Madrid Bombings, 2004, Sarah Levitt
From MemoryArchive
Who:Sarah Levitt What: March 11th Bombings When: March 11, 2004 Where: Madrid, Spain
I awoke in the morning to my host mother peeking into my room. This was extremely odd considering that she was a proponent of personal space and privacy. However, I decided to ignore it and went back to bed.
When I finally rolled out of bed at 11, I went over to my roommate’s bedroom. We decided to go down to the center of the city, Sol, to go shopping and left the apartment without speaking to our host family.
When we got downtown, we immediately noticed that something was wrong. The plaza was filled with people carrying signs and shouting. They seemed to be protesting against ETA, and Basque nationalist group. There were also people giving blood. We didn’t understand what was going on, so we decided to continue shopping. Many of the stores were closed, so we decided to go back home.
Just as we were about to get on the metro, I received a call from the program director, MariCarmen. She was frantic and crying. She asked if I was ok. I asked her what was going on, and told her about what I had seen in Sol. She told me that there had been a bombing on the metro and that a lot of people had died. She told me not to take the metro home – it wasn’t safe.
I took a cab home and immediately went to an Internet café to write emails to all of my friends and family telling everyone that I was safe. When I checked my inbox, I had numerous messages from people asking if I was ok. At that point, I decided to directly call my parents who were glad to hear that I was unharmed.
When I finally got back to my apartment, the housekeeper was on the phone crying. All of her friends and family take the train through Atocha everyday. She didn’t know if they were all safe – however, she was mainly worried about her husband from whom she had yet to hear back. Soon after, she went back home, and I later learned that all of her friends and family were safe.
It’s strange that my parents were excited that I had left D.C. to go to Madrid – they thought it would be safer. Just the opposite had actually occurred.
External Links:
