Friday, April 17, 2009

Travel Travel again

How packed could they make airplane seats? This question always comes to mind when I fly, and I discover more limits every time I travel. This time around it was really challenging to move in the space allowed, not sure if I got rusty from not flying for a while, or the leg room is diminishing to make more space for more seats. Other than that fact I guess the flight was great. I took almost no time to check in my luggage, get on the plane, and out the airport in Madrid where I am heading to attend a conference.

Madrid airport again, well I have been in this terminal before, on this very same flight that touches down at 3:45AM. Last time I was on transit heading out to Costa Rica (Eat your heart out, yes I have been to a place you probably haven’t). This time I had to wait to pick up my luggage, so it took a little longer to get out into the main hall of the airport. I was impressed with the time scheduling of the luggage belt which indicated the exact time and duration the belt would be working. Guess this is why it is a major airport serving 70Million passengers every year.

Last time around I learnt that the airport is pretty slow at this hour, I had to wait till 7am for the office that was offering me a room during my transit, which meant I had lost 4 hours of potential sleep. This time around I had a different plan, and less time to kill. I was heading out to Barcelona for the weekend and had already bought train tickets on the high speed train (AVE). I was going to get to the subway which I was made aware starts at 6. So I jollied down to the metro station at the airport to pick up a ticket and here is where I started to realize how crippling it might be to be in Spain and not know Spanish. Actually, I had a hunch trying to book the train ticket online and finding it very hard to find instructions in English (Thank you Google Translate), but finally managed. Also thought I might have some luck with people speaking English here, but apparently it isn’t easy. In the end I picked up a ticket that I thought was to the train station and lingered around to a quiet spot (That very same spot I waited at almost a year ago at the very same airport) and started to read a book I had tagged along. The pleasures of Philosophy is not the kinda’ book you read when you want to sleep. They go and “philosophize” things and use vocabulary that is not very easy to digest (reminds me of a colleague of mine at work who is keen on using words he believes are common, he doesn’t get that they aren’t as common as he thinks). The book was starting to get to me, but lucky the time to hope on the metro was due. I hopped onto the metro line 8 and sat to read the book. Now it really started to get to me and I was almost on the verge of falling asleep. However, I survived till the Ministarious station, where I was supposed to change the line. I really couldn’t figure out where to go and found the Renfe log leading to a gate. Luckily a young lady who knew some English helped me out and I got a ticket to get me from this station to Atocha station where the bullet train leaves.

I arrived at Atocha station and signs appeared to be missing, but I could guess my way and I was going in the right direction. I finally arrived at the train station and only had a reference number for my ticket that I was supposed to go to a machine that would pop the tickets for me. I couldn’t find it and had to ask. I finally got a hold of someone who knew some English and it turns out that this machine is actually in the station, which need the ticket to get into from the first place Duh?, but he got me in with his pass. He didn’t know the location for the machine and then suddenly remembered. He was kind enough to ask me to stay and he dashed to get me the tickets. It was already 6:50Am and the train was scheduled to leave at 7. He got me the tickets and showed me the way. After this it really sank in that I will not be able to move along with on English in this country. I need to learn Spanish in 2 hours (The length of my train ride, which I will probably spend some of it sleeping). I will see what I can do about that.

The train was pretty impressive, I have to say. I do have a thing for traveling with trains but this is probably the best I have been in ever. I would even think of comparing it to the trains in Egypt, but VIA rail would have to do a lot to match this. Te ride was very smooth, and the passengers were also well dressed and business like, and I looked a little shabby around this crowd, not that it really mattered to me. As the train rolled out of station, they distributed headphones (I had been annoyed with the fact that I took my MP3 player and forgot to take my headphones, so now this helps) for in-train entertainment. Darn, they are all in Spanish and even the movie they have on is in Spanish. Lucky they made announcements in Spanish and English, but I really need to learn Spanish now.

As the train started to leave the station, the sun started to rise. I had preselected the train seat under the assumption that I was on the side facing west. I was mistaken and the train rolled with the sun inching up on my end. Nonetheless it was a pleasant view, and I could see the mist rising from the vast stretches of green to either side of the train giving you this Medieval feeling, like being in one of those movies like the 13th Warrior, or the Lord of the ring (I really didn’t like that movie and only saw parts of it, but despite that still sort of popped to mind).

The sun was starting to edge out and the weather had this nice chill to it, 12oC was shown on the bulletin board as I was getting on the train. Great weather really, and as the sun rose, the mist disappeared and you can see the fields on wither sides stretching for miles. The little hills immediately around the train started to get bigger, and you can see the larger mountains and hills in the distance. As the train moved through this terrain it crossed bridges and valleys that added color to the train ride, and made me feel I would enjoy this place, the only thing I need to do is learn some Spanish. Hola’……

The train has internet access, surprise really. I was expecting it might but gave up on the fact when I looked for networks in the station.

Now I have to go to sleep, it’s been a long day thus far.

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