I was super lucky, for the most part, on Wednesday, the day I left for Madrid. First, my weekly stipend was deposited into my account, which was good because 5€ was not going to get me far in Spain. Then, Jean, the chair of the English department, offered to give me a ride to the airport. So I was off to a good start.

I sat next to a girl, Wendy, who was a student in the college in which I teach. We chatted the entire way to Madrid, which made the 2-hour plane ride fly by. Upon arrival, we went to the baggage claim to pick up our luggage. People are grabbing their bags as they come, including Wendy, but the belt stops before my bag comes. Uh oh.

Wendy leaves because she has to catch a train and I go in search of the Ryan Air desk in the arrivals area. I find it. The man behind the counter informs me that my bag probably just got left behind and that they usually find them in 2-3 days. After a brief discussion of my travel status, he takes my cell number, my address in Belgium and the description of my bag. Then I was off, with just the clothes on my back and my purse, to find my friend Jeff. I found him quickly on the other side of the arrival area doors. After riding on a very crowded metro, we arrive in the central of the city, where Jeff lives. We go to a store to find deodorant and a toothbrush for me before heading to Jeff’s apartment. That night, Jeff gave me a walking tour of the city of Madrid.

Thursday, I was on my own most of the day. I started off by mistaking a bowl of salt for sugar. Just so you, muesli does NOT taste good with salt, YUCK. From there, I was on a mission to find a replacement wardrobe. Luckily, January is the month of government mandated sales. Things could be worse. In the afternoon, I visited one of the Madrid art museums after site-seeing on my own during daylight hours. That night, after going out to dinner, Jeff took me to a chocolatier. Here, we had a cup of “hot chocolate” (it was the consistency of warm chocolate pudding but much richer) and churros. Yummy.

Friday, I did not do anything in the morning because Jeff forgot to leave me with the keys when he went to work, so I was locked IN his apartment. It was a good thing that he did not work as long on Friday as on Thursday (11am versus 5pm). Friday afternoon we walked and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We did some daylight site-seeing before going to see the movie Babel.

Saturday was BEAUTIFUL. We spent a large chunk of the day at Parque Retiro (in the photo above). We were going to visit a museum, but the airline prevented us from doing such. We had to go out to the airport before 7pm to pick up my bag. Even though we were going to be there later that night, they couldn’t guarantee that anyone would be there to give it to me. Obviously, my bag was very helpful the “day” I was leaving. After collecting the bag and dropping it off, we went out to dinner with Jeff’s colleague Anna. Then we went to the grocery store to get ready for our fiesta.

At midnight, Jeff and I collected my things and our party provisions and we were off. The metro stops running at 1:30am and does not start until 6am. My plane out was at 6:30am. Since a taxi was more expensive than my plane ticket, we decided to have an airport fiesta. We spent the evening eating and playing cribbage in the airport. Then it came time for me to leave. I said farewell to Jeff before going through security. They start to board my plane. We walk through the gate and down the stairs to find a shuttle bus that drives about 10 minutes before stopping at the plane. The flight home went quickly since I slept. Then to make life even better, Wendy offered to give me a ride back to Mons.