Apologies

Hi again. My apologies for not blogging for about 2 weeks. Life has been eventful with the arrival of my friend from Melbourne. The last week in Salamanca was hectic with full time study, frequent social occasions to say goodbye to various people I met and trying to get some sleep in preparation for Gillian's arrival. 

Gillian arrived safely on 4th May and we managed to both negotiate the public transport system to meet each other at Atocha Train Station in Madrid. For Gillian, this meant working out the trains from Barcelona Sant Airport to the city, then changing trains to travel to Madrid. Luckily, her destination in Madrid was Atocha, near where we had booked an apartment. As she doesn't speak Spanish, I think she did very well.

For me, I just had to get myself to Madrid from Salamanca, either by bus or train, then cope with the metro system to get to the apartment, finalise the booking and payment, then find Atocha train station and where the AVE trains arrived. I opted for the bus which got me to Estacion del Sur, about 40 mins walk to the apartment. I ended up deciding to get to the apartment via taxi, which was surprisingly cheap. From there, I was able to successful conclude the booking, make the payment and all in Spanish. Our building manager was a delightful fellow who spoke a bit of English, which we didn't use in the end. He was extremely helpful, gave me a map of the local area, showed me where the bus and metro stops where and how to get to Atocha, as well as how much it cost. He even pointed out the nearest supermarket and some good eating places. So, well armed and informed, I was able to get myself to Atocha (opted to walk- about 20 mins) and was ready to wait for Gillian.

One item of note, Atocha is a very large train station. It seems to be the size of the average airport terminal. This was a bit daunting for me as I'm not a regular user of public transport. Well, after wandering around for a bit and trying to work out the numbering system, I found out that different trains (AVE, AVANT, ALA etc) have different numbers and arrive at different levels etc. Also, there are Metro, Cercanias and other trains all arriving and leaving from this station. After working out which trains were arriving on what level, I was able to work out the platform numbers from the signage, but I ended up having to ask someone where the AVE trains arrived as the signage was a bit confusing. I located the gate, Gillian arrived on time and we opted to walk back (uphill) to the apartment pulling her bags. Lucky for us, Gillian travels light! Even so, we both had sore arms from pulling them uphill for 15 mins.

After that, we've had a busy time being cultural tourists and have managed to work out the metro, short distance and long distance trains, as well as the local and short distances buses, including multiple changes from one line to another to get to our desired destinations. I've had to use my Spanish to ask for directions and assistance from time to time but all ended very successfully. We're very proud of ourselves now.