Day 1 - My Adventure Begins

The sunrise from the plane from portugal to madrid

I can't believe it's finally here.  After all the planning and dreaming - I'm finally leaving to spend a year Madrid!

You may ask, why would you pick up, sell almost everything and move to another country?  I got the travel bug when I spent a semester in London when I was in college.  When I graduated URI I wanted to travel immediately but I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to be financially independent so I got a job right after away.  Now, 17 years into my career, I decided an adventure was in order so now I'm off to Spain. 

Before I left for the airport, I was afraid that my bags were going to be overweight.  You're only allowed 50 lbs (23 kg) for each bag.  When I got to airport and they weighed them, bags were 21.9 kg and 20.6 kg.  In addition, you're only allowed one checked bag.  Considering I'm spending a year here, one bag was not going to cut it so I paid an additional $100 for second bag.  So much for a cheap ticket.  

When the flight was about to take off, I realized that had whole row to myself - very unusual these days.  I was even able to lay down and sleep for a few hours.  

Served two meals - chicken and curry with sides of salad, thinly sliced beef on top of what seemed to be potato salad, a roll and a desert.  The second meal was thick slices of turkey with cole slaw.  I watched Entourage (which I was hoping to see) and slept on and off. 

I arrived at my stopover in Portugal at about 5:30 am, a bit ahead of schedule.  I found my gate and read until the flight was called.  I got on the second flight and the sun started to rise. What a beautiful sunrise during take off.  I was even served a small ham sandwich and ate it watching the sunrise.  Fortunately, i was able to sleep for about 20 minutes and missed the landing altogether - so worth it for a few minutes of shuteye.  

When I got off the plane, it was cloudy, rainy and overcast - exactly the opposite of what I was hoping for.  Madrid and Spain are known for the beautiful sun.  I sure picked the wrong day to arrive.  I hoped in a taxi and was on my way to my new Diggs. 

The plan is to stay awake for the day - maybe find a last minute tour.  Not the first time I've been on vacation with only a few hours sleep the first day. 

Got to my flat and met Loretta (the owner of the flat) who showed me around.  I had been told that she spoke English but she was only speaking Spanish.  I later learned that she is only supposed to speak to me in Spanish to help me learn and I'm so glad that she is.  After I unpacked I went out in search of my SIM card which turned out to be an adventure in itself. Loretta pointed me in the right direction and I found the store easily.  The gentleman spoke English so I had no problem communicating with him.  I asked for a SIM card that was compatible with the AT&T international plan that I pre-paid for. The gentleman misunderstood me gave me a prepaid card which I purchased.  I left the store and realized what happened - he sold me a new plan which took the place of the AT&T plan. I went back and convinced him to refund my money.  Then I proceeded to find a new store.  I finally found one and the gentleman didn't speak English.  With the help of  broken English and charades he told me that he couldn't help with that and directed me to the Movistar store which is the big mobile provider, similar to AT&T and Verizon.  I proceeded there and the gal who helped me also didn't speak English.  Also in broken English, and charades and with the addition of broken Spanish she told me the exorbitant cost of their pre-paid plans.  She also told me that I needed a bank account for a contract with them, which I didn't have yet as I'd only been in Madrid for about 3 hours.  I then got smart (jet-lag has a funny way of getting in the way of analytical thought) and called AT&T.  As it turned out, the international plan I signed up for was not a good plan at all.  If I would have proceeded with them, my bill would have been around $1,000.  So defeated and with my tail between the legs I trekked back to the first store and got my pre-paid SIM card and a hairdryer to show how sorry I was.  Now I have a new phone number, a month early but I feel so Spanish.  

After that, I went into a lovely sweets and coffee shop for an jamon y queso panini sandwich and a hot tè con leche. 

Then I bought some water (shocking) and went back home.  By this time I was so exhausted that it was hard to think.  I made some phone calls and then forced myself to shower.  I found a cute place for dinner - got two tapas plates and a glass of wine.  Unfortunately, I was so excited when they arrived that I forgot to take a picture.  I did manage to remember half way through.  I was very happy with the bill when it came as well - €2,50 for each glass of wine 🍷. 

My meal half way through 

I made my way back home and achieved my goal of staying awake until 9:00 pm - yippee!!

What an amazing first day!