Traveling

The past few days have been so busy, I don't even know where to start! I guess I will begin this blog with a post I wrote while stranded in the Madrid airport, waiting for fog to clear. I was hot, crabby, and really tired when I wrote this, so please bear that in mind...

January 18th, 11:05 am Madrid, Spain

My flight from Madrid to Sevilla was supposed to leave at 11:50, but has been delayed until 2:30 due to fog, so I thought I would spend this time catching everyone up on the trip thus far…

After a somewhat frantic night of packing, I had everything ready to go with 20 minutes to spare before departing for the airport. Not bad, especially for me. I arrived at MSP with plenty of time to check in, get through security and find my gate. The Vikings game was playing while I waited, and all of the airport staff and passengers from other flights were cramming in to catch a glimpse. As I was waiting for a flight to Dallas TX, there were several dejected-looking Cowboys fans wearing their Romo jerseys, surrounded by a crowd of exuberant Vikings fans dressed in purple. The flight and brief stay at the Dallas airport were (thankfully) uneventful, and I got on the plane to Madrid without problems.

The plane was surprisingly empty, and even after 24 stand-by passengers got on I was the only person I my row. Fantastic. The flight to Madrid would take 9 hours, and we got 2 hot meals and plenty of beverages. Maybe it was because I was tired from traveling, or maybe it was because I had really low expectations, but the food I got on the airplane was the best airline food I’ve ever had, which was good because I was really hungry. I tried to read for a bit but was starting to get a headache and of course all of the ibuprofen was in my checked luggage, so instead I decided to sleep and listen to some music. Because there were no other passengers in my 3-seat row, I got to lay down and put my feet up which made sleeping so much easier and much more enjoyable. The rest of the flight was sort of a blur, an awkward half-night. I drifted in and out of sleep for most of the trip, feeling kind of guilty for being ‘that girl’ taking up 3 seats and lots of blankets and pillows while other people were crammed into their full rows, but what are you going to do :)

An hour before landing we were served breakfast, and watched as the plane descended into fog-covered Madrid. I was surprised by the topography of Madrid, the land surrounding the city is very hilly and there are lots of grassy plateaus that came up out of the fog and looked like floating islands.

Getting off the plane in Madrid was less smooth, but not terrible. Getting through customs was easy and self-explanatory which was good because there weren’t any directions or people to help you figure out where to go. My ticket had no gate information, nor were there any departure screens available, so I wandered around for a while and rode the elevators up and down, searching for someone to ask or something to look at. I eventually found someone who looked kind of official and asked him which terminal I needed to be at. He mumbled something at me and pointed to a tram so I got on and rode to the first stop where I got off and wandered around some more until I found a nice woman who explained that my flight had been delayed and I had to wait until 1 to get my gate information. Fortunately, lots of kids from my program are on my flight too, so we are slowly finding one another and starting to meet people. Everything feels so surreal at the moment and I am so tired of traveling, but I can’t wait to get to Sevilla, and a hotel where I can sleep.

I’m sorry if you read that whole thing, future posts will be much more interesting, I promise.

Much love to all,

Hannah