Yesterday we woke up in Madrid worried and fretful. Now I hear there were extra trains and chartered busses but the only information we were getting was that all the trains, busses and rental cars were sold out. We packed and left the hotel early to go to the train station to try to get to Sevilla.

Before we left the room I said, “we ARE getting to Sevilla today.” I was hell bent that we would get on a train or a bus or SOMETHING.

We didn’t even get to the train station. We got into St. Augustine’s cab.

As soon as we got in and told him we were going to the train station he shook his head and said No Tickets. They had just reported it on the news. Bus? No Tickets. Nada. I asked my mom to ask him, how much for a taxi? Mom said, no that is impossible. But she asked and Augustine said 400 Euro. We sat for a second absorbing that information. Then he said he would do it for 350 Euro. Let’s go, we said.

We took a taxi from Madrid to Sevilla! 520 kilometers, five hours. After we subtract the refund from the train and the money we would have spent on an additional night at a Madrid hotel, we ended up paying around 75 Euro each for a taxi to take us across Spain. St. Augustine spent ten hours getting there and back. What a guy.

So now we are here in beautiful Sevilla. It is warm and sunny, and it is the first day of Semana Santa. The church bells have been ringing like crazy and the processions will start soon. It is so lovely here my heart hurts. Friday seems light years away.

Last night, we went to the El Arenal flamenco show, recommended by Doru and Colleen K. We were seated front center – I almost got taken out by a flying skirt. It was colorful and passionate and we couldn’t wipe the grins off our faces.

Thanks for all the comments here… The train incident was a frightening and surreal experience. The knowledge that we could have been on a train and… well, let’s just say I’m not going to worry about too much ice cream any more.

This place is glorious.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 4th, 2004 at 4:20 am and is filed under What's Happenin' in Spain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.