Madrid-An Introduction

I left for Madrid, Spain, on Friday, November 12th. I was actually traveling with my younger brother, Luke, as he was traveling with a group of his fellow students (all-girls, as it were, he was the only guy) for a two-week study abroad session. Yeah, so that meant I was on a plane filled with about fifteen high school girls. Luckily Luke and I were able to sit some distance away, so I was spared having to hear conversations about Justin Bieber and Jersey Shore. The the trans-Atlantic flight went without incident, though at one point I saw the chaperon for the group, Luke's former Spanish teacher, playing with a sock puppet. Luke assured me that I wasn't seeing things, and that, yes, she was in-fact playing with a sock puppet. Apparently the in-flight entertainment, Liam Neeson's instant classic The A-Team wasn't good enough. We could only shake our heads in dismay.

Upon arrival in Spain I was able to break off from the high-school group and their sock-puppet friends, as they would be spending their time in Segovia, a smaller city about 40-minutes drive from Madrid. Now, my older sister Hayley and her friend Justine would be arriving the next day, and we would be traveling together. As it stood though, my first day in Iberia was going to be spent on my own.

The three of us would stay in an apartment my dear sister had found and booked online. I of course had to stay in a hotel my first night. After finding and settling in to my room, I decided it would be wise for me to go and scout out this apartment before their arrival. I new what street it was one, but could not remember the exact I address. I made my way to the street, Calle Magdelena, to see if I could find it. Unfortunately, apartments available for short-term rent differ from hotels in that, well, they don't waste money on signage. The apartment had a name, La Latina Palace (a name Liberace would be proud of) but no sign, which seemed somewhat self-defeating. So I couldn't find it. Its okay, I figured, when Hayley arrives tomorrow she will have the information, so, no problem. Right?

Wrong. Hayley didn't print out the apartment information, she duly informed me upon my meeting them at the airport. She didn't remember the address either. Well, this was going to make for an interesting beginning to our week in Spain together.  I took them to our street, which of course is just lined with apartments, one of which was ours. Hayley remembered the proprietor had mentioned a bar being in front of the apartment building. Which narrowed our options down by about none. It would be okay though, technology would come to our rescue. I had an iPod.

I told my two travel companions to sit tight in this neat little cafe called Cafe del Mundo, my miserable Spanish told me this had something to do with the world. I set off up the street trying to think a way out of our jam, when I pulled out my wi-fi enabled iPod only to discover the bar I was standing in-front of had FREE wi-fi. The power of technology. I was therefor able to access the email from the proprietor that contained the exact address. It was right across the street from the Cafe del Mundo, where my sister and Justine sat in anticipation. The cafe was definitively not a bar, at least in my mind. Lost in translation I suppose.