Wrapping up Madrid and St. Patty's Day

The continuation of St. Patty's Day...
     When we last saw our weary travelers, they had just been abandoned by the little Spanish bus driver dude.  Fortunately, this was after he had shoved us and our luggage off the bus at the Crowne Plaza.  Little did we know what awaited us after this.

     Communication suffered a bit of a breakdown while we all headed to our rooms, with the plan to meet in the lobby at 4pm (30 minutes).  The original plan was to all board the bus and head into Madrid for some afternoon/ evening sightseeing.  Once Ahmed saw the bus driver was gone, he quickly called the travel agent in Fort Wayne, who allegedly was in contact with the bus operator.  Trouble was, the bus operator (again, allegedly) could not get the driver on the radio or phone.  So, we had no mode of transportation other than our own feet.  In Rodrigo's case, this was pretty worthless, since his own two feet carried him no more than a block at a time before he became lazy and sat down wherever he could.

     Ahmed offered a cab to anyone who wanted to still go out when he saw that the bus was a bust, however when he saw that everyone wanted to go and we would need some 4 or 5 cabs to get us around, the idea was shot-down.  This left us to entertain ourselves in the hotel.  Not a difficult prospect, since we had been entertaining each other for almost two weeks.  What made it harder was the disappointment that we were so close to everything Madrid had to offer, but weren't going to get there.

     Fortunately, delicious pizzas and drinks in the lobby bar helped quell the disappointment.  Even better, the first drinks were free due to a promotion they were running.  All one had to do was basically check-in via social media at their location and beer/wine/pop was on the house.  Some of us stayed down there, while others headed upstairs to play some cards before dinner.  The evening was relaxing, quiet, and rather uneventful-- all things I imagine it would not have been had we gone into town.

     Probably the best part of dinner was the smiling prawns in Tami and Ahmed's paella.  Tami laughed repeatedly everytime she looked down at them staring up at her.  The rest of our food was good, but not as personable as hers.  My cow was long dead.  Wait.  That reminds me of Lynsey's food.  Her cow was barely dead for the beef covered with mozerella she ordered-- or something like that.  All I know is, it was some mooing beef strips, redder than any meat I have had in years.

     After dinner, people were crashing early since we had to be up for breakfast at 6am.  This was it.  Only one morning left.  We hadn't lost anyone, yet.  Hopefully, tonight would not be our first.