My next adventure!

After one 12 hour flight, a 2 hour layover in Heathrow, and then another 2.5 hour flight, I finally arrived in Madrid at 11:20 on Thursday night. I was sweaty, exhausted, and weighed down with my three carry ons, but was so excited at the prospect of seeing Russell for the first time after 4 months of separation that I barely felt it.

As soon as I got off the plane, I walked/sprinted the length of the terminal (the international terminal at Barajas airport may have the world record for being the longest terminal of all time), and went to collect my bag at customs. I stood there waiting for a few minutes, tense because I knew Russell had been waiting for half an hour because my flight had been delayed.  The baggage took a little while to come out, and I couldn’t help but think that the gods of travel were pushing for our reunion to be postponed for the longest amount of time possible. But then the bags started rolling down the ramp!!! So exciting!! Russell was just on the other side of customs, the only thing that stood between me and him was my one bag!! Everyone kept leaning over and selecting their luggage, but I hadn’t seen mine yet. Then, the luggage ramp stopped. All the bags had come out. Mine was missing. Sigh. I was almost expecting this. Iberian airlines may be the worst airline I’ve ever flown, so this wasn’t too surprising. I walked back across the entire airport to report my bag as lost, realizing I had no idea what Russell’s Spanish address was, and besides I was flying to Barcelona in the morning to see my best friend Deia. Travel nightmare.

But I didn’t need to worry about that. Iberian airlines had a policy that you had to wait for an hour after your flight landed to file a claim for lost luggage. I still had 45 minutes to go! But I couldn’t turn my phone on to call Russell and let him know because I still hadn’t gone through customs; there’s a strict no phone policy before customs. In the meantime, they told me to walk around the airport and look for my bag to see if it had come out anywhere. Lovely. I took a little stroll, not seeing my bright blue ribbon tied to my black wheelie anywhere, so I went to the customs area to see if Russell was on the other side. He was! He saw me walking toward the automatic doors that separated us. My first image of Russell after 4 months was him with such an excited face that I was FINALLY walking through those doors after 45 minutes of waiting, him holding a rose, a sign with my name on it (sort of), and peanut m&ms, my favorite candy.  But then, right before I got to the automatic doors I stopped. He was confused, and I had to yell through the automatic doors that separated us, which kept opening and shutting, that I needed the address of the place I was staying so that they could drop my bag off.  After a while of this, the customs lady let me go through and back in order to get the addresses I needed. It was so hectic, but so typical of us. When I finally came through customs for the final time, we were both laughing hysterically.  I was completely luggage less for the next 4 days, but I couldn't care less. 

The next morning, Friday, Russell and I went to Barcelona and spent the next 3 days Deia. When we arrived in Barcelona, the sun was shining, the weather was beautiful, and I was finally reunited, after 4 months, with two of my favorite people on this earth. 

Russell and Deia in front of la Sagrada Familia.

I've spent the past week in Barcelona, Alcala de Henares (the city Russell is studying), Madrid, now Russell and I are in a hostel in Sevilla, and we're heading to Granada tomorrow. 

After that I'll be continuing on  my Europe adventure! My next stop (after spending the night on Sunday night in Madrid with Deia and her family friends the Perezes) is Pergugia, Italy, with Molly my good friend from Villanova. Then she and I are going to the Christmas market in Cologne, Germany. Then I'm visiting Krakow, Poland, and Budapest, Hungary the following week by myself (I'm a little nervous to do the whole traveling by myself thing, but I think it will be interesting!). After that, I'm meeting Deia in Prague, where we will be visiting one of our best friends from high school, Marya, who is studying abroad there. After Prague, I'm meeting up with Russell in Paris for 6 days. Then I'm heading to Belgium and the Netherlands for 2 days each from December 12-15th (alone again!), and I'm meeting Russell in London and we're going to Oxford for a few days before we both fly home on December 18th. This is going to be hectic, and I'm seeing lots of people that I love and interesting places. I'll try to keep this blog up as I go, but I'm leaving my laptop with Russell for the remainder of the trip (lugging this bad boy across Europe would not only be annoying but I'm staying in hostels, so the less expensive things I have the better).

I've hit a few road blocks already (my luggage being MIA for 4 days, I left my only winter coat on the bus to Sevilla) but so far this trip has been idyllic. I love Espana, learning Spanish from Russell (he's basically fluent now!), eating tapas, and learning about the history. It was so great getting to meet Russell's host family, and seeing Deia's authentic spanish apartment, and seeing the places that they go to on a day-to-day basis. Now I'll know what they're talking about all the time! 

P.S. Today is Russell's mom's birthday. Happy birthday Mary Beth! We talked about you lots today! Enjoy!!