We spent our last day in Greece traveling from the island of Santorini back to the mainland. We arrived at the port only to discover the metro line we needed to take to get back to Athens was shut down due to strikes. After MUCH confusion, walking and trying to communicate in other languages we finally arrived back to our hostel to collect our bags. Our plan was to head to the airport and have a sleep before catching our early plane. We got all loaded up to head to the other (non striking) metro line only to discover they had stopped running for the night. So with lots of luggage and the only transportation, a bus, a few miles walk away, we decided to beg for the mercy of the hostel we had been storing our luggage in. We asked if we could sleep in the luggage room. So there it is…our last glorious night in the beautiful country of Greece was spent in a luggage room.

We got up at 5am to make it to the airport that morning. Chris is a patient man. Remember, I have had no sleep, no shower and worst of all no coffee. I was not a pleasant human being. Our flight to Spain was a quick one. Thankfully this was one rare time when we booked our hostel ahead of time so we did not have to wander around town looking for a place to stay. We spent our first day the way we do most times when we have had an early flight, getting cleaned up, eating and resting. On our second day in Spain we went on a tour around the city of Madrid. The tour was fantastic, being led by a young woman from England who had been living and studying Spain. We learned so much about the history of Spain, from Lope de Vega the playwright, Cervantes' Don Quixote, to the lovely Queen Isabelle, it was very informative. The tour also made a stop at a great restaurant that had the greatest drink of all time, tinto verano (think champagne and sangria combined….yummy!). Our second day, we headed back towards the royal palace and had a picnic in the park. It was nice to relax and we met a hilarious couple from Miami (small world).

From the day we flew into Madrid we had 11 days to get to London to catch our flight out to Iceland. We decided (rather last minute, in true Lorenz traveling style) that we would spend two days in Madrid and then head to the coast before catching a plane to Ireland. So we took an overnight coach (bus to you Americans) to Santander, arriving at 6AM….yikes more sleepless nights followed by early mornings. We caught the first bus we could and headed to the beach. WOW, I have seen a lot of beaches in our travels, but the beaches of Santander are among the most beautiful. Gorgeous blue water set against cliffs that drop right into the water. Chris immediately jumped into the rather cold water to surf and I did what I do best, took a nap on the beach. Our day spent in the great outdoors was so lovely we decided to just stay there…for the next three days. We found the beaches quite remote in the evenings and there were so many hills and crevices that we could be quite hidden away. The weather was perfect so we unrolled our sleeping bags and called it home. Our time in Santander was perfect, sunny hot days followed by cool, beautiful evenings. We didn't experience any mishaps while sleeping outdoors (other then accidentally stumbling upon a nude beach while hiking…very funny). We can't say much for the actual town of Santander because we didn't spend anytime there, but the beaches are magnificent.

We had an early flight out to Ireland so on our last night we thought why mix up our bedless nights now and we headed to the airport to sleep for the night. To our surprise we were informed the airport closes at night, but we were kindly directed to a small corner outside the airport that we could sleep on. We are officially homeless, all we need are a couple of shopping carts filled to the brim with plastic bottles and bags and we will fit in beautifully. In all actuality the night turned out good. God had a plan for our homelessness. We met a girl who was traveling alone and missed her bus. She too had to sleep outside of the airport and was incredibly upset about the whole situation, but the three of us were able to hang out together and share our sleeping bag. We were happy to be homeless for the night.