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I put on my massive Deva Gregory 70 Liter backpack for the first time. It must be 40 lbs. I tell myself that of course I will get used to this, as I load it into my dad's silver Acura at about 5 am.
When we get to the airport I anxiously give him a good hug good bye before going through security. I'm not so much nervous as resigned and determined on taking the first steps of my journey. I don't think too much about the big picture of what taking this trip means because I have no idea. I just focus on the present task of making my flight.
The plane is massive with about 11 seats across every isle, with me sitting in the middle section, one in from the left aisle. During the flight I feel frustrated by my inability to see out the windows, especially since many of the passengers at the window seats have shut the blind. We fly across the entire USA, with a 2.30 minute lay over in Texas. A large amount of the time is spent flying over the Atlantic. But finally we fly over land, and what I see is a beautiful dry climate with a scattering of trees.
I find it really hard to sleep, especially as I watch the clock showing the current time in Spain which is 9 hours ahead of California.
When I finally arrive in Madrid, I walk out into customs where no one even stops a single person on the plain as we simply walk through. There's an unmanned area for items to declare, and like everyone else I simply walk past it. With the other passengers I go through a maze. We go down an elevator where one man rushes up to another man. They are a little older than me, both handsome. They begin to make out and embrace, it's really quite sweet and movie scene worthy. I start thinking that Europe really must be quite socially advanced.
Eventually we go through a door leading to a baggage area where a huge group of people wait behind a blue line for all the travelers. I anxiously walk through it, when suddenly I see Kara rush up to me. She hugs me and we take a good look at each other. She's a little bit tearful.
I'm wearing a pair of short gray cutoffs that Rose gave me and a wrinkled tank top, I also feel a little grungy from the day before having not been able to properly clean myself on the plane.
Kara leads me through the underground subway labyrinth, and tells me to watch my belongings, which are dragging me down even as Kara takes some. I see an old man give me a look over and eye my bare thighs. When we finally come out of what I find to be an incredibly complicated train system, we come to the surface to see breath taking cobble stone streets lined with massive chain stores. It's beautiful. I follow Kara around without any idea of my location. Kara has already been here for three days with her mom, but two years before she spent a month in Madrid staying with her distant cousin and his son. So basically she's an expert with it all and breezes through. I'm so excited to see all the nice shoe shops, and chain stores I have only read about online like TopShop. Mixed in are stores with massive pig pieces hanging in the windows, which smell funny and I find slightly unappetizing.
We go down a tiny little street, where we find the door to the apartment her mom has picked out. We walk up a lot of stairs in a dirty corridor before walking into the apartment. The apartment itself is small but lovely with a remodeled and well kept appearance. We are up high with a lovely view of the street. There is a tiny little washing machine, and I love how inside the cabinets there's drying racks.
I take a shower and a short nap. Afterwards Kara and I go out to explore. We walk down our "street", which is the size of an alley with people walking through while cars squeeze by. Every few yards there's a prostitute or two. How did we know they were prostitutes? Especially when it's still day light? Girls in there twenties in small clothes, standing in ones or twos, looking bored. It's not obvious per say, but you can tell if you pay attention.
We wander around, and I wonder how I could ever learn enough about even the small area we cover to do the city justice and begin to understand somewhere with so much history. I don't try too hard because the task is too overwhelming, instead I just enjoy looking around.
The night stays hot so we leave the windows of the apartment open. I sleep on the small couch in the living room while Laurie and Kara sleep in the bedroom. My nerves feel a bit fried, and I feel a bit like I'm in a dream. But overall I feel like I'm managing well. I'm not so scared that I'm going to have a panic attack. I watch the street during the night and am amazed by how people stay out until about 5 am. I'm not tiered so I envy them, and I can't wait to get to do some partying.
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