I arrive in Madrid at 2.30 in the afternoon, after a flight during which I slept almost the whole time, thanks to the brufen I took because of the pain in my ears. 🥲
I get off the plane and head for the document control, a very long queue for non-European passengers, while in the other queue there is hardly anyone… What an urge to turn around and go back 😫
Madrid airport is the usual chaos, scattered, confusing, you never understand anything!
Finally after an endless search I find the metro line I need to get to the hostel (the cheapest of course 😬).
When I get out of the metro I am hit by the summer that in Europe has already started a month ago, at least one good thing about coming back…
I arrive at the hostel address and find… a Chinese restaurant! 😂
I walk in and find a lot of Eastern European men. At the back of the place there is a sign (not even too big) saying ‘hostel’ and an arrow pointing to a small door in the corner. After checking in with a girl in a room that looked more like a warehouse than anything else, here I am in my room. A huge dormitory with ‘Full metal jacket’ style bunk beds and no lockers to put my things in. Air conditioning on full blast (at least the air conditioner is on the opposite side of the room) 😅
I immediately get out of that fridge and go to the centre of Madrid, to eat the typical fried squid sandwich. After a few minutes walking downtown, a girl stops me, shamelessly hitting on me. I’m only here for a few hours! 🤓
The centre is half closed, there is a meeting of the representatives of the NATO countries. Police everywhere and military on the streets. I decide to get lost in the narrow streets of the centre (the open ones 🙄). I don’t particularly like Madrid, luckily a video call brightens up my afternoon a bit, bringing back some South American vibes…