One Way Ticket to Madrid and Back

We had probably the worst night train in the history of night trains. There was no room and the arm rest did not go up at all which was the worst part. We at least had a plethora of vino for our travels and some good cheap sammies to compliment. Once we arrived in Madrid we jumped a cab to the Cat hostel near the center of town. It was a nice place with a stained glass courtyard and a dungeon bar. We were in a room with 6 others. We only met two of them. There was Charlie from Australia and a girl from the Czech. We spent the afternoon exploring the city with David while Spencer went off to do his own thing. We had an amazing afternoon. The highlight of the day was walking through Parque del Bueno Retiro. It was filled with beautiful flowers and trees along with a few fountains. There was a big pond in the center of the park where you could rent row boats by the hour but we all cheeped out and never rented any boats.

Our last stop of the evening was at the Almudena Cathedral. Luckily none of us burst into flames upon entering:). It was so peaceful. We spent a good hour inside and then headed off back to our hostel, stopping at a supermarket for some cheap baguettes and cheese. It was the beginning of a long relationship with cheap bread and cheese. We spent the remainder o the evening in the dungeon bar chatting it up with Charlie about his adventures in travelling. He had been on his trek for over a year and was currently on a walk across northern Spain and Portugal. I also got to talk with Alley (met her earlier in the day when she was in panic mode about a wallet she had stolen) about Morocco. Her and her friends were going to be there around the same time as Brandon, Ramsey and myself. It wasn’t long before I was off to bed. We had to be up at 8 and to the airport so we could catch our 11 a.m. flight to Tangier. We spent the morning eating breakfast, checking, and double checking with Lindsey about meeting plans for our return. It was sad to say goodbye but it wouldn’t be long until we saw her again.