Going to Galicia

Trains and (very occasionally) buses have been the main mode of transport for me throughout my journey so far. This was about to change. It became obvious rather quickly that taking a train from Bilbao, even if I went through Madrid, was going to be a problem. There are no fast trains between Bilbao and Madrid (yes, I know, I did take the train to Bilbao from Madrid but it took more than five hours for a distance shorter than between Madrid and Valencia, a two-hour trip), and it is even worse if you want to go to any city in Galicia and I wanted to go to A Coruña but I certainly did not want to spend 12 hours doing so. Flying was the only option. Now, I haven’t been on a plane since August 31st of 2020 so the idea of taking two flights wasn’t something I was terribly excited about but there were no direct ones between Bilbao and A Coruña and going through Madrid was the only option. For the record, in this country, everything seems to go through Madrid. Fortunately, flying, even during a pandemic, seems to be quite safe and I got a pretty good deal with the main Spanish carrier, Iberia.

My flight wasn’t until quite late in the afternoon but I had to check out of the apartment by noon so I decided to just make my way to the airport and hang out there. I may only have one suitcase and backpack to burden me now, but it’s still more than is comfortable to wonder around the city. I did have to walk a ways to the airport bus but I am pretty used to having to do that. I certainly wasn’t expecting the bus to be quite so full, however. I managed to get the very last seat next to some young men obviously travelling together, they may have been on a school or sports team trip, I wasn’t sure, but listening to them talk about girls was amusing. The bus stopped a few more times and way too many people tried to squeeze onto it, so maybe my idea of going early wasn’t so good after all. I should really check how many flights are leaving at the same time before tackling airports.

Once at the airport, I settled in to wait, and it looked like I was going to get to read a lot. Eventually Iberia opened its check-in counter and I was able to unburden myself of the suitcase. Waiting at the gate is a lot better since there are lots more opportunities to perhaps strike up a conversation with someone going on the same flight with you. I did just that having a lovely chat with a handsome German engineer who was going to some meetings in Madrid on behalf of his electronics (I think) company. We ended up sitting pretty close on board but not close enough to continue our conversation. The flight itself was pretty uneventful albeit delayed, so everyone with connecting flights was a little nervous, me included, but the flight attendants were very kind to announce most (if not all) connecting gates on arrival. Prepared to do a quick sprint across the airport I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that my departure gate to A Coruña was, in fact, the same gate as the one we arrived at. I literally got off the plane to turn around and get back on the same one half an hour later. I don’t think that had ever happened to me before and it was a little weird to return to a nearby seat (a row off and on the other side of the aisle, to be precise) so soon after leaving it. The one thing that impressed me was the orderly fashion in which we deplaned both in Madrid and A Coruña; Iberia sure had their approach right, with each row of passengers patiently waiting to get up until the row in front of it had already moved on. It was brilliant to watch and it certainly made me wonder why the heck hasn’t this been the way we’ve been getting off planes since the beginning of time? Other airlines should take note of this … I’m looking at you WestJet and AirFrance!

I arrived in A Coruña after 9pm but in July and this far west it was still quite light out. I took a taxi to my final destination, though the driver didn’t seem to know where that was, which shocked me — how can a taxi driver (with GPS in the car!) not know how to get to an address? He ended up leaving me in the general area of the plaza I was meant to be on and it was up to Google Maps to lead me the rest of the way. Undaunted, I found an address that looked like what I had been given and rang the bell at number 1-1 … which turned out to not be the right place! Uh-oh, now what? I quickly called Fely, my host for the month, and she came down to the street I was stuck on to help me out. That 1-1 I thought was her apartment number was, in fact, #11 in a building around the corner. I managed to squeeze myself and my suitcase (barely) into the world’s smallest elevator (yes, another one) and rise up to the 11th floor where Fely’s pad was located, a pad with amazing views and an even more amazing roomie.

Now, a word about Fely and how I ended up in her place. When I was still in Madrid, I was already looking for places beyond Bilbao. I sometimes like to plan ahead, especially when it has to do with where I’ll be sleeping. I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to stay in Galicia; I only knew I wanted to be somewhere central with access to buses and/or trains. I was scouring AirBnB for decent places in A Coruña, Vigo, and Santiago de Compostela, but there just didn’t seem to be anything good available in any of these places. I was whining about this to Sagrario one day when we were chatting and she, being Sagrario, immediately said “hold on, I have an old friend in A Coruña, and she may be able to help since she has an extra room in her place. Let me see what I can do.” A couple of days later, not only did I have a place to stay, it was going to be cheaper than most of the places I’d been in until now, I’d be right in the centre of a very cool area of the city, and I would have someone to actually hang out with … this is what I call a win-win-and-win. As a bonus, Sagrario suggested she might even come out and hang out with us for a week at the end of July as well. This promises to be a fun month, and I’m excited to find out just how much fun it will be.