Ugh

Today was a stressful day in which I almost reached by breaking point.  I am in Madrid and I fly home tomorrow morning.  The day started in Valencia, which was great, and then we took the train back to Madrid where I would be staying with two other girls from the trip, Haley and Jessica, in a hotel near the airport so I could fly out easily tomorrow. 


Well, Kevin, Chris, Danny, and I all got off the train and then we went our separate ways.  I took the metro by myself from the train station to the airport where I would then catch a shuttle to the hotel.   I was so glad that the metro went smoothly and now I feel like I am an expert at taking them metro, but then when I got in terminal 4 I realized I had missed the shuttle to the hotel by 5 minutes, so I needed to take a taxi.  So I got in the taxi and told the guy where I needed to go, the AC Marriott.  Then he said that he didn't know where that was.  I was thinking to myself, how do you not know where that is, you're a taxi driver?  Then he asked me for the name again because he said there was more than one AC Marriott and so I said the AC Marriott Corrado, and he still didn't know what I was talking about.  Then he went and asked one of his taxi friends where the hotel was and then we started driving.  He kept saying how there were so many and he didn't know the last name and I said Corrado and he said he didn't know.  While we were driving it had been a pretty long day and I was really ready to get to the hotel, get my stuff together for the morning, and then go to bed.  


Well I started getting concerned when we were driving for about 15 minutes and the taxi fare was already 20 something Euros because I was told this hotel was only like 6 minutes from the airport, but then again I could have been wrong.  So finally we got there to this AC Marriot Atira or something and the taxi fare ended up being 34 Euros! The taxi didn't take debit cards, so he drove me to an ATM to withdraw money.  I was kind of upset, but just hoped that this was the right place.  I went inside and said that I was checking into the room with  Haley Nelson and they said there was no one of that name staying there.  Then asked me, "could it possibly be the other Marriott?" And I said yeah it could be, so he pointed me about 2 blocks down the street to the other Marriot.  So I walked down there will all my stuff and said I was checking in with Haley Nelson and this guy told me the same thing.  He said which Marriot are you looking for? And I said Marriot Corrado?? He didn't know the name either.  Then I said it was close to the airport and he looked at me with a face of horror and said oh no, we are so far.  It turns out the Marriott I was looking for was the Marriot Cozlada, not Corrado.  At this point I was really fed up because I knew that I had to take another taxi all the way back near the airport and pay another 30 Euros.  The guy at the counter gave me the address of the new place so I could give it to the taxi driver.


I checked my wallet and realized I didn't have 30 euros, so I went to an ATM and then started freaking out because I couldn't find my debit card.  It wasn't in my wallet, but I remembered taking it out the first time when I withdrew money.  I thought I had thrown it in my purse because I was so frazzled after the first ride, but my purse was jam packed with maps and tickets and I couldn't find it.  This was the point I almost started crying.  But I knew I had it somewhere so I just decided that I needed to get to the hotel and got in the next taxi.  This guy drove me to the hotel and the fare ended up being 30 Euros.  I only had 15 Euros in my wallet, and I looked at him and said, "lo siento, no tengo dinero sufficiente" (I don't have enough money).  He just looked at the 15 Euros and said, "Pero esto no es mucho" (this isn't alot).  I tried to explain the situation, that I was sorry, that the other taxi driver took me to the wrong place and I spent all my money on that one, that I lost my debit card and couldn't withdraw more money.  He didn't say anything.  Then I frantically started looking through my purse and found my debit card! What a relief, so he said he took debit cards, but he tried it like 10 times and it wasn't working, and there wasn't an ATM in sight.  Then I went inside the hotel to see if there was one, but there wasn't.  I came back out and he set all of my stuff on the sidewalk and I apologized again and he said, "yeah but I want money."  I didn't know what to do.  Then I found 50 dollars of American money and said, I only have American dollars and he said, "dolares? Si esta bien." So I paid him in half euros, half dollars, and then he drove away and I checked into the hotel.  Once I got to the hotel room I went right to bed.  Such a long day, but excited to be home tomorrow.