Vamos a Heidelberg!

And whoops, this is a little longer than previously anticipated. But there are a few little stories so enjoy nonetheless.

Well, as I sit here in the Madrid airport as the lady next to me decides to lay across three of the 20 seats available for everyone waiting at this gate (I know, what a ***** right? – See mom, I edited that out just for you), I figure, hey, I’m not boarding for another two-ish hours, why don’t I sit here and write about the lovely adventures over the past couple of days.

Well in reality, there probably isn’t too much to go over. Today is Thursday which means it’s the last day for all of the casetas to be out around the streets, which is somewhat depressing since they’ve been up for almost as long as we’ve been here now so it’ll be interesting to see what the streets are like when there aren’t huge parties going on every night of the week (that’s right America, an entire week of fiestas and siestas, I’m highly suggesting you step your game up). But anyway, the past couple of nights we all went out to get our last fill in on tapas and pinchos and such, and since yesterday we didn’t have class we obviously took full advantage of the night prior. Last night was a little more chill since a lot of people left for either Barcelona or to go on this Camino de Santiago, and well I had to be up at 630 to get ready and catch a train, so I didn’t stay out as late (you know, like 1:30 – 2:00…)

Speaking of waking up to catch a train, getting everything I needed for this excursion to Germany was quite a hassle. It should not take one all day to book cheap flights and find appropriate transportation to and from said airports. However, all the flights were either so early in the morning that I wouldn’t be able to get a train here in time. Side note, the overhead speaker just came on in the airport, and it’s the voice of some high-end British guy. I’m currently exercising my self control by not bursting into hysterical laughter. I also realize that most of you will probably think I’m nuts, but trust me, if you heard what I heard just not you’d be with me. Anyway, back to the impossible flight scheduling. So yeah, all day, WTF. Flights were either too early, or I wouldn’t be getting to Heidelberg until like 3am in the morning. To my luck though, I had found the perfect flight at one point. To my misfortune immediately following said luck, I wasn’t able to pay for said tickets with my credit card. It had to be a cash deposit to a specific account. At this point I thought it was just kind of sick cruel joke. However later on I decided I would call the airline website and try and see if I could pay another way. I even asked for someone who spoke English, figuring it’d probably be more efficient and they’d be able to understand me better. No. Not at all. Completely and totally false. I should have just stayed on the phone with the lady who spoke Spanish, because at least she’d be able to understand me even if I had to talk around some things. Quick recap of the conversation: “What’s the problem sir?” “Is there any other way I can pay for the ticket?” “Do you want me to cancel the ticket?” “No, not if there’s another way I can pay for the ticket.” “I don’t understand your question; you want me to cancel the ticket?” “NOT IF THERE’S ANOTHER WAY I CAN PAY FOR THE TICKET.”  “There is nothing I can do, you want ticket canceled.” “You know what, yes. Cancel it. Just cancel the damn ticket.”  Shortly later I found a little more expensive of a ticket but it had a decent time frame so before I postponed buying one any later subsequently increasing all the ticket prices, I decided to go with that one. The only slight complication was I couldn’t take the bus right to Madrid because it wasn’t leaving early enough, so I got to take the train instead, and maneuver myself around Madrid’s metro system. Which I did quite successfully, minus a little wondering trying to figure out where to get into the metro system from the main train station that I came in on from Salamanca.

The other night there was some techno-ish concert in the Plaza Mayor. There were a lot of lights and some weird mechanical things dancing around all lit up on the stage.  A few of us found this quite ironic – a giant technical show inside a plaza that was built like a century ago. Talk about juxtaposition.

Oh goody, the lady that passed out a seat over from me just started snoring.

Oh yeah, the ice cream here is delicious. They have shops on almost every corner. The one place has donut flavored ice cream and it taste, well, just like a donut. (Do we really live in a world where people are surprised when things taste like what they’re advertised as tasting like?)

My host mom is adorable. She yelled at my housemate last night – “eat with [your] hands, we’re all family here!” – when he was trying to cut through something without having much luck.  She also has a knack for just telling it how it is. My favorite line thus far is probably, “Aye! How unattractive is this anchorman!? An anchorman more good-looking, por favor!” (Which is in regards to the anchorman on the local news station.) She also made me a couple sandwiches and packed a couple apples to take with me on my journey today.

One final note about Snorlax over here (well, she’s awake now; someone must have played the pok-e-flute. I also wonder how many people are actually going to get that reference), she just hushed someone else’s little kids who were playing around. Seriously, don’t discipline someone else’s kids, especially when their parents are sitting right there. Have the decency to at least be polite about it and ask the parents if they could settle their kids down. And really, if you don’t ‘effin like it, go get another seat somewhere else, preferably far away from me. Their kids. They play. They make noise. They’re stuck in the airport for a couple of hours. How about I tie you to that bench right there and we’ll see if you don’t start making noises after not being able to move for a half an hour or so.

Vale, enough airport rantings to pass the time. I do have another hour or so wait when I get to Heidelberg so I should save some for there as well.

The plane ride was pretty short seeing how I passed out for most of it. The train rides from the airport in total were about 35-40 min. The problem arose when I got into Heidelberg’s station and had not remembered to write down my friend’s phone number, and thus could not call her. Whoops. But! All I had to do was get onto facebook and find the number. Well, that would have been easier if there was free WIFI somewhere. So I decided to wait 20 minutes since she said she’d be getting back around 7 and would meet me at the station. 30 minutes go by. Ok, well at this point all I’m thinking is she could walk in at any minute and if I’m not here she’d assume I went to the house (which, the address for which I had also forgotten to written down). So at this point, I remember I have a Facebook app thing on my phone, and well this is kind of important so I’ll just have to deal with paying for it. However, as I open my phone I see that it must have turned off and on, because it was asking for the pin number. A number which I have only used once when I initially turned the phone on, and so a number which I had obviously forgotten. I had three tries, and I blew it each time, and my phone locked me out. Oh, but don’t worry, I remembered the pin three seconds afterwards though. So now my phone is asking for an 8 digit number to allow me to reset my pin, and well I don’t even have the slightest clue. But, luckily, as I’m looking around desperately for internet somewhere, I see two things – a vague sign for an internet café and pay phones over in another corner. BAM, right? Wrong. After finally being able to log onto facebook, leaving Hal a message saying I’m in the station, and finding her phone number after searching for it for ten minutes, I come to discover the T-Mobile pay phones are complete crap and won’t make a call, even after trying everything I could think of for ten minutes. So, we’re back to square one, and I go reclaim my seat on the bench. Now, unbeknownst to me at the time, Hal was stuck in traffic and thus was going to be a bit late. After texting me and getting no response, she tried to call me, which, had obviously failed as she tried several more times after that. So, in retrospect, it was a good thing I decided to just sit there on the bench and wait. I hadn’t been there for too long (about a 1 – 1.5 hours, which since I’d been traveling all day didn’t seem like that much), and it was only like 8-830. My next plan of action was going to be creating one of those Google numbers, and then finally just beg some random person to borrow their phone, and pray that they knew English. But, as I sat there, staring at the floor and munching away at one of the sandwiches my Señora made for me, I heard someone right above me say my name, and there was Hal. Moderate crisis averted.

Here’s a nice little quote I think fits the final tale in this latest post:

“If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.” — Mario Andretti