isobelmtl

I flew from Athens to Madrid today. It was a very boring flight because I was in the middle one of three. What was not boring was getting to my accommodations. I wasn’t really sure where it was-only that it is close to the bus station where the next leg of the trip will take me on Sunday. I retrieved my bag and somehow ( my travel ap was not cooperating much) I managed to figure out that there was a shuttle from the far distant airport to the centre of town. Was my hostel ( yes people I sleep in hostels) in the centre of town? Vaguely , I thought. I bought a ticket on line and quite soon a bus ( no. 203)roared up. Many people piled in with their bags. In my best Duolingo Spanish I asked the driver if he went near the address I wanted. He kept on repeating a word I have never heard but we sped along at an alarming pace on a six lane highway for about 20 minutes. I decided to hang in there. The crush was so tight in the bus I couldn’t do otherwise. I remembered Google maps and was reassured to see we were headed in the right direction. When we were a couple of hundred meters from my destination I decided to hop off with some other people. I preferred walking with my new wheeled suitcase than flying off for another couple of kilometres.i got off here:

It was quite close to my very nice hostel. I was pleased to have got away with that to the time of 7$. An Uber would have been at least 40$.

Lots of people watching too

Tomorrow The Prado and the Botanical gardens. This is just a little taste of what I might see