Madrid!

Made it to Spain safely! My mom dropped me off at the airport around 330pm and I flew out a little after 5. The flight was cool... The plane was awesome with it's shamrock on the tail- GO IRISH/air lingus. I didn't sleep much because of the guy sitting next to me. He was cool but in some religious cult thing- kinda weird but he couldn't have been any nicer. He invited me to stay in San Sebastian along the northern coast of Spain whenever I would like. I hear it's beautiful so i might take him up on it. I landed and got my backpack and headed outside the airport. Taxis cost like 25euro so I did the bus option for only 5euro. It dropped me about a mile from my hostel so I just walked and looked up a lot. Madrid has some beautiful old buildings. It's a little weird being in Europe- and not Ghana. I feel like every time I go anywhere outside of the country it's Ghana. Even on the airplane map thing in the back of the seat I kept thinking I was going to see the plane drop down over the Sahara. Walking around Madrid I've noticed myself looking for gutters or giant holes to avoid and oranges to buy, before I realize that I am not in Africa. They look nothing alike, but for some reason that is my mind set. Hopefully pretty soon I will be looking for tapas and other spanish things. When I got to my hostel it was too early to check in. But they let me store my stuff and use the wifi. I met a cool kid from New Zealand who is leaving today unfortunately. He would have been fun to hang out with. I'm hoping to meet up with a friend of a friend from college who is living in Madrid....
...I am exhausted. Thank goodness Spain likes naps just as much as I do! After being in the country for just a couple of hours I met up with Laura, a good friend of my freshman and sophomore year room mate from college. I had messaged her on Facebook a while back when I knew I would be coming to Madrid. She is an au pair over here and didn't need to work until 330. We met at puerto del sol or something and off we went. She knows the city super well and is fluent so it was awesome. We went to get some breakfast where I ate some bread with olive oil and tomato. I drank tea. It was actually really good and I wanted to have it again for lunch. But I am getting ahead of myself. After a great breakfast, catching up, and reminiscing about when she visited Saint Mary's, we were off exploring. She showed me some sweet places, drank a beer, ate some ham (this country is obsessed... Pig legs are hanging everywhere) before we went to plaza mayor where I wanted to join this free walking tour of Madrid. She hung with me for a while before heading to work, and shortly after that I ditched the tour to do my own sightseeing. I saw lots of cool stuff, not 100% sure what it all was- but I saw it! When I was at the Palacio Real I was trying super hard to take some sweet selfies(pictures of myself). After many failed attempts, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted... KENTE CLOTH! I knew he had to be from Ghana so I went up to him and said AKWAABA! I am not sure why I welcomed him but that was the first word that popped into my head. Indeed he was from Ghana- and we talked for awhile. I thought this was awesome since earlier in the day I was missing it. I walked around Madrid for almost 6 hours and was ready to start sleep walking. I headed back to my hostel which is where I am right now writing this. I'm planning on just a power nap but if you know me you know that easily turns into 14 hrs of sleep. I am thinking of meeting up with Laura again this evening and figuring out where I need to go tomorrow to catch a bus/train to northern Spain to get closer to my starting point for the camino. So far so good... Hard to believe I just arrived this morning.

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