Travel Anxiety

We are in Madrid at the beginning of a week here on our own before we meet a tour group in Casablanca. Even though I’d checked and double checked, then checked one more time, I was crazed with anxiety. I worried we were going to miss the plane, the SIM phone cards wouldn’t work, we couldn’t find the hotel I’d booked. I had heart palpitations and shaking hands.

Our Apartment in Charming Lavapiés
(that’s the hotel’s name)  

I don’t know why this hit me all so hard. Usually I’m a little excited mixed with a little worry but this time I was undone. Add the jet lag and missing sleep, and the first 24 hours were not fun.

After arriving via Iberia Airlinea at 7:45 AM, we diddled at the airport while we somewhat figured out installing and using our European SIM cards I bought on Amazon. An hour Metro ride with 3 changes, we were at a sidería, (cider bar), having a late-morning espresso and a slice of potato tortilla while we waited to met the apartment rep, Antonio, to give us the keys.

Exhaustion replaced anxiety. I could barely keep my head up and my eyes open as we sat. Two teens practiced English at a table next to us. They were replaced by five middle-aged women chatting in Spanish. I understood about half in my eavesdropping.

A Contemporaneous Mona
Without Crowds

Now we’re settled into our minuscule studio apartment in the hip district of Lavapiés, our minuscule  studio apartment on the 5th floor with no elevator but with places to hang laundry over the courtyardo. We’ve toured the Prado and found local tapas bars.

Las Meninas at the Museo del Prado  

Pouring Cider  

My Spanish is coming back to me, and many of the locals speak some English so we are communicating. Maybe not discussing the way of the world, but we get more than enough to eat and drink. Even though we’re walk up and down all those stairs, I doubt we are calorie deprived.