The day started out relatively well. Our hostel roommates at Cat's Hostel were all back from their pubs and bars by around 2:30 am, giving Abhinav and I a good 3 hours of solid sleep before we had to wake up and find our way to the Chamartín train station. We checked out of Cat's and opened the door, to find it pouring rain outside!

Being the cheap person that I am, I didn't want to buy a travel umbrella while we were packing in the US, and that most definitely came back to bite me in the butt this morning while we tried to walk to the metro and simultaneously huddle under Abhinav's Kelty rain cover. My arms definitely got a workout doing that! For future travelers, make sure you pack an umbrella! They are not as easy to find in Madrid as you might think...

The very futuristic Charmartín Station on the Madrid Metro

We eventually did make it to Chamartín by 7:30 am and found out that stand-by on the 8 am train to Hendaye was not an option. (By the way, the Madrid metro system is phenomenal and very easy to navigate. It only costs 1€ to use the metro, so it's a budget friendly option in comparison to busses (2€ each) or taxis.) So, at 8 in the morning, we were at Chamartín train station, without a place to stay or a train to board. To top it off, I caught some sort of a travel bug and wasn't feeling too hot either.

So, circumstances forced us to take a break and sit down at a small breakfast place in the train station. After a little bit of food and multiple trips to the bathroom (that was luckily free lol) that settled my stomach, we discovered that we could not access the wi-fi at Chamartín. The internet cafe in the train station was supposed to be open, but was closed for some reason. (We've noticed that a lot of places in Madrid say that they're open at certain times of the day, but are closed for lunch or a siesta of some sort.)

Because we couldn't find a place to stay and organize our plans for the day without the internet, we decided to brave the weather, head back to Cat's, and hope that they would let us use their free wi-fi even though we had already checked out and could not check back in because there was no availability. We took the metro back and were happy to find that it was no longer raining on our walk back to Cat's! It was really nice outside, so we took our time looking at local shops and enjoying the weather. When we made it back to Cat's, the hostel was nice enough to let us sit in the main patio/hall and use the free wi-fi that they have. (Wi-fi only really works in the patio, not in the rooms.)

Our room on the 1st (second) floor

Because we didn't get a chance to talk about Cat's Hostel, here's a little tidbit on them. They are located near Calle de Atocha and have free breakfast from 8 am to 10:30 am! The hostel has 3-4 floors with a men's bathroom/shower area on one side and women's bathroom/shower area on the other side on each floor. The ground floor (what us Americans would call the 1st floor) opens up into a beautiful patio with a glass ceiling. The building itself is protected as part of Spain's historical buildings. It has gorgeous Islamic influenced architecture... Well, at least I think it looks Islamic. I might be wrong! Overall, Cat's Hostel is a decent place to stay with strong showers and hot water. Abhinav and I stayed with 8 other people in a 10 bed shared room (the cheapest option they have). The rooms were simple with 5 bunk beds that already had bedding. There was one outlet per room that was constantly being used. Each bunk had a lockable locker that could fit our backpacks and some additional items easily, which was very convenient for touring. The only complaints I would have about the hostel was the smell that I could not get rid of in the lockers and the small showers and bathrooms.

Yay Wi-Fi!

Using the wi-fi out on the patio, we found a relatively good deal on a hotel that was a 20-minute walk to Chamartín (which was convenient because we had a train reservation from Chamartín to Hendaye at 8 am on Friday that we booked on Wednesday). At this point, I was thinking that today was going to be another relaxing day, a chance to get to know the city a little better and get comfortable with the whole backpacking experience. So, we took our time and made our way back to Chamartín yet again. On our way, we had a cheap but tasty lunch at Rodilla (with sándwiches calientes).

We talked to the ticketing office at Chamartín once more to see if they could book us the reservation from Hendaye to Bordeaux in France. Unfortunately, you have to book all French trains in France. After talking to them, we navigated the streets of Madrid once again to find our hotel. North Madrid (the part that we were exploring) is a very modern and quiet part of the city. It's away from any bustle and oftentimes, we felt that we were the only ones walking on the streets. Once we found the hotel, we were amazed by the quality and speed of the internet connection, especially after the iffy connection at Cat's. We then proceeded to pass out for about 6 hours. I definitely needed this to regain my strength from the exhausting past few days. 

We woke up around 8 pm, found that it was pouring rain again, and had dinner at the hotel restaurant. We checked the weather report for tomorrow morning and found that we would most likely be walking for 20 minutes in the rain on our way to Chamartín :( So, when the rain let up a little, we took the amazing Kelty rain cover (I'm so glad we had this!) to walk up and down Ave de Pio XII to look for an open shop that sold umbrellas. However, we found that most shops were closed yet again and the one gas station that we found open, did not have any umbrellas :(

We came back to the hotel and decided it was time to wash our already wet clothes. Hopefully, they'll dry in time for the train tomorrow morning! Overall, today was a good experience in navigating Madrid and it taught us that it's really important to have wi-fi to organize our plans. In the future, I would plan on staying for 2-3 days in the city in which I land to begin a backpacking journey to get used to the climate, transportation, and other various cultural differences.

Tomorrow, our backpacking journey finally begins! We'll be going to Bordeaux and hopefully staying on schedule to see all the sites that we want to see!