They didn't mean it in a bad way; road tripping is simply a part of our culture and it honestly makes sense given the enormous size of our country. That and we never really fell in love with public transportation like other countries did. Ergo, it's not the train or the bus or the metro for we star-spangled citizens. It's the open road and a mini van. Bring it.
Still, I considered our 4 hour trek to Córdoba to be a road trip. At least mini one. From there we were scheduled to go to Sevilla (about an hour and a half more) and Sunday night we would drive back to Madrid from Sevilla (about 5 and half hours).
But that's not exactly how it ended up happening.
At 8 o'clock am on Friday morning, the ESN group met up at Atocha (a locale in Madrid near the large Cercanías train station) and left after a lengthy 45 minute wait for any and all stragglers who'd gone out partying the night before until 7am and were just now rubbing their sleepy eyes and swearing as they saw the time displayed on their alarm clocks. (You'll have to forgive a writer her imaginative digressions).
About an hour and fifteen minutes into the trip, we pulled over to this cafe/hostel, painted all white with blue shutters and awnings, and sporting a large sign proclaiming the name, "Santa Ana". We all thought it was a bit early to be pulling over, but perhaps there wasn't anywhere else to stop for awhile. The Spanish countryside is quite deserted in terms of truck stops, gas stations, or roadside outlet malls. What there is a plethora of is vast expanses of vineyards, farmland, and, the further south you get, huge rolling hills. (See pictures and video clip!)
"30 minutes, everyone," the coordinators informed us. Ok, so not long enough to get a coffee since caffeine goes through me in like an hour and that's not something you want on a long bus ride, but long enough to consider the giant loaf of bread on sale for 3 Euro.
"Hey Tom. Wanna split that gi-normous loaf of bread? It's only 3 euro."
"Sure. Why not?"
The old man who sold it to us patted it proudly, then made us pat it to show that it was still warm. I'm not even usually a fan of white bread as all my friends know (whole grains!!!) but I have to tell you, pulling light, fluffy, cloud pieces of warm white bread out of that baked behemoth was delicious and a memory I will always flash back to whenever I walk past a bakery for the rest of my life. So good.
Audrey, Nicole, Tom and I "did work" (to quote Nicole) and were half way through Hercules the Bun when our coordinator Sergio raised his hands and called for our attention. "Ok everyone! I have a little bit of bad news."
Oh god. Eating this much bread is illegal. I knew it! God d---
"Our bus broke down and they can't fix it. So we have to wait for another one to come from Madrid and pick us up. So it's gonna be like another hour here."
Ahhh. Just a broken down bus. Red light road trip, green light eat bread. And . . . continue. But pause to get coffee because now there's sufficient time. And . . . back to the bread.
By the end of the next hour, we had destroyed that thing (see photographic evidence). Making our way outside, we found not one, but two buses. No more double deckers were available so they sent one normal bus and one "bus" that I can best describe as the love child of a 80's van and a white safari vehicle. Something like that. It seated only 16 of us and myself and my friends all ended up on the little one, which turned out to be quite entertaining seeing as we had a handful of students on there who'd chosen not bread but booze during the break and had gotten quite drunk.
It's a wee bit of a controversial issue so I'm going to refrain from commenting on those events here. Those of you who know me have no doubt heard the story anyhow and anyone who hasn't, I'll talk to you when I get home. Ask me in June about the bus ride to Córdoba.
We arrived at 4pm, only two hours behind schedule. Ahh well. The route to Sevilla was at least uneventful, in the best of ways. No, there may not have been a jumbo bread experience, but there was a castle in Sevilla. And that's even better than bread. Hard as that may be to believe for some of you. Pictures up soon to prove it. :)
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