Madrid Bombing

Okay don´t get mad at me, but yesterday, the day after the bombings, I went to Madrid. (I took a bus) I was so upset at the thought of all that happening at the EXACT SAME place where I had been last week (and where I always go to travel), that I decided to go give blood, take it all in, see the trains and join in the manifestaciones against terrorism. After all, wouldn´t Spain be safest now with tons of security? (or so I thought until I got there). We bought tickets that evening for Madrid and the lady thought we were locas. She was like, don´t you watch the news?! But anyhow, when we got to Madrid, it was eerie, like the twilight zone, because as soon as we entered the city, the streets were lined with people just staring, standing outside of shops and homes. We came in at the moment of silence, so everyone watched as we came into Madrid. There were Spanish flags hung everywhere with black ribbons from windows and balconies. We got off the bus and went to Atocha, one of the Train Stations, walked right in up to the trains and looked around. NOBODY stopped us or asked for identification. So much for Spanish securidad. Anyhow, so on the way out my friend walked right into this bar that moves up and down to let cars out of the parking lot and it missed her face and hit her shoulders. So we started laughing and I asked her if she´s ok, and this lady heard us speaking English. So she wanted to know why we were there and then we told her and apparently she was a periodista for the Irish Times. So yeah we got interviewed and are somewhere in the Irish Times newspaper. We told her basically that we hoped it wasn´t Al Qaeda because the Spaniards already have animosity towards Americans and this will make it worse. They are already mad that our presidents are best friends and that Spain took part in a war that like 80% of the population were completely against. Anyhow, so after that we took a bus to the other train station.




I can´t believe what I saw. Workers washing blood off the walls, part of the train so twisted and broken with a huge hole in the middle, as if Godzilla took a bite out of it. Cameras flashing everywhere in people´s faces as they´re trying to mourn and blood splattered in the walls of the train. The train station was ruined, with debris everywhere, bricks everywhere. There were broken glass shards on the calles where bricks had flown over the wall, a good 30 feet away to hit the cars in the parking lot. On the roof of the train station was mud mixed with debris and one single white rose that someone had thrown.