Picking Up Loose Change

Before.....

So I have just started my venture for Semana Santa aka my soon to be incredible spring break trip to the Grand Canary Islan

ds. My trip is a little complicated. I am taking a bus from Granada to Madrid, taking a metro to the airport, sleeping there for a few hours, and then flying from Madrid to Las Palmas.

So I am leaving from the bus station at 7 and get there a good forty minutes early. It takes about 5 minutes to check in and get on the bus, so i figured i would have plenty of time. I walk up at 6:50 to the driver, hand him my billette, and wait for him to let me on. He says no and laughs a bit, so I think he is just being funny. I laugh with him, and then he proceeds to say no again. He tells me today is the 24th and my ticket is for the 23rd. The woman at the counter messed up and didn't give me the right ticket. AHHHHH. I try not to freak out, because i know that won’t help & ask if there is anymore room on this bus. He looks at the list, says there is plenty, but I have 5 minutes to go get a ticket. I literally SPRINT up the stairs with my bag to the ticket counter, where there is about 500 people in line.

At this point i think my trip is ruined & there is no way I’m going to make the bus. But... then i remember there is an automatic bill station thingy, and run to that. There is about 15 people in this line. I start asking every person- Puedo pasar, tengo tres minutos hasta my autobus esta saliendo. I get yeses all the way up to the very first person in line! I go to one of the machines, and it wont take either of my credit cards. At this point its about 2 after 7 and my hands are starting to shake. I switch machines and put in cash instead and Viola! I have a ticket. At this point i don’t really care about the 3 extra euro that has fallen to the bottom of the machine. This nice spanish guy, cute by the way :) sees a damsel in distress, and starts to help me. I am dropping money all over the place, and don’t try picking it up. He picksup all my dropped coins off the floor and hands them to me. As I start sprinting away I yell graciasgraciasgracias!!!!

The bus driver is patiently waiting for me and is laughing as I run down the stairs and out the door. I tell him he isn’t funny & we laugh for a few seconds before i catch my breath and get onto the bus. I am hoping my trip is going to be just as exciting as my last 10 minutes in the bus station.

Here is a God thing for you; I took a taxi to the bus station because it is not much more money & it takes about 30 minutes less. I went to the ATM and was only going to take out 20 euros, but took out 50 instead just in case. If i would have only taken out 20 euros, i wouldn’t have had enough to pay for my taxi (5.25) and my new bus ticket 16.68. My total would have been 21.93 aka not enough to pay with a twenty :)))) Just a cool little tidbit I thought I’d share.

After....