The Bus Ride

After resting up one night at a hostel in Madrid we headed to the bus station in the south of the city to catch a bus to Cordoba. I had read on their website that they have buses going to Cordoba every 2 hrs. So, we figured we could just get up at our liesure and make the trek to the station and catch a bus shortly thereafter. When we got to the ticket booth at around 10:30 or 11:00am, they informed us that there wasn't a bus to Cordoba until 6:30 pm. So, we had to wait at the station for 7 1/2 hrs killing time until the bus came. Mind you we still had our 80 lbs worth of luggage a piece, so our options were limited. We ended up going accross the highway and doing a little grocery shopping for our food for the day.

We had to call the hostel and tell them we'd be late so they wouldn't give our room away. That was Juliana and I's first encounter with a spanish pay phone AND a phone call period. Juliana kept dialing and dialing this number to no avail. It just would not go through. We asked people in our broken Spanish to help us but either nobody understood what we were saying or they just didn't want to help. Eventually though, we figured out that we were actually dialing the country code first and you dont do that when you're already in the country. Dur! The number on their website was for those calling from other countries appartently. So, as we figured out that day, Spanish phone #s are 9 digits not 11. Anyhow.....paid for our tickets which were 15€ a piece and headed on the 5 hr bus ride to Cordoba.

I thought the countryside was quite pretty for most of the way. There were miles and miles of slightly rolling red dirt hills that would have been bare if not for the rows and rows of what looked to be olive trees. We also saw many grape vineyards along the way. But as you'lle see in the video there were very jagged, rocky parts as well and little forests packed with strange combinations of trees of varying shades of greens.

At first the ride was a little scary though because the bus swayed side to side as it went down the road. Almost like it might tip over on its side. Maybe thats because about 4 seats in front of us a young couple were making out......for hours. No joke. HOURS. I don't know how they did it. Talk about staying power...they just kept smooching and smoothing and smooching. We were a little disgusted by their PDAs at first but then I started to think, good for them. If they have that kind of passion, take advantage of it. They must still be in the early stages of their relationship. Who knows? Young love I suppose. But the funny thing is that in the US someone would probably make a comment like "get a room!". Here in Spain though, it seems to be perfectly socially acceptable to make out in public cuz right when we arrived in Cordoba we saw another couple making out at the city bus stop. Maybe I'll make out with Tony at the bus station when he gets here. Por que no?