"KATHRINE NICOLE BACKUS AND HER FRIEND PETRI ARE COMING.. TODAY!!" I screamed as I leapt out of my sleeping bag and into the shower in a single bound. I was so utterly excited that I brushed my teeth with deodorant and Lijah and I broke out into song on the piano. We decided to spend the day in Madrid and to learn the renfe like champs so we seem like we know what we're doing in front of the lady folk. We were a flourishing blur of activity until we burst forth from Maria's house and scaled the streets to the 229 verde bus that takes us to Madrid. While at the bus stop while I was in the middle of telling Lijah a story complete with sound effects and obnoxiously awkward faces, I was tapped on the shoulder and asked "oh hey are you two americans?" by a stylish young girl of about 24ish. While struggling to remember just how embarrassing the story I was telling was (in english) I managed a reply. Turns out this girl - Mia or Maria - was real cool. She was living in Madrid and working in Alcala and we talked about loads of things on the bus ride including our plans, our mormon-ness, her heritage, her catholic-ness, her ability to read minds, and our ability to eat rice. After we got off the bus she invited us to come to her flat and get some home cookin. We graciously accepted and bowed to her while removing our top hats. On the metro there was a man playing violin and it was beautiful. Mia sure was a talker, she talked about all sorts of things and I just lapped it up. As we walked from the metro we went into a grocery and bought some carrots and garlic and Mia educated us on the methods of salting Jamon and told us stories concerning her outrageous experiences living in Madrid for two years and in Latin America for another. As we entered her small messy flat with which she shared with three boys, I thought to myself that this is exactly what being a traveler is all about. These happy coincidences and meetings and getting to know completely different people with completely different backgrounds just because you had the courage to talk to a stranger and right there I promised myself that I would talk to strangers and invite them over and cook them fried rice for the rest of my life.
We talked and cooked and laughed about weird references to Hari Krishna and about the nature of desire and addiction and Mia referenced books I'd never heard of and made me want to study Indian poetry more than ever before. Anyway, the fried rice was amazing, and eventually we left Mia and went in search of more Madrid adventures. Mia told us about a mysterious bohemian market of some kind that would change our lives. We listened to her tell us directions and then immediately forgot them, preferring to let the wind carry our sails to this mystic market instead. We somehow drunkenly wandered straight to the market despite our lack of directional awareness and visited the stores until about an hour before our friends arrived when we exploded into a chemical ball of excitement and flew toward the airport like two flaming falcons. We arrived at the airport and gazed longingly at the airport monitors. Damn! I exclaimed, "Their plane is late"… We found the gate they would be exiting anyhow and I dashed back and forth in front of it like an impatient puppy. Every time the door opened I leapt in front of the door and scared the exiting passengers. Eventually Elijah spotted them coming from the other end of the hallway and I bolted after them. After we had grabbed their bags and hopped a train to the Avenue de America depot we found the Alcala train and proceeded to get lost as we came into the city that I supposedly knew so well. We ended up taking three busses in order to find their Hostel during which we discovered that the reservations Katie had made were for a Hostel in Zargoza Spain. A city that is about halfway to Barcalona. I have no idea how it happened but I couldn't help but feel responsible. In any case, the Hostel del Val was a great fit. It was more of a hotel actually and was right next to Maria's house. We paid for the room and brought in their bags and made plans to meet outside their Hostel the next day at about 11am. Then Lijah and I walked back to the house and passed out.
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