Day 120: Return to Dresden

After a long day of travel, I can finally write this blog again from German soil. The trip was quite eventful, with a few tense moments. I left Ávila on a TRD (Regional Diesel Train) heading to Madrid Chamartín. Just after passing Villalba de Guadarrama, one of the English passengers on the train (since this train comes from Salamanca, it is often frequented by English travelers) suddenly started shouting in protest. And rightly so—every book he had in a backpack on the floor was soaked. Something had broken, and the entire carriage had about a centimeter of water.

When the conductor arrived and opened the compartment door, a small wave of water, amplified by the train's acceleration, spilled out. The Englishman started yelling at the conductor, who quickly ran off to find the key to the control cabinet in the carriage (by this point, the Englishman had recruited the classic trio of elderly ladies who love to complain about everything). When the conductor returned and shut off the water, the shouting ceased.

Upon arriving at Chamartín, I took the commuter train to Alcalá de Henares, which stops at Nuevos Ministerios. To board without paying, I slipped through an open door in the station that led to the commuter train platforms. But when I arrived at Nuevos Ministerios, another tense moment: to exit the platforms, you had to go through turnstiles using a valid train ticket. But I didn’t have one. I tried using my metro pass, but it didn’t work. I tried everything, and just when I was about to approach security pretending to be a confused English tourist, I spotted a turnstile in the distance that was stuck open—my way out of the trap.

Next, I took the metro to Barajas, where I met up with the rest of the group heading to Dresden. We checked in, went through all the usual airport procedures (blah, blah, blah), and boarded the plane. The flight was scheduled to depart at 18:55, but at 19:30, the doors were still open. Suddenly, a flight attendant made an announcement over the speakers in English and German:

"Is there anyone on board who speaks Polish and English, Polish and German, or even Polish and Spanish?"

A guy sitting four rows ahead raised his hand. Two flight attendants escorted him to talk to a family (presumably Polish) who had boarded the wrong plane and were refusing to leave. Eventually, as he convinced them that the flight to Berlin was not theirs, and as the crew retrieved their luggage from the cargo hold, we didn’t take off until 20:00.

The flight felt endless, but fortunately, we kept ourselves entertained by looking at pictures and watching the best clips from "Lo que el ojo no ve" on a laptop.

When we arrived at Berlin Schönefeld, we rented two cars. We had requested economy-class vehicles, but none were available, so I ended up driving an Opel Astra.

Everything was covered in snow, and the pleasant spring-like temperature was -11°C. However, the roads were completely clear, with no snow or ice at all. We arrived in Dresden at 1:30 AM. The journey was complete. The adventure continues.

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