Madness in Madrid

Saturday May 22nd, 2010 probably one of the worst days of my life. We came back from Toledo to Madrid to take another flight to Paris. There were so many people everywhere. It’s the champions league final. Inter Milan fans and Bayern Munich fans were chanting and singing everywhere they go. We got lost in the Metro and went back and forth to find each other, with luggage in our hands. I was tired, exhausted, and frustrated. The soccer fans took over the city. There was literally no space to move in the metro. One guy tried to pick my pocket when I carry my luggage but I smacked his hand out of my pocket and gave him a dirty look. I was ready to fight him there if he came any closer. Apparently there are lots of pick pockets in Madrid. They get on and off every station trying to find the crowd. I thought running around exhausted, getting lost in the metro, and almost got my wallet picked was bad. I didn’t know what was going to hit me.

We finally met up at a metro station, got our luggage and began to head toward the airport. We thought we were late but we went through security quickly and got there just in time. The announcement started and we were delayed 1 hour. I thought that’s not so bad, considering we were sweating all over (with many layers of sweats), we could find something to eat and drink and settle down. An hour later, everybody got back in line getting ready to board, they again said it was delayed another 7 minutes. By then I knew something’s going on. Couples of people got mad and the security had to come to solve the problem. Another hour passed, we should be in Paris by now, but the announcement came on again. This time it’s only in Spanish. Everybody started running. I thought they changed the gate but no, the flight was cancelled. Many people told me that the pilots were on strike and would not fly (maybe they were watching the champions league final). “If you run quickly enough to easyjet counter, they will be able to put you onto the 1am flight” one lady told me. So I was running with all my luggages and sweating all over again. By the time I got to the easyjet counter, the line was too long. I think only some people got pushed onto the 1am flight. The rest (including us) was stuck at the airport. They told us that because the champions league was today, all the hotels were booked. They could not book any hotel for us and the earliest flight to Paris was in 2 days. I was mad, pissed off. I came talk to them but they started to speak Spanish and would not say anything in English. So I ran around the airport with my laptop looking for wifi to book another flight, there was none that was free. Is Madrid a backward place? The entire airport in Madrid doesn’t have free wifi. I can get free wifi from a shithole in a third world country and you don’t have wifi at the airport, coffee shops, bookstores…?

I finally found a guy surfing the internet in a corner at the airport. After some talking, he decided to give me his wifi password for 3 Euros. It was a good deal since I needed the internet to book tickets immediately. I felt sorry for the guy since he was robbed and lost all his money. He lived at the airport for 7 days already and was waiting for his sister to come give him paper and money. A while after, some girls came over and asked for his password also. They were on the same flight with us that was canceled. Some people saw that and started to gather around, creating a corner full of people who were screwed by easyjet. We talked, made some new friends, some people booked expensive tickets to fly out immediately, some stayed and enjoyed the night at the airport. We were left in a foreign country that we don’t know the language, there weren’t any compensations from easyjet, and we had to stay at the airport sleepless to watch our luggage. It was a terrible situation but we just tried to made the best out of the situation. A lot of flights were cancelled and many soccer fans had to sleep at the airport. It was not a pleasant experience. Finally, we got to the train station and booked our last minute tickets to Paris, connecting through Bordaux. All the bad things happened at once (pilot on strike, no refund from easyjet, no hotel, flight compensation, no place to stay, champions league final on the same day...) But at least we got through and we are in Paris now!