How Spain Tried to Break our Spirits... AND FAILED!!!

There´s a lot to get thru so I´m thinkin of keeping things brief... but the devil (and probably the humour) is in the details, so we´ll see how things go...

5th of July
0530 - Wake up after 4 hours of sleep.
0630 - During packing, Jee gets frustrated with her combination padlock on her bag and accidentally changes the combination. I tell her I´ll figure out how to open it when we get to Madrid.
0710 - Sis-in-law sees us off and we catch a bus to Narita airport.
0910 - Amazingly arrive at Narita Airport. I was expecting it would take 3 hours by bus, but traffic must have been thin...
1000 - We´ve checked in and browsing thru various duty free places.
1230 - Board plane to go to Amsterdam. Flight takes 12 hours. I try to sleep a couple of times but with no success. Finally got to watch V for Vendetta and loved it. Nothing like a good big brother movie! As the movie replays over and over during the flight, caught the final fight scene between V and the guard men a couple more times!! :)

***from now I´ll write two different times: the time for Europe and what time our bodies think it is within the brackets***

1730 (0030) - Arrive in Amsterdam. Can´t stop myself from smiling when I hear those immortal words "Welcome to Amsterdam", made famous in a Bond movie which I don´t think I´ve even seen!! I´m feeling ok, but in the last 20mins of the flight, Jee fell asleep and is now like the walking dead. We do some window shopping at duty free again, but this time I buy a pair of new sun glasses which I´d been contemplating for a while. This shopping also has the miraculous effect of awakening Jee to a bright and perky state. Nothing like a bit of browsing to get the girl´s blood pumping!!
1900 (0200) - See a couple of airport security guards with H&K MP5 SMGs.
1930 (0230) - We´re meant to be boarding our flight, but the plane hasn´t even turned up!
2015 (0315) - Finally board plane. Feeling very frickin tired at this stage. Just want a bed some where... any where!!! Think I may have passed out on the plane momentarily, but if anything, it made me feel sleepier...
2245 (0545) - Arrive in Madrid. Have now been awake for more than 24 hours straight... but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... almost near our beds...
2300 (0600) - No sign of our luggage on the carousel yet... other people have collected theirs. They must have been coming straight from Amsterdam. But there is a tour group of Japanese people who must´ve came from Narita like us and they don´t have their bags either.
0000 (0700) - Still no sign of bags but the Japanese tour group leader is kicking up a major fuss with the baggage handlers in very good Spainish. From what I can understand, they´re not even sure if our luggage is in Madrid or still in Amsterdam!!
0030 (0730) - Finally get our bags. Start looking for the bus or Metro line that´s meant to get us to hostel but with no luck. Decide to taxi it.
0115 (0815) - Arrive at MAD Hostel. We had pre-booked in Adelaide with the anticipation that we may be jetlagged and just looking for a long sleep. We´re told that the hostel is full... but quickly told that our reservation is being held at a nearby hostel that is affiliated with MAD. A two street walk away and we...
0130 (0830) - Arrive at CAT´s Hostel. Get our keys and head to our room. Slightly damp and mouldy smelling, but not too bad. We booked a double room with bathroom. Jee was expecting a double bed... there is a bunk bed... Jee none to happy, but gives in to sleep quickly. I decide to recharge digital camera´s battery (bought a new 10 megapixel beast in Japan!!). Try to open the combination padlock on my bag... huh... can´t seem to open it... bugger it... must be too sleepy...
0200 (0900) - Finally get to sleep... TWENTY SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS LATER!!

And then my body automatically woke up at 8am!! Bastard!!
Felt decent, so got up and tried to open my bag again... no such luck... WTF!!?? When I was originally setting the combination, I couldn´t think of a three digit combo, so I decided to make it our departure date: 2-9-6 ... 29th of June... but now for some reason, I cannot open either of the locks on my frickin bag which both had the same combination!!!
WHY GOD WHY!?
Jump on the hostel´s comps after breakfast (croissant, coffee and OJ) and check sites for cracking combination locks... no luck, but there is a site describing that if you loop a sock thru the padlock and jerk down quick and hard (I have lots of practice with this) you can sometimes open the padlock.
Give this a try.
Nothing happening.
Next option... BRUTE FORCE!!!
Be a man!! Do the right thing!!
Twist the sock around the padlock and then keep twisting till the padlock loop buckles and opens up!! MANLY MAN!!
Do it to Jee lock as well.
Luckily we´ve got a couple of spare padlocks... with keys this time...

Bit of nice site seeing in Madrid, but take it pretty easy. Feeling a little tired, but no real jet lag. This is the first time for both of us to fly to different time zones, and i think we we´re pretty lucky avoiding the J-lag...

Return to hostel...
Place day bags in room next to locker where we´d locked up our big bags. Had some of my clothing bags on the floor and shoes next to locker too.
Go to hostel bar and have a bite to eat and a beer or two.
Return to room...
When i first opened the room, I thought someone had sprayed a hose thru the open window... but we weren´t that lucky...
At some stage during maintenance of CAT´s Hostel, there was a leaky pipe in the ceiling. Someone had put a plastic bucket under the dripping pipe. Everybody´s happy yes...
The plaster ceiling panel upon which the bucket is sitting is dry for the time being...
After God knows how long... weeks? months? the drips fill up the bucket and start to over flow onto the plaster ceiling panel and hence creating the damp spot I noticed on the ceiling when we first entered our room...
When the plaster gets damp enough, it collapses...
When plaster ceiling panel collapses, it drops plastic bucket full of water straight onto our lockers and all the stuff surrounding them... i.e. - Ev´s shoes, clothing etc...

Long story short (i can never tell a short story), guy at reception calls the boss to come around (this is at about 1030pm i think) to hostel. We bitched about how we were originally meant to be staying at MAD hostel which is in a newer building. There are no double rooms at MAD though... they just list them on the net so that if anyone books them, they get shunted off to CAT´s... punks...
We got free tokens and washing powder to clean all our stuff and got our money back on a days stay so that was good...

time to finish up!!

more later!!

(it´s been fun!!) ;)