Oh, The Glamour!

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  I know we´ve blogged very recently but it´s been an interesting day and I thought this would be a nice ¨day in the life¨story for those of you who wonder what it´s like being on the road like this.
  
  
  
  We´re in Madrid, here for three nights because our hostel requires that as a minimum.
  
  
  
  
  • 10:00 AM - stir awake, realize there´s nothing pressing to do today, roll back over.
  • 11:00 AM - again, stir awake and roll back over.
  • 11:30 AM - roll over for the last time, debate with Gina as to who should get the first shower. Gina offers, even though I usually take the first shower, and I´m happy to let it happen that way.
  • 11:40 AM - Gina calls from the shower - ¨Bob?¨ I stick my head in, and Gina informs me that the water has stopped. Simply no water. So I throw my clothes on and head downstairs to the street, to see if I can find the source of the problem. The room has a device that requires the room key to be in a slot for electricity to work, so I had to take that in order to get back in. So I left Gina in the shower, still soapy, dripping wet, in the dark. I go outside and find that the construction on the next block has bust the water main, and there´s water gushing down the street. I return to the room to find Gina toweling off. We tried the water again, and with luck found that it came out in a trickle, just enough for Gina to rinse out her hair and for us to fill up our 3 liter Platypus water bag for use later.
  • 11:55 AM - I shave with the water in the Platypus bag, and somehow manage not to cut myself.
  • 12:00 PM - throw on my dirty clothes from yesterday, figuring I couldn´t shower anyway. I looked at the underwear I had washed in the sink the night before, and not done a very good job of because there´s no stopper in the sink. Decided to wait on changing underwear until later in the day when I could shower properly.
  • 12:15 PM - left the hostel looking for lunch. Walked around for 15 minutes until we found a place that meets the two magical criteria - edible and cheap. (In Europe, unlike elsewhere, hostels do not provide kitchens.)
  • 12:30 PM - sit down at an outdoor table for lunch at a pleasant cafe near the Puerta del Sol, Madrid´s focal square. Order the most expensive thing from the sandwich menu, a triple decker of chicken, ham and cheese, and a cup of coffee.
  • 12:30 - 1:30 - linger over lunch and enjoy the peoplewatching. Spend most of the time avoiding the eyes of the drug addict woman singing and dancing to herself in the street. But the peoplewatching here is most agreeable - we really enjoyed sitting there.
  • 1:30 PM - leave the cafe and buy a ticket for the Madrid tourist bus, a double decker bus with an open air upper deck that drives around the city, telling you about the sights. At first, we took the historical route, and got to see a lot of the major sites here in Madrid. It´s a typical European capital with some really remarkable architecture and statues.
  • 3:00 - got off the bus tour to mooch the bathroom at KFC.
  • 3:10 - order sundaes at nearby McDonald´s and really savor them.
  • 3:45 - Back on the tourist bus, this time for the ¨newer Madrid¨route which isn´t nearly as fun as the other one.
  • 5:30 - Back from the tourist bus, sit down at the internet cafe to try to find accommodation in Lucerne, Switzerland, our next destination. End up booking a Formula One hotel, which is from a chain we know, because it´s cheap, but it´s a bit away from town which is frustrating. Also booked our room in Barcelona, where we´ll stop en route.
  • 6:30 - Return to the hotel room, hoping the water´s back. Good news: it is. Bad news: no hot water. So I took an ice cold shower.
  • 7:00 - off to do laundry.
  • 7:15 - arrive at the laundromat. It went out of business, but fret not, there´s another location, just 15 minutes walk away. Here is is, you all - schlepping across Madrid carrying my skivvies in a plastic bag. It took 45 minutes. In 90 degree heat.
  • 8:00 - arrive at the other laundromat. There are two other guys in there, using three of the four washing machines. We put our stuff in the fourth, thankfully the largest one, and spend 6 euros ($8) to wash it.
  • 8:30 - our washing´s done, but the two guys ahead of us took both the dryers.
  • 8:45 - our stuff is still sitting there, wet, waiting for the dryers to come free. The attendant drops in - closing in 15 minutes, please start to wrap up, she says.
  • 9:00 - the two guys ahead of us negotiate ¨ten extra minutes¨ to finish their stuff drying.
  • 9:20 - one dryer comes free, after these guys run the dryer twice, with the cleaning lady sitting in the corner staring them down. We hurredly fill the available dryer with our cotton clothes, leaving most of the stuff to dry later back at the room.
  • 9:40 - Our stuff is done, and the other guy is still monopolizing the first dryer. We leave the laundromat, the cleaning lady fuming that the ¨ten minutes¨she had spotted those guys were abused so bad.
  • 10:00 - get on the Metro with our wet laundry.

  

• 10:15 - get back to the room and put up all our wet stuff to dry. Hope it does, our train leaves at noon tomorrow for Barcelona.
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• 10:30 - leave the room and grab a quick kebab for dinner. So yummy, and so cheap.
• 11:00 - arrive at the internet cafe to make a quick call home.

So that´s a day in the life of - not to say that it´s a good day or a bad day, just an example of the stuff we do on a daily basis. Sorry, my internet time is running out, so no time to proofread!