We had taken the 12:30am bus and arrived in Madrid at 5:45am. Walking down to the Metro, we took the first train on two lines to the stop closest to the US Embassy. The embassy didn't open until 8:00am. The second American embassy on the street, the Starbucks, didn't open until 7:30am which we sat on the bench outside of reading Blake's Lonely Planet "Europe on a Shoestring."
As soon the Starbucks opened (I generally refuse to support American chain establishments while abroad but this was the only cafe open on the street) we grabbed a croissant and then went to wait in front of the embassy. We were helped right away. I had to check my bag and leave my cellphone with the guard. After waiting in the lobby, Blake was a given a number and we were moved into the waiting room. We were technically on American soil, so I felt glad to have gone back to the US albeit for an hour and a half.
The bureaucracy worked very quickly and Blake had his brand new passport by 9:30am. We decided to explore a little of Madrid as we had 4 hours before our flight. Blake hadn't seen the Parque del Buen Retiro, so we once again navigated the metro to the stop closet to the park. In the Parque, we walked a long the perfectly manicured paths, stopping to admire "El Estanque Grande," or great lake. I had remembered that the statue of the "Fallen Angel" was in the far end of the park and we walked over to see it. A lot more impressive in the day time.
Blake called his friend from the Cadiz summer program and who is studying at the UC Madrid program to see if he would want to meet us for an early lunch at our favorite quick Spanish food restaurant, "100 Monteditos." We ate a fast lunch before saying goodbye to Blake's friend and then catching three different metro lines to arrive at the airport.
Our almost hour ride on the metro took us to the last stop of terminal T4 in the Madrid-Barajas airport. We were able to get our oversized carryons on the plane. We didn't have to wait much at all before our plane boarded.
Unfortunately we were grounded on the runway for almost an hour due to a mechanical malfunction. Luckily, I was able to sleep a little on the plane and woke up before we landed in Milan.
Technically, we did not have any set itinerary for our trip to Italy. We were scheduled to couch-surf with a guy in Rome for two nights starting on Saturday. In Florence we had booked a hostel and in Venice we would be staying with Blake's Italian roommate, Ettore. Tonight we would actually be going to Turin to stay with one of Blake's friends from UCSB who was just finishing up his study abroad program. The two hour bus ride to Turin was cheaper than getting a hostel in Milan.
The city was crowded as we entered Turin at night. We got off at Portosouza where we were met by Blake's friend Brad. We walked back to his nice sized piso. His roommates had all moved out to go back home to the US so Blake and I would have our own beds.
For dinner in our first night in Italy, we went to a great, hole in the wall Italian restaurant. I was able to use my Spanish to tell the waitress what I wanted (this would be the first of many times in which I would use Spanish to communicate to people who only understood in Italian. Italian and Spanish are definitely independent languages but there are enough similarities that one can get by).
We took a short walk through the city, but seeing everything at night was not the same as seeing it during the day. Tired but excited for our trip to officially begin tomorrow on our way to Rome we went to sleep dreaming of Italy.
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