Traveling to Madrid

Blog for Wed 7
So today was my big move from England to Spain, it was......interesting.
So the day began a little later then expected, I woke up at 7:10 instead of my plan to get up at 6:30 and leave around 7. So I was given a ride by Lynn to the train station and she described how and what trains to take to get from New Malden (where her flat was) to Gatwick airport where m flight left at 10:25. The train was pretty easy and straight forward, hop on at New Malden and then ride to an intermediary point and switch trains to on that would end at Gatwick. This went fine and I made it to Gatwick with around an hour and 45 minutes (a little less then the 2 hours I wanted). So I went to check in with my printed receipt from Orbitz and when I got to the counter they said that Spain requires you to have a ticket out of the country when you enter on a Non-EU passport( might have just been non Spanish passport, cant quite remember). Point is I now had to have a means of proving that I was leaving the country and if you have been reading the blog you probably know that I don't really plan that far ahead. I was unable to get a train ticket at the airport so I was forced to go and buy a plane ticket from Barcelona to Rome, thank god I spent part of last night figuring out my path for Spain. The ticket set me back 130 Pounds which is roughly Euros and Dollars. I could not believe it, that is way more then I should have paid, I could have gotten way better deals online but I needed the ticket right then. So I get checked in and this whole affair took a half hour so now I have around an hour to get through security, and get to the get and on the plane. Security was actually a breeze, walked pretty much right through it with no hold ups and then I got to the waiting area, it was like a freaking shopping mall, stores everywhere. I checked the departure info and my plane did not yet have a gate so I had to wait for another 10 minutes before the gate shows up and then its at the other end of the place, after walking all the way I get to the gate and there is almost no line and they have already started boarding although I actually made it with a little time. After finding my seat at the back of the plane( of course its cheap, no wonder) I settled in and we waited for the plane to take off. The plane got closed up and it looked like we were going to leave but then the captain announced that the plane had to be delayed since someone had checked luggage but not arrived for the flight, they took a while getting that sorted and then told us that since that incident had occurred we had lost our spot in the departure line and had to wait more. The plane was eventually bumped up in the line so we could arrive closer to on time and we got to leave. The plane itself was probably the smallest plane I have been on and it was very empty, lost of seats open, I myself had two seats all to me and throughly enjoyed it, I spent most of the flight listening to podcasts. When we arrived in Madrid we where taken out of the plane via the tarmac (something I have always wanted to get to do) and bussed out to the entrance. We had to go through the passport check and sure enough the entry document I had to fill out stated both the entry date and plane and had a spot for departure info as well. After that I had to find my way to the underground system for Madrid which was by far the hardest rail system have yet encountered, I had to get help from the help desk asking what trains to take to get close to my hostel, the attendant was very helpful and gave me a map of the system with the trains and stops I needed highlighted. I successfully navigated the rails and made it to my hostel which is in a small side street, there were several other backpackers on their way to the hostel as well and I really feel like I am among peers. The place is really nice, it was an old Palace and is actually considered a Historic Monument by the Spanish government, it has a nice design although the rooms are somewhat packed together and the price is good. There is also a main area that has cushions to sit on, its a sort of common room and it looks fantastic I'll add some photos if I can.

Next up is me looking back on my time in London, I did somewhat want to visit places like Stratford Upon Avon (the birthplace of William Shakespeare), and some others cities but the cost of traveling and all the attractions that are available in the area really kept me in London, not to mention the fact that my accommodations were so nice, and now that I am on the subject.
I want to send out a HUGE thank you to Lynn who hosted me for all the time I was in London, she had a lovely little flat and was really generous and super helpful with my travel. She even went so far as to drive me to Kew when I went there, as well as feeding me really good home cooked meals (something that is really nice when you are traveling).
Back to my original topic though, I did contemplate going to Oxford since it was another large city and had a few things I was attracted to but after I looked at the costs for tickets (they are CrAzY in england) I decided that it was more cost effective to do more things in London as well as easier since London has easy access to international travel. As I said in the last post, Kew Gardens topped the list, very fun and I would suggest it to anyone who finds themselves in the area. Also the Tower of London is must and although I did not actually go up in it (due to prohibitively high prices like 12 pounds—$18??) the London Eye was very cool. I was thinking to myself as I left that its really weird to have England there in my trip since it was so different for me, I spoke the language and the culture was much closer to American culture but now I am going back out to places where I speak absolutely NONE of the language and the cultures can be vastly different. It really came to me as I saw someone reading a paper in Spanish and it occurred to me that England was really my last chance to do things like read the paper, or really watch TV. It also hit me that when I am done with Spain I will be halfway through my trip.
Anyway sorry for the monster post just so much to say, the next few legs of the trip have been planned, I have things to do for both Madrid and Barcelona planned and then its on to Rome.
Sorry No photos, I may try uploading later but the internet here kinda stinks, still keep an eye out.