on the train, and arranging the transfer of all my money and documents at a stop down the line, I was once again with the essentials and on the way toward Spain, albeit still without any of my clothes.
An unexpected night in Barcelona and a bus ride to Madrid later, we were finally on track again. Madrid was full of great museums and sights to see, including the Museo del Prado and the more modern Reina Sofia, which houses rooms of Picasso and Salvador Dali paintings- both amazing.
The Royal Palace and cathedral just next door were both beautiful and really interesting to see Spanish heritage and history in person. The one downside of Madrid was that it seemed very commercial and lacked that strong sense that you were really in Spain...
…until we met royalty. Yes, we were as surprised as you probably are now. Walking down the road one day, we came to a crowd of people gathering on the street. We had our Argentinean friend we met in our hostel ask a woman in the crowd what was going on and soon learned that Princess Letizia was on her way to do a Red Cross fundraiser appearance. Once the princess arrived and we had taken a few pictures, we noticed a line of excited looking old ladies forming and decided to jump in and see where it would take us. We waited for a few minutes until the next thing we knew security was searching our bags and escorting us across the road to meet the princess. Now, being someone who loves learning languages and never wants to be “that obnoxious American who only speaks English,” I was determined to speak Spanish to her. The meeting went as follows:
Me: Hola, Princesa.
Princesa: (speaking in rapid Spanish, of which I only understood the word “donde”)
Me: (“Oh god, what did she just say? I hope this is right…”) Los Estados Unidos….
Apparently this was the right response to what must have been “Where are you from?” because she proceeded in English to welcome me to Madrid and wish me a good trip in Spain.
“Conversation” with the Princesa: check.
Next up: adventures in Granada.
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