Everyone has to have the one trip, that one horror traveling story, and this was ours (hopefully the first and the last!). Our original plan was to leave Granada on the 11:30pm bus arriving in Madrid at 4:30am. Then we would get a taxi (because the metro isn’t open until 6:00am) and taxi to Madrid in order to be there in plenty of time for our flight at 6:20am flight that would arrive in Paris at 8:55am. We would spend the day sightseeing and then Mandy and I would meet up with her family friends and stay there for the night. Easy Peazy Lemon Squeazy right?
I wish. Here’s what really happened.
Mandy and I arrived at the Granada bus station at 11:00pm only to learn that the next bus left at 12:30pm. Trying to stay calm, we call Justin and Caroline and start to tell them of our dilemma so that they can inform the flight attendants when they tell us they’re roaming around Granada because they had found this out an hour earlier when they went to get on the “10:30pm” bus. Note 1: CHECK ONLINE BUS SCHEDULE. Once Caroline and Justin get back to the station, we devise a plan that consists of running and bribing once we got to the Madrid bus station.
And running and bribing is exactly what we did. As soon as we arrived at the station, we sprinted up a ramp and some stairs (remember we’re all carrying 25 pound backpacks during this adventure) and find the first cab man that looks like he can be bribed. We yell to him and tell him we need to get to the Madrid airport pronto because our flight was in one hour and we’d give him 10 extra euros if he could do it. He laughed and said oh my! I will drive fast, very, very fast (rapido rapido!). It was hilarious and terrifying as this man went double the speed limit and kept swerving to pass every car. This man definitely earned his extra euros because he got us to the airport in 15 minutes when it normally takes 30 minutes regularly or an hour by metro.
So we start sprinting again through the Madrid airport to Ryanair to get our tickets stamped. The ticket lady looks at us with a “cutting it close” type of smile and stamps it as we run off. We somehow proceed to make it through the stamping process, through security, and to our gate within 15 minutes of arriving at the airport. When we arrived at the gate, they weren’t even boarding yet! I tell you, if we had been on the amazing race, we would’ve won easy.
So we thought our troubles were over. But wait there’s more! If you call within the next ten minutes…
We’re flying to Paris, easy breathing finally, when the pilot comes on the line and tells us there is a lot of fog surrounding the Paris airport so we’re going to fly in circles for 45 minutes to see if it clears. Clear it did not, so off to Lille we go….Lille? We all had no idea what that place was until we found a map and found out we were basically headed to the border between Belgium and France. Crazy! Upon our arrival to the Lille padunk airport, we are all chaotically herded to busses in order to get us back to our original Paris airport.
Hold the phone! If you call in with your credit card you’ll receive…
We arrive at the Paris airport and end up having to stand in another line for a bus ticket into town. Another hour bus ride later and 15euros poorer, we arrive in the city! I wish it had been an “ahhh” moment but unfortunately it was a gloomy rainy day as we ventured through the streets and the metro to find Justin and Caroline’s hostel. After finally arriving at 4:30pm (4.5 hours after we had intended), we relaxed and checked in with the internet world, before we realized we were all hungry since we hadn’t eaten anything substantial (I was running on a granola bar and a row of chocolate). Off to the restaurants! Oh wait…no one eats dinner at 5:00 in Paris...Change of plans. Off to the market! With our wallets sad, we binged on the cheap junk food but my, was it delicious!
Lastly you’ll receive double the offer if…
As much as we all wanted to go see the town, we were flat out exhausted and Mandy and I’s travels still weren’t over. Mandy has family friends that live in Germany and were luckily vacationing in Paris the same weekend so we were offered to stay there on Friday night. This travel was another, funnier, adventure. We figured out the metro system just fine but then it was time to transfer to the train in which we had no idea how to buy our ticket. We think we went to the correct machine but it failed to take our cards so we gave up and hoped at the end there would be another kiosk…
There definitely wasn’t. So off into fight or flight mode I go and sprint behind a woman who had a card that worked. I made it through! Mandy did also…yet her suitcase was not as lucky. It got stuck between the doors! It was completely embarrassing as now we were caught sneaking in, robing the train of its money, until one guy was nice enough to go through again for us so we could get out. We lucked out that there wasn’t a police man there but we did later notice the security camera…oops!
So call now!
We finally arrived at the family friend’s vacation house and it was just lovely. It may have well been heaven at that point because we had a comfy bed, hot shower, delicious food, heat, and internet. The family was definitely very welcoming and hospitable. I couldn’t have dreamed of anything better.
So I will say this trip was the eye opener in a sense that not everything is easy breezy and fun and games, but we still were all able to laugh during the moment and even more so now that it’s all over.
He explorado, soñado, y descubrió
...et corrompu et volé
(and bribed and robbed)
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