Thankfully, my phone provider was awesome with the whole overseas thing (T-Mobile) but unfortunately for my friend, her phone provider was useless. With her options already limited, she came to discover that her phone wouldn't connect to a network. period. which was not what she had been told. Not wanting to be without a working phone (if only even for an emergency) we came here to explore her options. I'm not sure if they spoke English, as I only heard Spanish so I just went with the flow. So if you don't speak Spanish, just hope that someone there speaks English, and--being that you're in Madrid--someone there most likely does. Thankfully, the guy I spoke to was polite and helpful, but made it pretty clear from the beginning that there wasn't a good solution to the problem.
Long story short, you're options are limited as far as getting a phone in spain to use for international calls, texts, and internet. It's ridiculously expensive, so I wouldn't suggest it unless you have unlimited funds. Thanks anyway to the young man who helped us out. read more