On Sunday, we began our long awaited trek to Madrid. Embarking on our fifth and sixth,
dreaded flights of the week of travel.
Our taxi was arranged by the pretty hotel Greek lady to arrive at 5:30
for transfer to the airport. As I left
the hotel around 5:20 to find a mailbox, the driver was already waiting
outside. I explained to him what I
was doing and he offered to quickly run me up the street to the box. I apprehensively got in the cab alone
(fearing possible death), but realized that by killing me he would only loose
at hefty taxi fare and gain a handful of personalized postcards. I concluded I was safe! Once back, we loaded our bags and took
off for the airport. The airport
of Santorini is about the size of Springfield’s, I guess, but has the security
of an airport in Auburn… They didn’t even mention my bags being both over-weight
and over-sized, nor did the one employee even glance at the screen as my
suitcase passed through the x-ray.
One lady even hesitated as she beeped going through the metal detector
and he told her to “keep moving.” Dan said, good thing Al Qaida doesn’t fly from Thira… This was just the reverse of last
Thursday’s travel, with a short 30-minute flight back to Athens, then another
pass through stricter, but kinder security there. We headed to the gate of our Madrid flight, which was due to
board at 8:45. At around 8:50, I
glanced at the screen at the gate for the first time and suffered a
mini-stroke. The screen said
Agean, while our tickets were labeled Olympic Air, both major airlines in
Greece, but definitely not one in the same. I ran to the counter as people were beginning to line up and
could not find our flight information anywhere. Lauren joined me in the panic and some nice people near us
helped us out. Turns out, we were
at the correct gate and the flight was simply operated by Agean. There was a small Agean number listed
in the corner of the boarding pass that I never would have seen. The gate agent confirmed this and we
boarded the flight as my heart rate returned to normal. I slept on and off throughout the
flight and at one point decided to look through my dumb iPhone videos, many of
Jenna and Courtney and I at concerts, one of my nana bobbing in the pool and
many more of friends at SLU. I
guess I was just going out of my way to evoke some homesickness. Haha! Afterwards, we got a small breakfast,
which was better than anything in the States. That has become a common occurance here
in Europe. Even on the short
flight from Santorini, we received more of a meal than we would have on any American
plane. When the flight landed in
Madrid, I stopped to put in my contact and rinse off my face, while we waited
for Dan to get off from the very back of the plane. We headed to baggage claim, picked up our things and were
relived that throughout all 6 flights and all the commotion, we successfully
ended up in Madrid with all of our luggage! The three of us left the baggage claim, to find Ross waiting
for us. He had arrived in Madrid
earlier, but decided just to wait in the airport in order to go to the host
family home together. We put
Lauren into a cab, made sure that her driver knew the address of her home and
she was gone! The three of us
piled into a Prius cab and chatted during the rather long ride our apartment,
which is located near SLU’s campus, in the northwest area of the city, Paseo de
San Francisco de Sales 16. We
nervously pushed the button of apartment 7B and our host mother, Pilar, buzzed
us through the entry gate into the courtyard. From there we had to ring her again for entry into the
actual apartment building. I took
the tiny elevator up with all the luggage and Dan and Ross climbed the seven
flights of stairs! Pilar greeted
us with a Spanish kiss on each cheek, then sat us in the dining room to chat
and get aquainted. From the bat,
she was super-kind, but honestly speaks no English! Therefore, virtually every
word out of her mouth has to be translated through me and then shared with Ross
and Dan. It allowed she and I to
get rather close, but sort of sucks for the other two since they cannot actually
communicate with her. We found out
this is a problem with every person in every household, so it should get
better. The next thing we noticed
was that instead of being set up for a three person home, there were four beds,
meaning only one thing – we had a random fourth roommate coming! We were nervous initially, but
eventually Dan volunteered to room with him in the slightly better room, while
Ross and I would room together in the other, smaller room. All she knew was that his name was
Alex, which really didn’t help much.
We got setup on wifi and began reconnecting with home for really the
first time in week. Afterwards,
Pilar left, telling us she was going to meet some friends for “una copa” or a
drink. We decided to head out in
search of some food and a drink of our own, but we no more began walking down the street
and saw a guy, alone, walking towards the apartment and decided it had to be Alex,
our roommate. Since Pilar was gone, we assumed he would be trapped
outside. We trailed him creepily
back to the apartment and followed him up – not sure how he even got in. Sure enough, it was him and Pilar had
known when he would arrive, so we didn’t even need to return. Either way, we got his story at that
point. He is a student at Loyola
Merimount in LA, originally from Chicago area. His parents are Polish, so he speaks Polish and even has
Polish citizenship. He has been in
Europe for a week, alone, with a rail pass, traveling around multiple countries. Very brave to me! He speaks Spanish well, despite only
taking formal classes in high school.
He said picking up the third language has been much easier and he is
even taking a few courses in Spanish.
Pilar asked if we wanted to eat “en casa” our out on our own for
dinner. We decided that since we
were already back, we should just take the free meal and maybe go out
later. She prepared a salad with
really no dressing but olive oil, some rice, which was very good and some super
thin pieces of beef and pork – super thin. The meal barely put a dent in my stomach, but it was better
than nothing. We planned on going
out to meet up with friends, but were so exhausted from all of the travel, that
we decided to stay home and rest for the next day’s activities. We all got to do some skyping. Dan spoke to his parents and
siblings. I skyped my mom, freshly
rolled out of bed, then both of my parents later, then I even got to FaceTime
with my Nana and Papa at the hospital.
It was great to see them and my Papa’s awesome recovery! Ross skyped with Sarah back at SLU and
we all got to see and hang out with Sarah, Hannah, Annette, Jane and Wolf. What a fun first night in Madrid!
No comments:
Post a Comment