Vamos a ir a España

Olay! So let me lay this down...this semester we get one "extended weekend" to spend traveling to wherever our heart desires. I chose to go to Spain with four other girls-Sarah, Rachel, Kalyn and Christina. It's weird when I stop and think about the fact that I'm only eighteen, but planning a trip to a foreign country with a few of my friends. Life is crazy when you stop and think about it. We booked a flight and hostel a few weeks before the trip, and had a few things in mind of what we wanted to do and that was it! I got sick a couple days before we were supposed to leave...some freak stomach virus, but I didn't want to miss out on the trip. So we left Wednesday, February 10th and that's where this begins!

Day One

I spent this morning packing. More like deciding which two shirts I'd rather wear and which granola bars to stuff my bag with. Since we didn't want to lug around our suitcases, or pay the huge fee for checking a bag on the small airline, we just took our backpacks. I think I checked about 18 times to make sure I had my passport, customs letter and debit card. Everything else I could live without on the trip! We left for the airport right after classes at 1 pm and headed for the tube. I'm sure we didn't look ridiculous (or touristy) walking down the street with our matching backpacks that say "Brigham Young University International Studies Program"...? How embarrassing. After a quick tube trip to Victoria station we caught the train to Gatwick for our flight. We made sure to get there early so we spent the extra time like anyone would...eating.

I was so happy to see a Pret A Manger in the terminal...they have good sandwiches! My stomach wasn't agreeing with me (how rude) so I ended up getting a sprite to make it happy. Someone had the bright idea to put the soda in my water bottle so I could carry it on the plane-not a good idea. I have the kind that has a straw already in it, so when I opened it up to take a drink it exploded everywhere...and wouldn't stop coming out! I felt bad because it went all over the floor but we had to rush to our gates. Whoever had to clean it up at the airport...if you're reading this-I'm sorry.

The flight was fast (only a couple of hours) and I caught up on sleep so it was all good! We didn't have any bags to claim so we went straight to...the money exchange counter! Good thing Sarah forgot her credit card in London! Thank goodness we love her and sharing our money. Instead of navigating the metro and finding our hostel late at night we decided to take a shuttle-good decision. It was weird driving on the right side again! Felt like coming home from Seattle...only not because this was MADRID!

I don't think we would've found our hostel if we would've tried to take the metro and go from there, so I was thankful we chose the shuttle!

Our hostel was actually pretty nice-we lucked out. It had a community kitchen, internet, a lounge, and the showers weren't bad at all. The five of us were in a room with eight beds, and the first night we shared it with one girl from Germany and two others from Korea.

Before we settled in for the night though we walked around a bit and found a cheap restaurant with churros. They were so good, and we got hot chocolate to dip them in. We were exhausted from traveling so we went to bed at a decent hour. I would've gotten some sleep if my stomach wouldn't have been churning and if the Korean girls weren't crinkling their space bags until 4am. Oh yeah, and if there wasn't a bar next to the hostel and the walls were thicker than 3 centimeters. But other than that...I slept like a baby.