Traveling (in general)

We're on our way to Rome!
(sort of.)

We're actually.. quite literally.. on our way to Madrid via bus. Via very-expensive-yet-comfortable-express-bus. Via very-expensive-yet-comfortable-express-bus-which-has-wifi. (Nice.)

Not much to say. It's 11:30 pm. Another half an hour before we get to the bus station, and another very-slow-metro-ride to get to the Airport.

I never properly gave an account of the stresses involved in my return from Paris last week. I wanted to forget about it. I'll give one now, on the subject of traveling.

I was in Paris all alone- quite content. I had 6 hours at my leisure and planned on regressing to my Hostel to pick up my backpack about 1.5 hours before my bus was to leave to take me to the airport.
I got lost on my way, of course, and went out of the way to get a crepe so that I was feeling a bit antsy by the time I was on the METRO that would take me to the Paris Bus Station.  It was one metro line. Metro Line 1 to be percise. But it was a slowwww Metro line. Much slower than I bargained for..and I began to stressssss and stresss. I still needed to by my bus ticket for the proper bus that would take me to the airport 2 hours early for my flight.  And I had no idea if there was another bus- they time the buses to coincide with the airlines. I was sure I'd figure something out if I missed it... but I would have rather not had to worry.

I started counting the seconds between Metro stops. About 1.5 minutes from one stop to the other. 90 seconds, give or take a few.  This counted the opening and closing of doors. I figured I would have time. I *did* have time.. i got to the bus station and got my ticket and was scolded a little bit by the ticket-man for being kind of not-early but i had 5 minutes to spare once on the bus. No biggy.

And I get to the airport, go through bag checking and security (Takes an hour) and worry about getting a good seat on the plane and low-and-behold it's been delayed.

Let me put this in better context:
My flight was to leave at 7:10 pm from Paris and I was to arrive after 9 in Madrid.  I was then, it was planned, to go to the Bus station in Madrid (A metro line away) and make the earliest bus possible to get to Salamanca. I had 3 plausible bus lines I could easily make: a 10:00, a 10:30 and an 11:00.   I had prepared for this.  I gave my self more than an hour to get to the station in due time.

This is what happened:
My flight was delayed. UBER delayed. Uber-over-an-hour-delayed. Which would put me in Madrid right before 10. Which would give me about an hour to navigate myself out of the airport and into the Metro and then to the bus station where i would by my ticket and get on the bus.
Major Stress.

I got on the plane. I sat near the front so i could get out in due time. I figured I was safe. I had an hour. I could do it in an hour.

I bolted off the airplane. I flat-out-sprinted down the terminal complete with backpack and heavy coat. Sprinted. Gasping-for-breath-kind-of-sprinting.

You know who I simply can't abide by? People who use the cool airport-moving-walk-way-things  but who decide to just stand on it and chill. They block the pathway so i have to break my sprint.

You know what's pretty cool? Sprinting down the cool airport-moving-walk-way-things. You go SO Fast. But  I was too stressed. I arrived at the METRO and put my coins in the thing... took too much time for my liking, but I got on the first train and was horrified as I saw the number of stops were between that station and the transfer station.  I started counting seconds again. It did not bode well. The Madrid METRO trains are rather.... insufferably slow.

As soon as the door opened, I sprinted down the station to find the tunnel that connected the two lines. It was longer than I could ever have imagined it to be. (Longer than I had remembered it being 2 days ago, that is.) And escalators and stairs were conquered with record speeed... and I probably looked like a frazzled and crazy person.. but I felt the pressure to make that 11:00 bus. If I didn't make that 11:00 bus, I would have been stuck in madrid allll night by myself.

I arrived at the New METRO pickup and waited. I waited a painful amount of time. I had so many.. unpleasant thoughts go through my head along the lines of ... "you know... this probably isn't going to work. You always think that things are going to turn out just fine, don't you? It's like.. optimism. But it's dangerous to be this optimistic, because... things don't always turn out perfectly. They really don't. There is every chance in the world that you won't make this bus, and you'll be stuck in Madrid.. and you really just have to deal with this."

And the METRO came, and it was SLOWER than the one before it. The minutes disappeared. 5 minutes left by the time it arrived at the station. I sprinted Faster, getting anxious and hysterical by now, down the tunnel following the AUTOBUS signs. I arrived at the gate and put my ticket in it, trying to get out to go to the bus station.  It wouldn't accept my ticket. I was freaking out by this point, speaking horribly incoherent spanish.

Katherine: "It won't work!!"
Guard: Tranquilla. what do you want.
Katheirne: I need to get to the bus station.. i'm going to miss it...
Gaurd: what? what where?
Katherine: I'm late, i'm going to miss it.
Guard: *points in opposite direction. that doesn't have an exit gate*
Katherine:Oh.

I took a picture of it while on the way to Rome. Lol.

SO i have to climb uber stairs, and I see my bus! and I run up to it, 2 minutes left by now, and say "Please please please wait for me to get a ticket, where do I buy tickets?" and the bus driver shrugs and points at his watch. And then points up more stairs.

I sprint up those stairs, to the ticket man.. am practically crying by now because I want so badly for it to work and i'm so close.. and the ticket man.. is incredibly difficult. He tells me there's not time. I tell him to please hurry. He is insufferably slow. Glacierly slow. Molasses on a glacier kind of slow. And he asks for my card.. i give it to him all the while saying "Please hurry"(in spanish) and he says "This doesn't work" after a minute, in a very rude and unsympathetic sort of way. I then realize that i can give him cash, do so, take my ticket and run downstairs (past departure time by now.)

I get turned around, can't find my bus.. start runnign to every bus asking for the one that goes to Salamanca.. they point. There are 2 buses and both are about to leave. I go to one, they won't accept my ticket. (The ticket master of death gave me one for the next morning. :Lkajsd;lfkjasd.) and I go to the second bus, and he takes pity on my sad and pathetic face and lets me on.

It wouldn't have been a huge deal if I hadn't come from france that day. I was exhausted. I had not eaten much at all, had walked all day, had been on my own, was just... so tired. And i got to Salamanca at 2am and the kitchen was closed and I ate crackers that I had in my room and thought about how lucky i was.

It turns out that my travel buddy was in the same situation as me: She was suppose to catch a flight out of paris 9 hours earlier than my flight. She didn't even make it to the first bus station in Paris. She got lost on the Paris metro. I felt horrible, especially considering I had no idea of this until 2 days after. My travel buddy ended up getting on MY flight (The late one) after paying 100 Euros. And then she didn't make it to the Bus station in time and... had to stay in Madrid over night. I didn't see her at all.

Traveling. Scary and stressful. I'm with 4 others so i'm not worried this time at all. If i get stuck in Madrid this time, I'll be in good company.

Anyway. that's that stressful story. I'm going to Rome, though, so expect more later.