Okay, Zaragoza here we come!

So, we arrived in Zaragoza on Monday evening. Dawe already arrived in Spain on Sunday and picked me up from Madrid airport on Monday afternoon. He had rented a car for us in order to drive from the capital to Zaragoza. The car was a small Fiat 500, in which we had to fit 4 suitcases and us. After playing Tetris for around 15 minutes, we finally managed to store everything in the tiny tiny car and we left the airport parking. Dawe was an excellent driver and we only got beeped at twice in 30 minutes, he assured me that he literally died several times while driving in the city centre of Madrid. However, our drive was easy, 3 hours on the highway, with a short stop in the middle of nowhere. During our stop we weren't sure if we arrived in the right country, there was no sun, no palm trees, no sand, only lots of snow and wind. We could only see between 50 and 100 meters, thankfully 45 minutes later everything around us changed again and we finally could see some of the Spanish villages and the unique landscape.

         

When we saw Zaragoza for the first time, we both looked at each other, laughed and knew, okay this is going to be us for the next 5 months. We had some Spanish music playing in the car, in order to already set the right mood. We parked the car, however we were not sure where to find our hotel, thus we went into the tourism information, asking "Do you speak English?". Fortunately, the woman could even speak German and explained us the way to our hotel. We unloaded the tiny tiny car and walked towards our stay. After unpacking small things, setting up the wifi on the devices, we went for a small walk around the city center.

Most of the shops were already closing and we were looking for a place to eat. Still being a little bit shy and unsure about the place, we decided against some tapas but for some McDonalds....BUT we must say they had the Big Mac with Chicken instead of beef, which is not available in Germany and it was like heaven in form of a burger. Dawe managed to order in Spanish for us and we understood everything except for her first question, we asked her to repeat it slowly please, but she just repeated it as fast as the first time. In the end, we survived our first conversation and had our well deserved food. Afterwards, we found the Irish Pub and enjoyed two Heinekens, while ending the night with thinking of what will wait for us in the next couple of days...

Edit by Dawe: My first day in Madrid

As Marie already told you guys, I arrived in Madrid on Sunday, meaning one day before her. Our pilot was speeding and, therefore, we arrived 30 minutes earlier than scheduled. I picked up the rental car from Hertz at the airport. I have to brag a little, as I hold the conversation completely in Spanish - I thought he couldn't speak any English. However, when the Hertz worker explained the prices in Spanish, he saw my face that I didn't understand a word and he switched to English. God bless him!

Fortunately, I had a friend who is currently working in Madrid on some projects with his business (check out: NanoCure ;)). With the GPS I drove to his AirBnB apartment and, as Marie already explained, I literally died several times. Try to switch lanes in a roundabout with 50 cars around you; it's definitely a suicide mission. However, I managed to stay alive. My friend, Lars, welcomed me warmly and we went for some tapas and cervezas. At the end, I could stay at his AirBnB apartment and got some decent sleep, while he was staying with his girlfriend in a hotel. The next day, Monday, I went with the metro to his hotel, which was way easier than expected. We had breakfast (two tiny buns and a coffee for €2.00!!) and, unfortunately, I had to leave in order to pick up Marie from the airport.