05/10/2021
💫 My life-changing journey, part 5: The Road To Ubeda.
🥵 It was an extremely hot day as I landed in Malaga airport, I think it was about 38° C. I was feeling super chill, collected my backpack at the baggage carousel. Thank god there were no issues there, I imagined what I would do if my backpack got lost. That would've been a short trip!
🚍 I knew there was a bus stop somewhere that I needed to take to go to Granada. One thing I didn't really consider is that in Spain, people generally don't speak basic English. Luckily, someone understood that I needed to find the bus stop for Granada when I gestured to my backpack and said "Granada" over and over again, this person pointed me to the right place, and there, I waited. I eventually got on the bus, it was a 2.5-hour trip until I had to get off at 18.15 PM somewhere in Granada.
🙏 There I lingered around, got me some extremely desired water from a vending machine, and after an hour or so I went and sat on the bus to Ubeda. Now LUCKILY, I hit up a conversation with someone on the bus who I overheard speaking Dutch and asked her where she was going. She told me the bus I was on just passed Ubeda and was going further in the other direction to where I was going (the routes of these busses were poorly publicized). Thank you random stranger! I asked around, and I took a seat on the right bus. After roughly another 2.5 hours of driving, I got off at Ubeda in the middle of the night at around 22.00 PM.
🏨 I opened a website and browsed for hotels that still had openings for the night... Bingo, found one that was just a mile from my location. I put it in on Google Maps and started walking through the night in Ubeda. I eventually arrived and checked in, went to my hotel room and settled down. Plugged in the charger and called my mom to tell her I was safe in Ubeda and everything was good. She told me she was feeling worried as she wasn't used to not having me around at home. Ahh, mom, that warmed my heart.
🛌 I prepared myself to go to sleep, and I was starting to feel really good and excited about this whole trip.
😨 Little did I know the fear and panic I would experience the next day.