Ohhhh transportation.

Ok I never really realized the glorious value of Harry Potter's ability to apparate until today. Good Lord. Dad and I woke up at the crack of 10am (whoops) ready to rent a car online, go pick it up, and take on the journey to northern Spain. We found a great deal on Priceline.com and snatched it up, and ran right over to the rental car place laughing with ignorant bliss over the "only metro pass we'd have to buy all day"!  Then the fun began. First we arrived to find that the rental car place closed in half an hour, so the cranky man at the desk put a rush order on the car from the airport that should have already been at the station to pick up like it said it would be online. But oh well, right? We grabbed a coffee across the street, talking about the great scenery we were bound to see on our drive. Then we returned eagerly to the car rental agency to find that our car still wasn't there. Oh well! We can wait a bit! The Currans are patient folk! Lo and behold, about 20 minutes later, there it was. A dandruffy scruffy little man pulled up with our beautiful Spanish vehicle. We beheld it, eyes brimming with tears of excitement and joy. 

Then.. The dreaded Spanish words came out of the desk clerk's mouth... "Manual? Qué me has traido?! Ellos no han pedido un manual!" Aka... He brought us the wrong car. Well.. We weren't brought down easily! We would wait some more. Another half hour of sitting later, FINALLY our Spanish chariot arrived. It was automatic, and it was perfect. We began the hour long process of writing up paperwork with me translating car things as best I could, when we came to insurance. We'd gotten a deal on insurance online, and explained this to the clerk. "Uh no... I don't see that" he said. We insisted that we had a copy of the order to prove it, but he wouldn't budge. We either pay another 1000 euro for THEIR insurance, or we drive at our own risk and at the cost of the car if anything happened. Uhhhh yeah no. So we had finished everything, had a GPS in hand and the keys to our adventurous northern journey, and we had to cancel everything out. Which of course, took another half hour.

We were extremely bummed as disappointed, but we returned to our old hotel and asked to the use the computers for another half hour to search for other options. At this point in the day however, prices had skyrocketed and we were out of luck. Sooo I sadly went to my old pal renfe.com and searches for a ticket. There was one train left in the evening and we had to get on it. Everything was going well, until our credit cards didn't go through the system. So that was it, we were going to the station to buy them in person. A forty minute Metro ride took us to a small train station where we bought tickets to the main station and cofusedly walked around it until a nice lady pointed us in the right direction. Okay, so far so good. We got to the main station and found the office. A little crowded, but how bad could it be? We pulled a number to see we were #594 in line... And they were currently serving customer #512. We bought a sandwich and sat down, getting sliiiighty more bummed out. Only about 45 minutes later, we got to the desk to talk with a very nice, very patient desk worker (considering the fact that his job must have been like working at the DMV except with crazy Spanish women). I explained our situation and he said he had only a few priority seats left and that was it. We said screw it, we'll pay the extra cost at this point. He then cringed and told us the train was leaving from the train station across town.... In 15 minutes. We could hurry if we wanted, but our tickets would not e refunded if we missed it. My adventure-seizing gut reaction was to grab the tickets and sprint out the door, but dad said nope. Probably smart. Anyway, our only other option to get to the north at all wouldn't be until the following morning. Defeated, we bought the earliest tickets we could get and got the heck out of there. We got some food, booked a hotel online, and found the very simple - looking metro map to get there. All would be well with a night of rest! Wrong. I made the horrible mistake of forgetting the massive construction happening on madrid's central metro stops. SO. One more HOUR of confusing navigating with two giant travel backpacks, a very hard time fido g the hotel itself, and a lost reservation in the computer later, FINALLY we are here. Obviously lots of ice cream was required to ice my feet.  Everyone's gotta have one of those travel days on vacation, I guess. We are praying for a better day tomorrow!