The flight from Milan to Madrid was simple and straightforward, and would prove to be the last simple and straightforward travel for a while. We arrived in Madrid in the evening and were met by a friend whose place we were staying at. We spent the next couple of days wandering around the centre of Madrid, taking in the sights and trying to get rid of some of the currency we still had.
Because of the 'mixup' with accommodation in Macedonia, when we had to stay in a hotel instead of the hostel, we had quite a bit of Macedonian money left, and Albanian, and Serbian, and Bulgarian. The Bulgarian wasnt a problem to get rid of, but the rest no one wanted to know. Even in big places like Budapest, which isnt too far from these countries, did not want our leftovers. At the airport in Madrid we asked, and got the same answer. They told us to try the main branch of the Bank of Spain, THE official bank in Spain.
After walking around to find the bank, we then had to walk all around the building trying to find a way in. It's like a secret, the way in to the bank and we walked around the whole block which the building took up and finaly found the way in. When we got inside and asked to change foreign currency, we got a look as though we have the plague. It was worth a try. Madrid has some wonderful markets, as does all of Spain. Although tapas does not necessarily originate from Madrid, it has permeated into the culinary culture so that now you can find it almost anywhere in Spain. Markets are some of the best places to find it too, as they use the fresh ingredients there and then.
Not too far away from Madrid is Toledo. There have been people in Toledo since Roman times and has been a capital of Spain for quite some time. In fact, it is only relatively recently that Toledo has not been so important. This means that it is an old city with plenty of history, plenty of things to see and not too many people. Perfect. When you walk around Toledo you feel like you have travelled back in time. Narrow streets that dont seem have too much of a plan to them are shared by passenger and vehicle alike.
Sometimes there is not enough room for both and one has to make way, and there is no rule for who, just who has the biggest... cojones is the Spanish word for it. It is a place you could spend a lot of time without realising it, wandering about the streets, sitting in the bars and cafes whiling away the day, soaking up the history. There is a great museum in Toledo, a military museum which is housed in the Alcazar. The Alcazar was a fort that has been there for centuries.
The current one has been there for about 500 years and was last used as a stronghold during the civil war in the '30s. It was mostly demolished but the defenders held out for quite some time. Now it houses the military history of Spain from the pre-Roman colonisation to present day. There is a car in the museum, a very early car which I was looking at. I bent over to see what was under one of the wheels and placed my hand on the car for balance for all of about 3 seconds.
I'm suprised that alarms and flashing lights didnt go off the way a woman reacted. She started to tell me not to touch things and when I didnt immediately acknowledge her and beg for forgivness, she came marching over from at least 20m away just to tell me not to touch.
Our next stop was Barcelona and originally we had planned to take the train. There is a high speed train that takes only 3 hours but it is a lot more expensive than we first thought. So, after finding a cheap flight we changed our minds and decided to fly. Our friend who we were staying with works at the aiport and came home the night before we were to leave and told us that the air traffic controllers went out on strike. This is a common thing with the Spanish but my friend says that this time they went too far.
It was an unannounced strike on a busy long weekend and it really backfired on them. The military was sent in to take over and they were threatened with prison (I think some actually did go to jail). This did nothing for us because we had to be in Barcelona to meet people and to catch our next transport. We went to the airport in the morning anyway, arriving at 5:30am for our 7am flight. We got checked in and received our boarding pass and were told to wait. So wait we did. 6am. 7am.9,10,11am. By 12:30pm they annoucned that no flights were leaving and had all been cancelled. We found our luggage and headed to the train station to get the train that we were going to take in the first place.
Always go with your first instinct, but then again hindsight is always 20/20. The train journey wasnt too bad and we arrived in Barcelona and met up with our friend. We were supposed to meet my mother, uncle and sister that day too, but they had flights that went through Spain and were also cancelled. Not knowing what we were going to do if they didnt arrive, we just had to wait, which we were getting good at by now. Wait...
