Madrid Atocha Railway Station

I did not get a good night’s sleep at the hostel I was staying at since one of my dorm mates snores very loudly. I should have fallen asleep before he did so he would be the one suffering this fate. It is already spring time here and the days are getting longer finally, the sun comes up earlier as well so it would be good for me to get out and do my exploration earlier. I intend to go on an out of town trip. Actually much of my stay here in Madrid will only be for sleeping, the rest will be more for out of town exploration. I don’t have much time to stay here in Madrid so I will go explore the nearby sights first. I had two options on where to start, I decided to use the Madrid Atocha Railway Station as it is the one nearest my hostel.

The Madrid Atocha Railway Station is just a few stops away from my hostel, had I wanted to, I could have just walked to the train station but I didn’t want to go fumbling around with my map so early in the morning. Since the metro was just outside why not use it? I got off at the Atocha metro station and I was half expecting to be led directly to the railway station, however, I found myself outside the station for some reason. I needed to cross the road to get there. I was suspecting that I needed to get off at the Atocha Renfe Station. Renfe is the company providing the rail service. Anyway, I made it to the train station with no fuss. The building was a massive building and there was no inkling from the facade that it was a train station. You would actually know if you walked around the building. Curiously, the building didn’t seem to be that busy at all. From my experience riding trains in Asia, a train station would be crawling with people, this wasn’t the case here.

Inside the station is also a surprise. There is an indoor park with trees. I thought it was a nice touch to provide something like that to the passengers. Transparent roof panels allow light to enter the station giving some natural light. I still needed to purchase tickets to my destination. There were automated kiosks to purchase tickets but for some reason, it wasn’t working for me. I don’t think it was a problem on my part. Each time I try to purchase a ticket and error appears and there the seat I chose will no longer be available. I had to run to the ticketing office where the staff speaks very little English. I managed to get my tickets with a little body language as a little Spanish. I know how to say numbers and time so I think that was enough for me to go around buying tickets. Unfortunately, I needed to wait a couple more hours to go to my destination as the trains were full.

I also needed to purchase tickets for the next day since I was already there and I have some time I decided to purchase my tickets right there but it seems they have a different counter to purchase tickets for that day and another tickets for future days. I don’t really understand it but I needed to wait a few more minutes for those counters to open. There was a queue number for the queue to purchase future tickets but it was moving very fast and I got my tickets in no time. This time, I seemed to know what the guy was talking about. It is funny as my understanding of Spanish seems to fade in and out. I would be able to pick up words and phrases to know what it means in general with some degree of error. I think this will be a very educational trip.

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