Spain Day One (17Aug)

We started our journey to Spain!!!

Day One (17Aug)
We departed from the Hong Kong Airport and spent about half an hour in the Moscow Transit area. The queues were crowded and there happened a bit harsh. We went into the plane eventually heading to Madrid and relaxed inside the plane and with the enthusiasm of getting into Madrid Barajas Airport Terminal 4. I spent about three hours in the plane to learn Spanish.

When we got off the plane and proceeded to the luggage belt, I found ten passengers including me were not able to see the luggage on the belt. After waiting for over twenty minutes， the luggage did not come out. We began to aware that the luggage was not going into Madrid with us. Indeed I had the “bad” feelings that the passengers rushed into the plane but the luggage would be far more difficult to be transited into the plane as more handlings were made by the airport crew.

We went into (Please check the details with the club traveler at http://www.yuwie.com/signup.asp?r=132333, INFO0003) and expressed our concerns to the counter staff. It was almost 00:00, the closing time of the service counter. In the first contact with the staff there, I expressed that I need her help to locate the address of the Hostal in the first night in Madrid since the address information was locked up in the luggage. All I know is the name of the Hostal, which is near Plaza Mayor and I even could not pronounce it properly in Spanish. After a few minutes’ struggle with the counter staff, another staff became softened and helped us to find and write the hostal address for us (Please check the details with the club traveler at http://www.yuwie.com/signup.asp?r=132333, INFO0004). He gave me the slip of the delayed luggage and asked me to call for the situation in the next morning. We are relieved and then we moved to the metro station and proceeded to buy a ten-trip ticket plus 2 Euro Airport surcharge. The security guard standing besides the ticketing machines showed me how to purchase the 10 Viajes Metrobus ticket and he told me that one ticket could be used for two of us. I thought the price details was unimportant here because the price had been inflated even we brought in the latest version guide book. The Consumer Price Index would inflate soon. I found this system is convenient and easy to count the number of journeys required in using the Metrobus Service. We went into the metro and looked around the map posted on the wall. Sitting opposite to me were three Spanish girls, they were not extremely beautiful but the outlooks were very healthy. The talked all along the trip and I had the impression that Spanish people are very keen to talk. About forty five minutes later, we got off the metro.

We did not know where to get on a taxi and we tried to walk towards the direction of the hostal and sought for a taxi with our luggage dragging along the streets of Madrid. About half an hour later, we reached Plaza Mayor. The hostal must be near but however, we spent another 30 minutes and we failed in locating the hostal.

We were exhausted and we jumped into a taxi and showed the driver the hostal name and address wrote by the counter staff before. The taxi driver switched on his navigator (GPS) and entered the address details of the destination. I felt a great comfort at this time because I thought that we would be arrived the resting place soon. The driver drove off and the taxi ran along the streets of Madrid. Because I felt interesting with his navigator, I peered at the navigator screen and I found that he did not follow the navigator’s direction at all and he drove far apart from the resting place. I estimated that the taxi should take no more than one minute to get there as we’d been so closed to the hostal. I could not see properly the street names in the darkness. I started to feel annoying and I told the driver that he did not drive as according to his navigator. He knew that his dishonest was exposed. He then drove and stopped into a small street in a minute. He took out his atlas and was more seriously. He then drove off and reached the hostal in another minute. I watched the meter’s price. It showed about 7 Euros, I only paid him 5 instead because he wasted us so much time. We went into the Hostal and woke up the reception desk man for check-in. It passed 1:15 a.m. in the morning. We took the shower and went to sleep quickly as I was very exhausted after the traveling.