Arrived in Spain, not go go go

I originally thought once we got here it would be go go go and I wouldn’t have time to write.

Not so!

So we landed an hour after our original arrival time this morning because of the storm, after 730am Madrid time. At that point it was a bit of go go go, following the herd bleary-eyed through the airport maze of halls and escalators towards the passport checkpoint (very quick, just hand the passports across the counter, the guy goes stamp stamp 6 times, hands them back and says we’re done), then continuing to follow the herd bleary-eyed to baggage claim.

*Interesting immigration note: after baggage claim there was a partitioned Customs area, but it was off to the left of the exit and it was unclear if we were required to go there. We could see most people exiting, but we did see a couple officials hanging out near the partitioned area. We were thinking, we don’t want to have to drag all our luggage and selves through another process if we don’t have to, should we just leave? But we didn’t want to potentially run into problems later, so we decided to ask an official. Jacob’s like, Do we have to go through Customs? And the guy was like, Do you have anything to declare? And Jacob was like, No. And the guy was like, Ok no you can just leave.

??!!

Well then hooray! We’re officially in Spain.

Trying to avoid a logistical nightmare with transporting 20 pieces of luggage from the airport, I’d previously arranged for a private shuttle to the air bnb we booked (actually it was through vrbo but I don’t think saying We got a vrbo is a thing). It was SUCH a relief to see someone past the exit holding a sign with my name on it! He motioned us to follow him and off we went. ***Plug for Sun Transfers here, the shuttle service worked out great! Money well spent***

What a maze from the exit to where the minibus was parked! At one set of elevators I was starting to lose confidence in our driver and the legitimacy of the company (even though it had like a 4.8 from like 30,000 reviews) because we kept going to the wrong floor, which was exacerbated by the fact that we had to take two elevators because of the amount of luggage, our phones had no communication, and the other one of us didn’t know which floor to get off.

But anyway, we finally made it to the shuttle, loaded up, and drove away.

*Other interesting immigration note: at the beginning Jacob started speaking to the driver in Spanish, but he was like, English? indicating he didn’t speak Spanish. His name was Ahmed and he spoke mostly French.

Anyway, so glad we had someone to drive us to our destination.

At first on the drive I was in a state of super alarm [exacerbated by sleep deprivation] because we still couldn’t get any phone service or data and I needed those to be able to finalize our check-in and verify that this stranger was driving us to the right place, but Jacob was in a state of super excitement WE’RE HERE! This is so amazing! And at that point I decided to live the moment and just check out everything out the window.

Honestly the view wasn’t that spectacular; my brother, who served a church mission in Spain, had told me Madrid is a desert, which it definitely is. I love all kinds of natural beauty, lush and barren, but this kind of felt somehow…like grungy desert? I’ll have to take pictures another time when we’re driving the freeway because I didn’t this time. Maybe it was the jetlag combined with sleep deprivation combined with the graffiti all along the walls of the freeway but somehow for first impressions I wasn’t impressed. But there was a range of low mountains in the distance, which was cool.

Once we get off the freeway we’re driving onto narrower and narrower streets in what looks like a lesser than nice part of town. Then on a super narrow one-way street the driver stops, unloads our luggage on the curb, and he’s off.

Luckily I got cellular data roaming to work, and luckily I’d downloaded the check-in app beforehand, so I tried it out.

We were standing at the door of what seemed like the right place because the pin on my GPS matched the map on the app, and I swiped to open the door.

At first nothing was happening at the door I was standing in front of, and I started freaking out inside, but then as we listened we heard a click a few feet away as I kept swiping, and it was a door 15 feet down that Jacob went to. First door to the left in the photo earlier.

Open sesame! We’re in!

Praise the Lord!

And, So cool! I love living in the 21st century!

It was close to 930am by the time we finally got inside our next temporary home and could relax and get connected to wifi.

Jacob was still pumped so he decided to walk around the neighborhood a bit, but the rest of us pretty quickly conked out. There’s no AC but a bunch of fans so we got those going, which also helps drown out neighborhood noise.

I woke up at 1:45 (actually 13:45 because that’s how they measure time here. I know Americans call it military time, but I wonder what they call it here?) and was going to look into places to set up phone service and a bank, but ***this is Spain for you*** ALL the places on the GPS said, Closes at 2pm, open 10am Monday.

😂😂😂

The banks were a little better…Closed at 2pm, open 8:30am Monday.

😂😂😂

So here I am. Jacob ended up getting some food at a nearby grocery store then came to sleep, and all the kids are still sleeping. I think really the only thing we might attempt to accomplish for the rest of the day is get metro cards and figure out transportation so we can go to church quicklier tomorrow than if we just showed up at the station with no experience.