Semana Santa

So begins my 'vacation' over Holy Week with my dad.

I left from Caceres on Friday (March 26th) at 6AM and got into Madrid around 10:40 or so since our bus driver was being slow, got on the metro with 2 other girls from our program that happened to be on the same bus and going to the airport that morning for Scotland. Arrival in Barajas was typical and I hurried my way along the terminals until I got to the Food Gallery which I thought was to be our meeting point. I got there around 11:30 or so and after scouring the area and not finding my father I got out and my sandwich from home and ate. I waited, started watching a movie and eventually walked around looking. About 2 I bought some internet and registered for my classes for next semester, chatted with my mother briefly who having no idea where he was either said i needed to find out. I looked around so some, called my mother after having no idea where my father was, she still hadn't heard from him either, so I had to try and find him and started asking security guards if I could try and find him, or to check to see if he was still in the terminal, or if he didn't make it on the plane, but they were of very little help. Eventually while I was at a pay phone talking to my mother, my dad appeared right beside me! Surprise! Apparently he was only a 5-10 walk farther down the terminal at the other cafeteria with the large sign labeled 'meeting point', and the calling card numbers weren't working so he wasn't a good amount of money trying to call but it never actually went through.
So about 4, my dad and I left from Barajas airport well over 4 hours after initially expected, and plus a headache of stress.
We found our hostal well enough, a little bit...janky, but the guy was nice enough.We went out our first night for tapas, sampled a couple different bars and slept in the next morning. On Saturday we took a day trip to El Escorial, the royal palaces where all the kings of Spain are buried. We had planned to go to the Valley of the Fallen, but apparently renovations were going on, so we just ended up skipping the Valley and spending more time at El Escorial and then upon getting back to Madrid we stopped at El Corte Ingles and bought food for the next next as well.
Sunday we tried to get to the Reina Sofia, but we slept in and apparently the museum closes at 2, so we just ended up going to the Royal Gardens instead and then making our way to the Prado and spending the rest of the day there, definitely wouldn't have minded spending some more time there though...
Monday we had planned to take a trip to Toledo and got up relatively early to make it to the Train station and get a ticket on the 9:20 bus, but once we finally got to the ticket office after waiting in line for a solid 20 minutes, we found out all the buses were full up until the 12:30. huh...that didn't go according to plan. So we hung out around the Madrid bus station, which was kind of nice actually since we got some coffee, ate my breakfast, checked in our bags at a luggage, checked out the weird rainforest thing in the main area. So, we eventually got on our train, and got to Toledo about 1. We took a bus up the hill and toured the cathedral until about 2:45, when I realized our train leaves at 3:30. So we started going, found our way back to the main area, caught the bus back down to the train station after nearly getting run over by the guy driving the bus, we got down to the train station about 5 minutes before our train left. We went in, and got stopped at security and was told that we couldn't get on the train because it was too late as they close the gates 2 minutes before it leaves, but the doors were still open, but he just wouldn't let us get on. So eventually we gave up, I got angry and kicked a bench, and we went and bought new tickets for 5:30, which we barely got on anyways since it was nearly sold out as well. So we decided to just stick around the bus station, rather than risk taking a bus back up to the touristy area and risk being late again as we only had an hour or so left after all was said and done. We made it to the train station about 6:10, our flight was to leave at 8, so we got our luggage, ran to the metro, got the airport, scrambled through security, and got to the terminal. Unfortunately as always, Ryanair was late, huge lines, but we arrived safely in Hahn.
We managed to catch the 12:30 bus from Hahn to Koblenz, but it was kind of an adventure getting there anyways, and we got good directions from an English speaking taxi driver and made it to our BnB okay after jumping a 6 lane highway late at night. So I'm here, waiting for my dad to get back from wherever he went, and I got kicked out as housekeeper came knocking, and that's where I'm stopping for now. Until later, Greetings from Koblenz.