New Year, New Home

So I’ve totally neglected this blog over the past few months… but for good reason! Since my last post I’ve left Italy and moved to Colombia, started a new job (okay, internship, whatever), and (almost) perfected my Español.

Leaving Rome was bittersweet; as much as I loved la vita italiana, I was super excited about my new chapter in Colombia. Wauwa and I rang in the New Year in Finland before hopping on a plane again and heading to Colombia via Spain. My sweet little travel companion did, however, cause some major problems at our first destination. As most of you know, if I go to Spain I MUST visit my favorite aunt, uncle, and cousins in Alhaurin, so since most flights from Helsinki to Bogotá fly via Madrid anyway, I decided to spend a week in Spain. Seeing as our train rides around Italy went so smoothly, I figured I’d be frugal and travel by train to Malaga rather than flying from Madrid. But for real who was I kidding thinking that this would work out effortlessly – as you may have noticed wauwa and I are a disaster prone pair.

Well, first of all we missed our train (1. Plane was delayed, 2. Had to take Wauwa’s crate to the airport storage facility, 3. Missed the first shuttle bus to the train station, 4. Traffic) so we went to change our tickets. “No worries, next train leaves in an hour, there is an extra cost though – never mind your dog is so cute we’ll waive the extra fee.” So nice of them, I’m thinking as I board the train.

Who could say no to this face? Certainly not the train ticket vendors.

But again, I should have known things are never that easy. About 20 minutes in, the conductor comes to check our tickets. “Is this a service dog,” she asks me, looking really confused. Yeah, well turns out you CANNOT bring dogs onto trains in Spain (well, you can bring little Fifi in your purse, but “big dogs” are discriminated against). Too tired to panic, I simply tell her that I was sold a ticket for my “large” dog by her colleagues and I can’t exactly jump off the moving train, so how about we pretend like he’s not even there. She did not find me amusing and brought over her manager. Eventually, after other passengers assured them that Wauwa in no way bothered them, we were allowed to stay.

Skipping over all the churros, family time, and sunshine, I now had to figure out how to get back to Madrid.

Wauwa's frist time in Alhaurin de la Torre - a tourist photo must.

Option 1. Try to convince the train people that Wauwa has a ticket and should be allowed to travel (did not work, I was only given a partial refund). Option 2. Bus (ok, obviously if dogs aren’t allowed on trains, they’re not allowed on buses either). Option 3. Fly (issues: Wauwa’s crate is in Madrid, dogs’ tickets cost more than humans’ tickets, I’m broke). Option 4. BlaBlaCar (no one would take Wauwa – wtf Spaniards I thought you liked dogs?!?). Option 5. Rent a car and drive from Malaga to Madrid (ding, ding, ding!). Keeping in mind that I learned to drive in the US (i.e. automatic transmission), my options were a little more limited (i.e. expensive). How 12€/day turned into over 100€ is beyond me, but I was desperate. Also, wtf is up with rental companies needing a credit card on file? Some of us leave our cc’s at home so we don’t accrue even more debt! Anywhooo, auntie saved me, so after all this I had a nice, long drive with my little furry friend and made it on time for my flight.