48 hours of airplanes…
We left Madrid Monday morning at 9am Madrid time… so midnight Vancouver time… it’s now Tuesday 2:19pm Vancouver time and I’m still a good 6 hours from being home. I have however found things to amuse myself with… like the $7 internet I am currently using in the Dallas airport during my 8 hour layover.
I was supposed to fly from IND to CHI and CHI to DFW and DFW to YVR today… but trying to beat the system I went standby on an earlier flight from IND to DFW… SCORE! Then when I got to DFW my luck continued as the gate agent presented me with a ticket on a flight to YVR that would have gotten me home for 1pm. Then 10 minutes later she called my name, an upgrade to first class perhaps?, hahaha NO. She took my ticket away.
For some reason AA canceled the 2pm flight from DFW to YVR which bumped me off of the wait list for the 10am flight and back on my 5pm flight. Oh well, what’s another 7 hours when you’ve already been going for 40? There was however one flier who was not so happy… and proceeded to breakdown into tears over the news that she too had been bumped.
The rest of the story shows why there will be a special place in hell for me when I die.
Now, I would have felt bad for the girl if I knew that she had a legit reason for being upset for not getting to Vancouver early. But earlier in the day I was forced to listed to her phone conversation with one of her fellow ‘Pom’ friends – over how ‘freaking stoked’ she was to ‘get her drink on’ with them tonight. (BTW did I mention that he back pack was embroidered and said ‘POM – Sarah – Captain’ and she was wearing hooker heels and a dress).
Seriously? hooker heels and a dress… at an airport…. when you have a 5 hour flight? Not my choice, but hey whatever floats your boat. Perhaps they are planning on getting their drink on at the Roxy tonight?
Needless to say I laughed, out loud, to her reaction of crying.. and as I type this I am watching the counter waiting for her to get up to the front of the line (2 people away now) to see if she gets on the 5pm flight or breaks down in another fit of crying because she will not be able to ‘get her drink on’.
Stories from Madrid to come later… once I get home, and have slept… and can remember what we did – aside from a trip to the local hospital.
Spain day 9: Toledo
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me…..
Okay enough self promotion. Though I do have to say that this has got to be the hottest birthday of my 27 years… due to the fact that it is 40 degrees here in Spain. So this morning we left Grenada early for our trip up to Madrid. As a break in the 6 hour drive we stopped at hour #4 for a visit to Toledo. Highlight of breakfast: a cava infused mimosa.
Once we got to Toledo we had a lovely tapas lunch of Pulpa (squid), potatoes, chicken salad… and a glass or two of Rose made form Tempranillo grapes (hey,, it is my birthday – which means that it is perfectly acceptable to drink with every meal).
After lunch we took a walking tour featuring the Iglesia de Santo Tome, Cathedral and the Sinagoga de Santa Maria la Blanca. The Iglesia de Santo Tome is the home of many paintings from ‘El Greco’ – a famous painter who lived in Toledo painting religious portraits and alter pieces. While touring the various churches the boys in the group tried to teach me about their interpretations of immaculate conception and how churches were built…. Ummm I may not be religious but I am pretty sure what they were telling me had nothing to do with how the Virgin Mary became impregnated.
Afterward we headed for a panoramic tour of the city and then we finished off with our last stop at the sword factory. Toledo is know as the home of many famous swords (think Gladiator) – so we were introduced to the art of sword making and all of the boys had a jolly good time picking out the biggest swords to bring home with them. Luckily they were not allowed to sharpen their swords…
We then headed up to Madrid for dinner (and to check into our new hotel)… dinner was lovely and both Austin and I were serenaded with birthday cake and song.
We then headed out for a walk through one of the squares where Reid was kind enough to buy me some fancy shades for my birthday…. umm they are bright blue and flash in 4 different modes… I was pretty sure that I was going to have a seizure on the metro. I was also told by Emma that I needed to start popping out kids soon because I’m getting old and my eggs are about to go bad… then the conversation turned back to how the Virgin Mary was impregnated… oye.
Spain day 8: Grenada
When we arrived in Grenada we had two missions to accomplish – a visit to the Alhambra and to check out some Flamenco dancing. Keeping a trend it was humid… and in my words I was ‘sweating like a whore in church’.
The Alhambra was created under Ismil I, Yusuf I and Muhammad V when the Nasrid dynasty ruled Granada. They wanted to create their idea of ‘paradise’ so they created this HUGE HUGE compound which focused on the use of natural light, water features and open space. They created the structures using modest materials like plaster (decorative features), wood and tiles (decorative features). Over time the structure depleted and Napoleon tried to blow it up so it has been restored to showcase the beauty of what it used to be.
We ended up spending 3 hours walking 4 miles around the Alhambra (much to the complaints of some of the youngins who weren’t into the idea of being a big ball of sweat while walking around…. I just took advantage of the fountains to keep myself cool… or by showering myself to cover the amount of sweat I was covered in.
After dinner a group of us headed out to the caves to watch some Flamenco dancing and take a walk around old Granada. Umm I am pretty sure I could never be a Flamenco dancer… mainly because I didn’t see any moves that remotely represented the ‘Sprinkler’ or the ‘Shopping Cart’.
I did however find my new mode of transportation when I return to Canada…
Spain day 7: Torremolinos
We spent a day frolicking on the beaches of Torremolinos… it was SO nice to have a day where we could lay out in the sun and do nothing. The beaches did however remind me of the cruise we took in Grade 7, where my cousin Trevor (who is 4 years younger than me) proceeded to walk around the beach calling out different types of fruits ‘Bananas!’, ‘Apples!’, ‘Oranges!’. If you haven’t guess it yet the beaches were topless and he was referring to the different shapes of boobs that he saw frolicking around the beach.
We decided to rent some chairs for the day – which was a wonderful idea… we swam out in the Mediterranean Sea, played on pontoon(ish) boats, ate seafood from a beach shack and proceeded to be lazy and catch up on some much needed sleep. Rough day, I know.
After dinner we decided to take the kiddies out for some Karaoke at a pub called ‘El Open Arms’ – it was a British Pub run by a crazy British man who liked to get up and rip out a good tune to get the night rolling. Later I’ll post some videos of all of us singing.. you may want to mute your speakers for them though.
As Chaperons we tried to sing a spice girls tune that was snagged up by a group of students so we settled with a rendition of Madonna’s ‘Holiday’ (which is what I am going to need after this trip).
The Karaoke bar was great – we ran into a few complications when a few students forgot how to count to 2 and ended up having a few drinks too many, which they thought they could pull over our eyes… silly kids, do you think we don’t know what you were up to? This resulted in some late night conversations and a few phone calls overseas… it also resulted in one youngin taking a nap on my hip outside of the pub when he decided it took too much energy to keep his head up. Lovely.
Spain day 6: Ronda
On the road again, just can’ wait to get on the road again… Okay I’ll stop singing, at least until tomorrow night when we hit up the karaoke lounge with the kiddies…
Anyway, this morning we left Sevilla for the beach… but on our way here we had a brief layover in Ronda for lunch and sightseeing. Ronda itself is famous as the birthplace of modern bullfighting… it is also famous in my books for having one of the best views ever…
Seriously folks, the village sits up on the cliffs and overlooks rolling green hills and olive trees and vineyards and villas… I think I fell in love – it reminded me so much of Italy… now I think I’ll need to go back to Italy just so I can compare!
So for the past few days it has been up around 40 degrees Celsius, so for obvious reasons we have been harping on the kids to keep up their water intake so we don’t have to deal with them passing out all around Spain… and for the most part they have been good. But some of the boys have taken to buying 1.5L bottles of cold water adn shoving them down their pants as they walk around cities to keep themselves cool. I kindly pointed out to them that they would loose their lives if any of those bottles came within a 3 foot radius of me. On that note here is the related quote of the day:
Jake: It just feels so good when it rubs up against my leg
Anyway time to get some sleep so I can spend the day sprawled out on the beach tomorrow!
