Bus Madrid To Seville

We went from the Madrid airport to the bus station. We got tickets for the 10pm bus for about €18.65 each. We wanted to put ou stuff into storage, so we found the Consigna guy. The sign had their opening hours--until 11:30pm M-F, until 3pm on Saturday, and closed Sunday. Well it was Saturday, but after 3pm. So we asked the guy what are the opening hours? He seemed annoyed at the stupidity of our question and pointed at the sign. I asked "Hoy es sabado? Es cerrado en 15?" I guess he understood our confusion and told us he was open until 11 or so. We deposited 4 pieces of luggage with him. There isn't much around there. Just the bus station, a El Corte Inglés, a movie theater, and a couple of restaurants. We ate at a place called Sí Tu Dices ??? Anyway, we had a pizza, patatas bravas, a small beer and a big beer. We sat and leisurely ate our meal. Then we went to El Corte Inglés and got some food from the grocery store on the third floor--called something like Hipercor. We got water, bread sticks, a big chocolate bar, a yogurt drink, and an orange. We waited in the station for our bus which finally arrived. We got our luggage at 9:30 because we weren't 100% sure when he closed. €1,30 per piece. Oh well, it was nice to be rid of it for a while. We got on the bus and it left at exactly 10:01pm. That's as close to on-time as you get in Spain.

I managed to sleep for a while. I woke up at 1 and then couldn't sleep until 1:30am. Ar about 2:30am we stopped in the rest station for 20 minutes. Then back on the road to Seville. We arrived at 4:30 am. I was shocked by the number of people out at 4:30am. All people coming home from their Saturday night of revelry. Couples in love, a group of women dressed as either prisoners or nurses from some theme party. We found a map on a bus stop and saw we were close to the historic center. We walked around a bit and finally sat on a stage near the McDonalds near the Plaza de Armas station. We asked the security when stuff opens in Seville. His place opens at 11. 11?! We were tired and wanted a hotel room.



Elena tried to sleep but as soon as she did, the security guard told us we could sit on the benches nearby (we originally tried to but they smelled like urine) but we couldn't sleep. So we headed off to find benches that didn't smell like urine. We found some and stayed there for a while. Then we headed back to the bus station. This whole time we had our luggage and it was heavy. But when we got to the bus station--to another part of it, we found the luggage lockers. For €3,50 we got a token and loaded all our stuff into a locker. Then I put the token into the locker and locked it for u[ to 24 hours. Next, I went to bathroom. Free for me (#1). Elena had to pay with a 20 cent coin, but we didn't have coins that small. So she couldn't go.

We wandered around looking for places that would open early. We found a couple of Starbucks, but if they post their hours, they are on the other side of the metal rolling doors. Spainish stores don't post their hours where they can be seen when the stores are closed. They can only be seen when the stores are open. Hey, Spain--you need to learn something about posting hours! Anyway, 7am came around and the city started to slowly come to life. We started going into hotels and hostals. They all told us to return at noon. So we found a nice place--the only one open--where we could get a coffee and croissant. Then we went to the park and waited for tourist information to open. I watched as rowers rowed by in the river. Lot's of rowers. In 1's, 2's, 4's, and 8's. Male and female. Some boats had rowers with 2 oars and some boats had rowers with alternating oars where one rower pulls one oar with both hands.

We eventually got a place--the Hotel Madrid for only €55 per night. Nice and quiet (until 7:30am this morning when the jack-hammering started next door.) No WiFi, but oh well. We went in, took showers, and slept until about 6. Then we went out hungry. But there is almost nothing open in Seville on Sunday night--at least where we were. So we went to the same place we had breakfast and got 2 paellas and a pitcher of sangria. Then we went home and went to sleep.