Kieran's Gap Year: Madrid, Spain

Entry 12.

Thankfully the train from Barcelona to Madrid was a high speed train, our first. After staying awake for 30 minutes watching the speed hit 240 km/h, I fell dead asleep. The train ride was less than 3 hours so we woke up still exhausted. We took the metro to the stop closest to Jose's aunt's apartment and walked 2 short blocks to the street. But apparently Spaniards don't know how to number houses and it took us 30 minutes of walking up and down the street to figure out that the tens place doesn't reset every block, just whenever the builders felt like it. When we got to the apartment, we dropped our bags and all fell straight asleep until 7 pm. Jose and I went to the grocery store and bought 36€ worth of food (the equivalent of one meal at the restaurant In Barcelona) that would end up lasting us our entire stay. I then cooked myself a delicious dinner of hot dogs and chips. I was worried I wouldn't be able to sleep since I slept so late, but I was sound sleep by 1am.
The next day I woke up at 1:30 and once again lounge around the apartment. Staying in a private apartment with your own bathrooms, no drunks coming in at 5 am, clean bathrooms, and no disruptions is so relaxing and amazing it's almost hard to describe. That night we went to the movie theatre and saw Transformers 3D and then walked to Plaza del Sol, where the police had barricaded the entire plaza and wouldn't let anyone in. There were a bunch of young kids hanging out next to the barricades and they told us thy the police had kicked everyone out of the plaza but they were just going to come back as soon as the police left.
The next morning I woke up at 11:30, bought some English newspapers and magazines and stayed at the apartment while Jose and Guy went out to actually explore the city. That night we went to see Planet of the Apes. Leaving the movie theatre, we went to Plaza del Sol, which the police had left during the day. Not two minutes after we got there, we heard a bunch of shouting and screaming and then saw a crowd of thousands of people descending on the square waving banners and chanting slogans. At first I stood there laughing, incredulous that I was in the middle of a huge protest. But soon I was joining the protesters, climbing on monuments and chanting things in Spanish that I didn't know the meaning of. After an hour of chants and listening to people give speeches, it began to look just like a huge party, people were rolling joints everywhere and immigrants were going through the crowd selling beer.
The next morning I woke up and did my laundry and spent an hour repacking my pack, carefully rolling everything up and trying to distribute the weight just right. We all watched tv until 5:30 when we left for the train station to have a bite to eat and for me to start my long journey by train to Oslo.
We had a big meal at Burger King and I bought some more food for the 13 hour overnight train to Paris. As we ate I kept delaying the inevitable, not wanting to go through the awkward goodbyes. Besides, what was the rush? The train station was a few hundred meters away.
When we finally got up to go to the train station it was 6:35, 25 minutes before the departed time; more than enough time. I said farewell to Jose and Guy and walked to the platform. I asked someone which platform it was and she pointed me towards the last platform that was labeled Chamartin. That's not where I wanted to go, I was supposed to be going to Paris. I looked at my ticket and then it hit me- Chamartin was a different train station. It was 6:43 and my train was leaving in 17 minutes on the other aide of the city. I rushed back upstairs to ask the lady what I should do. She told me that the train ride only takes 10 minutes and If I was lucky I could make it. I waited at the platform for the longest 5 minutes of my life until the train came and then another long 10 minutes until I arrived at Chamartin. I bolted out the doors as soon the train stopped and ran. I then realized I had absolutely no idea where to run. I asked a guy on the platform in my best Spanish where the train to Paris was and he just stared at me like I was crazy. He told me that all the trains at this station were local trains. I frantically ran downstairs towards the exit and found myself in a metro station. From the metro station I found a sign to another train station, this one also called Charmatin. I sprinted to it and glanced at the departures board, 14, the very opposite end of the station. I bounded down the stairs and got to the platform just in time to see the last 3 cars leaving the platform. And so the nightmare began.