I made it! (24 hours late...)

Remember how I mentioned last post that I was worried about what would happen once I got to Madrid, and how I would navigate the airport and buses and make it to my hostel? I had no idea that it was getting to Madrid itself that would be the actual adventure...

I arrived at the airport, went through security, and got to my gate early.  I ended up meeting another girl going to Spain doing the same program (auxiliares de conversación), but in a different city and we ended up chatting. I got on the plane around 6pm and we waited for a while. After about an hour, we were still at the gate because of a problem with the bathrooms. The girl behind me was another auxiliar so we chatted as well. I also made friends with a woman going to do volunteer work, a couple on their way to Rome. It almost surprised me how friendly and open people were.  We finally started to pull away from the gate; we were finally going! not. While in the taxi line, an announcement was made that there was another mechanical problem and we had to return to the gate.  An hour more of sitting, yet another mechanical problem, and we had to get off the plane.  As we waited in the gate at the airport, hoping for any information as what to do next, we acquired about 5 more auxiliares. Maybe it was those big backpacks that gave us away... It was nice though to have a group of 8-10 to spend this extra airport time with.

We ate at the food court, waiting for any sort of instructions.  Finally at 11:30, our flight was cancelled, rescheduled for the same time tomorrow. There were now about 150 people waiting around, unsure of where to go and what to do next.  We were brought down to baggage claim told to get all of our luggage, then had to hand in our ticket stubs so they could reorganize all of our flights and connecting flights.  It was a big mess. At around 12:30am, we were ready to be shipped off to the hotel for the night. Since it was so late there were no buses available, they put 100+ people in cabs, courtesy of Iberia. We had a lot of luggage, so we could only fit about 3 people in the big vans. That night was not a cheap one for Iberia Airlines... Our hotel was in Danvers MA, for those of you not from Boston, about 45 minutes from the airport. I can't say I had ever been there, and it was even farther from the city than my house. It was a hotel at a water park, but the water park wasn't even open.  I finally got to my room around 2am and went to bed.

At 1pm the next day we were on a bus back to the airport, (not before waiting in the lobby for an hour though). We got our own check-in line, (never mind the fact that there are no international flights before 5pm and our own line was 2 people checking in 100+ people) and after another vouchered lunch we made it on the plane! And it took off! We did make sure to take a picture of (almost) all of us before we left...

So despite all the set backs, it really wasn't that bad. Tiring, yes, but having people to hang out with and commiserate with was nice. We're all placed in different parts of Spain, so it will be nice to have people to visit all over the country. 

24+ hours later after my original time, my suitcases and I rolled into my hostel. The bus and cab from the airport couldn't have been easier. And I managed to stay up the whole day and beat jetlag.  I'd call it a success. Well maybe not completely, let's chat once I have an apartment...