jueves, 1 de septiembre de 2011

Saturday August 27 – Arriving/ Lost Group/ First Day in Madrid


                I got less than two hours of sleep on the flight because I was excited and because planes are very uncomfortable to sleep in. We arrived in Madrid at 11:32, we got through customs without problems, but then had to wait for our luggage. We waited a long time but it did not come so we went to baggage claim where my bag happened to be, Kevin had two bags but only one was there, so Kevin had to fill out a missing luggage claim. By the time that was done, it was past 12:00 which was the time that we were supposed to meet the API at our terminal. We then headed to another terminal that was picking people up at 1:00, but by the time we figured out where to go and took the long bus ride because it was a big airport, we missed that group too. We then proceeded to get a taxi to Hotel Regina, it cost 32 Euros to get there.
                When we entered the hotel lobby our API leaders, Curra and Lydia, were at the front desk waiting for us. They gave us our keys to the room and said that the other kids had already left to explore the town so we went to our room, 308, and I somehow lost my key before I got to the room. In order to turn on electricity in your room you had to put your room key in a slot so when you left you had to remove your key therefore it saved electricity. We settled our stuff a little and tried to put our stuff in the safe that was provided but locked it wrong and it made a buzz non-stop. We also forgot the password to the wifi and we want to tell our parents that we had made it ok. We went down stairs and tried to explain our three problems, the lost key, the locked safe, and not having the password, in Spanish to which the front desk person replied in English. All our problems were fixed very promptly. We headed out to explore Madrid, but did not bring the map API provided us and got lost for a good hour, we figured our way to the hotel and then asked some people if they wanted to walk around with us for a beer. After a quick drink we headed for the meeting that was at 6:00.
                We then went to tour Madrid a little on our way to dinner at a restaurant. We visited Plaza Mayor, I forgot what the restaurant was called. After dinner we went to bars, there are a lot of people with cards trying to get you to go to their bar with free alcohol. We had a shot a juice and champagne at the first bar but left right after because it was boring. We went to another bar and all took a shot of Jagger and had a beer or martini or screw driver. I had a beer called Sol it was from Mexico. That bar had an interesting back room with lots of floor pads to sit or lay on and they were next to the bathroom. We then headed to the club called Pancha. It cost 15 Euros for guys but they got two drink tickets, girls got in for free or could pay 2.50 Euros for one drink ticket, otherwise the drinks cost 12 Euros at the bar. We got there around 1:30 in the morning and there was hardly anyone there but right as 2:00 came the club got completely packed. It was so cool and so much fun; I used my drink tickets for two screwdrivers. We all danced the night away literally. We got back to the hotel around 4:30 which is apparently early for Spaniards.

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