Barcelona Parte Dos

Day 8
0930 Local Time May 07, 2010 – 0100 Local Time May 08, 2010

Finally we had a morning without the alarm: we woke up and missed the cutoff time for breakfast in the hotel. It was nice not to have to rush out somewhere to get everything in that we needed to see before we left later that afternoon. Since we hadn’t made our plans to stay until late in the evening yesterday and I hadn’t gotten a FB reply from Marc, I made a quick call to him before we headed out to see if we’d be able to meet up later. It was about 11:35 so I was crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t be calling during his exam that he had this morning. Apparently I didn’t interrupt the exam but I did call in the middle of class—and he answered. This was rather surprising given that we’d never do that in the States, although not altogether really strange because it happened in Mexico several times while I was there. I guess answering your cellphone is more acceptable in Hispanic countries. Anyway, a little flustered that I had called in the middle of class (and moreso that he had picked up), we made hurried plans that I would call later around 4 because he had class until the afternoon and several other errands and things to do.

That being set up, we headed down to Plaza Cataluña via the ferrocarril and the Metro. I’m doing pretty well with navigating the underground world of Barcelona. Once we made it to Plaza Cataluña, we were both hungry (since we hadn’t eaten yet) so we found a quaint little restaurant-café and sat in the window. Papo had the tortilla española and glazed doughnut and split the chocolate coated doughnut with me. I had the spinach empanada which was quite good. For dessert (after all it was lunch time in the states) I had a piece of chocolate cake and Papo had something reminiscent of flat apple pie. After breakfast, we began our second day of shopping (happy face).

This time we walked Las Ramblas with a different objective in mind and similarly without a “Command and Conquer” mentality. As we walked all the way down to the Mediterranean Sea-beach and back, we checked out all the souvenir stores and vendors on either side of the street. Clearly negotiating a price even in the stores is acceptable here despite Lee’s information that you “have to be sly about it.” It must have to do with my wily girlish charm and I think speaking Spanish has a little bit to do with it too. Papo says his good looks didn’t hurt us any.

So since Marc had no way to contact us (given our lack of cellphones), we did things the old fashion way. Just after 4 o’clock I called and he said he still had a couple of things to take care of but that, since we’d already seen everything in the area we were, how about we go somewhere else. He gave me instructions on how to get to the Arc d’ Triumph on the metro (only a couple of stops away) and we made plans for about an hour later—5:30. Since we didn’t have very far to go, we continued our shopping expedition a little bit more as I picked up the last couple of things I wanted for my (hopefully) future classroom and souvenirs.

Just as we were finishing up the last of our shopping in Las Ramblas, I saw two really pretty dresses in the display window at El Corte Inglés (popular department store comparable to Boscovs or Macys), but alas, they were all sold out. That’s okay, I probably couldn’t’ve afforded either one of them anyway.

But time was just about up so we bajamos al metro and took said metro Red Line 1 two stops to meet up with Marc for phase two of our Barcelonian tour.


When we got there we were a little early and we could see the famous Arc d’ Triumph which I pretended to see two years ago in my fake trip to Barcelona. Since we had the little bit of time to spare, we crossed the two streets to take a couple of pictures before going back over to wait on the benches at the exit of the Metro station. And then we waited. During this time frame I must have looked very Spanish because between going to the Metro and while waiting on the bench I was consulted twice in Spanish for directions. This is something of a record. Unfortunately I didn’t know the answer either time, but hey, at least I looked like I fit in.
At 6 o’clock I tried to phone Marc again (since it was about half an hour later than we originally said and he had no way to contact us if in fact something had come up. So the first time I called I dialed wrong and the telephone ate my money. Then I was told that, hey, Kate, the you know on the other side there’s a telephone that you can stand up at, right? Because I had been kneeling at this one in order to see the key pad. Uhm, no, obviously I didn’t know that. So I switched phones and dialed correctly this time. Marc didn’t pick up so I left a brief message figuring that since it was counting down the time I had left on the phone, I would be able to get 50 euro-cents back. This, unfortunately, was not the case. I lost the 50 Euro-cents and only got to leave a really quick message.

So I went and sat back down on the bench awhile to wait a little bit longer. Then, lo and behold a little bit after 6 Marc strolled up saying that traffic had been terrible and sorry we had to wait and that he’d actually had to run around a little bit to figure out where we were (though the fact that we had called was something of a hint that we had to be somewhere with a pay phone). Right there at the station was a place where Marc wanted to pop into to get MTG cards (apparently I will be forever surrounded by people who like this game) and that left us to mosey into the store next door. This leads me to believe that Marc is entirely responsible for the purchase of my new hat and any complaints can be sent directly to him via Facebook =P.

Off again on our tour, walked through the arc and along the park and ended up at the zoo. During our stroll we saw many people sitting on the grass, which I thought was odd because it seemed like the manicured type of place where they wouldn’t let you on the grass. As it turned out, there was in fact a sign that showed a shoe over the grass with a nice red circle with a slash through it; apparently that sign wasn’t very important to the very many people hanging out in the grass having picnics and climbing the palm trees.

From the Zoo area we headed over to the Olympic Village (1992) which just so happened to be at the Mediterranean Sea (different part). There we took a couple more photos and continued walking along. We saw some important looking people and wondered if we could be like the international white house crashers but figured that we weren’t dressed up enough to pass as reporters for the BBC. Papo hungry early since we had walked so much and had only brunch so we found a place to eat; Marc wasn’t ready for dinner because it was too early for him (7:30) so Papo and I had a snack instead. Papo ordered two tapas: mini shish kabobs and some spice bombs. Papo found another glass he didn’t have for his collection in the restaurant but this time he actually had to pay for it instead of getting it for free. Either way a glass is a glass so it was a success.

After our snack, we continued along to La Sagrada Familia, another one of the selected sights on my pretend trip for class. Since it was a ways away we took the Metro again. While we were on it, Marc, seemed to be using his cell phone a lot, but still made sure we knew where we were getting off and where we were going. As we left the Metro, he invited us to his home for dinner with his family (as it turned out, that’s why he’d been on the phone). He had been calling back and forth to his family (in Castellano and Catalan I noted) to make the arrangements. This was exceptionally nice of them we thought, especially given such late notice and having both of us—two people that two days ago had never met before. Either way, we were honored to accept the invitation and continued on our walking-metro tour.


As I was saying about the Sagrada Familia, I had more or less decided that it wasn’t going to be all that worth seeing since I had seen the pictures on the postcards around and it wasn’t all that impressive as they hype seemed to be. But then we went over there and let me just be the first to say that all the pictures that I’ve seen simply do not do it justice. This Cathedral is another Gaudí masterpiece and has been under construction for over 100 years. There’s an old part and a new part that they are still trying to construct. Apparently in the original design there was supposed to be a super-high tower with Jesus on the top but for security reasons (being that it might be unstable since it would be so tall) (and also we think because it would be so costly) they’ve decided not to build that part. Really it’s worth seeing if you ever have the chance—don’t let the postcards scare you away.
While Papo ducked into a KFC to use the bathroom, Marc and I browsed through a gift shop located just across the street. Right before we went in he said, “Don’t speak English in the shop because then the prices will go up.” I had been suspicious that this was the case before, but to have it confirmed was very interesting. It was also cool because this was the first time we’d really had a full out conversation in Spanish instead of in English or a mix of the two. Fun =).

Together again, we walked over to the modern architecture section of the city. Hey Clare—I know the hospital you want to work at. I’ve got it all figured out for you Chiquita—you can work at that hospital and I’ll teach English, vale? We saw another building that was erected during World War II that had the German Eagle still on it.

With all this, we had spent a lot of time walking around and daylight had waned away and it was time for dinner. We hopped on the Metro one last time and followed Marc to his car and he drove us to his house. I have never seen a more complex “intersection” of highways. It puts our beltway to shame. He put on the radio but we heard a French song followed by one in English—funny how that is.

Upon arriving at Marc’s home we were greeted by his mother, father and brother. Marc gave us/me a tour of the house. Their home is very beautiful, decorated with beautiful fairies. Marc showed me his bookshelf collection many of which comprised a lot of my high school readings…which is partially unfortunate because I didn’t really like a lot of those books.

During the meal it was really interesting to see the language dynamic. We had three languages: English, Spanish, and Catalan. I could more or less choose who to include in the conversation: if I spoke in English I was basically talking to Papo, Marc, and Marc’s brother. If I spoke in Spanish I was talking to Marc’s whole family but not Dad. I can only imagine that it was even more complex for Marc who was fluent in all three. Often times we would have one conversation, and then a summary would be repeated in another language to catch everyone up. It was really neat to see that.
So with a really wonderful dinner of a variety of cultural Catalan foods behind us, Marc and his brother drove us back to our hotel. This actually worked out great because it meant that we would have our lsat two rides on the Zone 2 pass reserved for tomorrow morning.

*~The Traveling Buddies

Current Location: Sant Cugat, just outside of Barcelona (St. Joan Station on the ferrocarril)
Day 8: Over and Out.

You Know Columbus?...and the rest of Barcelona

Day 7
0800 Local Time May 06, 2010 – 0030 Local Time May 07, 2010

We woke up and had a nice little breakfast of croissants/toast with apricot jam before heading down to Plaza Cataluña. We hiked up the little hill to the metro station and took it all the way to the very end at which point the timing couldn’t have been better that we met up with Marc. He walked up right next to us and we started off on our walking tour of the city!

In downtown Barcelona, there is a fork where you can go into the older, Roman part of the city or you can go into the modern section. We walked into the Roman section amongst the expensive, trendy shops and partially along the very famous, Las Ramblas. As we went along, Marc pointed out key points and places and statues. We walked all the way down to the Mediterranean Sea-beach where there is an extremely tall monument of Columbus pointing towards the Americas at which point Marc asked us oh-so-cleverly, “You know Columbus?” At which we laughed because in our history he is only a little bit important (jaja). No but really, Marc was a very good guide and we just had a little fun at his expense.

Together we wound our way through the city streets and plazas, including the main square of the old Roman section. We walked through a very old Cathedral that had a beautiful garden inside complete with ducks. Inside were rooms filled with Catholic statues of saints—it was all very beautiful. Under the stone floors were monks and priests that had been buried--some of the dates written on the stones dated back to the 1500s.


Then we walked up a ways to the Gaudí buildings, Gaudí being a very famous architect who is known for showing off a little bit (or other people might recognize him as that guy who was killed by a bus). His buildings have a lot of curves to them and one of the houses was sort of shaped like an ‘A’ which Marc told us was because the name of the family started with A so Gaudí fashioned it to be representative of them.

Along our walk the street was lined with motorcycles and mopeds. Occasionally we also saw the much less cool version: the bicycle. As we went along, I pointed out the motorcycle that I’d like to have (and have seen quite a couple of times around): the Ninja. Unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately as far as humor goes), there was a little black bike with a basket parked right next to it, to which Papo quite wittily replied, “Oh the bicycle—and it even has a little basket for you to take your stuff!” This quickly evolved into a running joke throughout the day. We even went back to try to take a picture of it but it was no where to be found.

After our walk to the Gaudí buildings, Marc showed us a good place to eat just off the main street. The food was really good—we had bread with some sort of tomato spread and then this white stuff that Catalonians (I guess that’s how you’d say that?) eat on a lot of things. It’s garlic and egg whites and olive oil. I would highly recommend this white stuff. We ordered two plates of grilled asparagus to share between the three of us and Papo had a sausage with grilled tomatoes and the local beverage (por favor)…he has that down. Whenever we go somewhere, Papo tries manages to get the servers to give him the specialty glass if it comes in one, with each one being different for his collection. So far he’s three for three.

Following lunch Marc had to go to class so we parted ways after he got us directions to go to a Gaudí architecture park. I later found out that we made him 25 minutes late to class (oops..! but apparently it was okay).

Even though we knew how to get to the park, we decided that’d we’d done a good amount of sight-seeing for the day and that we’d already had a nice taste of the Gaudí buildings so we were going to do something very important: shopping! Because our trip involved so much going-going-going and packing in as much as we possible could we hadn’t really had time to do any shopping (sad face).

So we walked up and down Las Ramblas and saw most of what there was to see there. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much variety in the center section. It’s basically the same “store” which was really a series of versions of the same kiosk. The real place to go would be in the surrounding shops, but those have a tendency to be more expensive.

In spite of walking up and down several times though, we didn’t do much purchasing—just a little bit of browsing. After all, it seemed like each kiosk was basically the same. That’s when we remembered that earlier we had passed by a Salvador Dalí museum. Before I get too side tracked though, another interesting thing about Las Ramblas (besides the shopping) is the people who dress up, some in extremely elaborate costumes, to make money. There are just large strings of people in individual costumes with everything from fairy with complementary marbles for kids to demons who are a riot scaring people; there are mimes and garden folk along with headless bodies and princesses. There are also sections of Las Ramblas where they sell beautiful flowers and animals like hens and duckets and song birds along with tiny bunnies, ferrets, and guinea pigs.

In the museum, we were allowed to take pictures, which was surprising. And I was also somewhat surprised to see that the museum didn’t showcase some of his larger, more popular works. Similarly I wasn’t aware that he did so much sculpture. In one section of the museum we went behind a heavy red velvet curtain into a dark room that was filled with tiny sculpture that were lit up and paintings/sketches were hung and highlighted on the walls. In another part were the same pictures that had come to the SU art gallery so I had seen them just a couple of weeks before. It was neat to be able to recognize many of them as being a part of Dalí’s take on Dante’s Divine Comedy. …And while I thought all of this was particularly interesting (because Dalí really is so eccentric), Papo wasn’t quite as keen on it. For him I’m pretty sure he could’ve taken it or left it without too much grief. But that’s okay, he put up with me while I browsed through the entirety of the museum and was a good sport about looking at all of the pictures.

Then it was time to make the decision on whether we were leaving Barcelona tomorrow or to leave on Saturday (dun dun dunnnnn). Well, I decided we would leave on Saturday and stay the extra day in Barcelona, even if that meant foregoing the monkey experience (I also have decided that these monkeys are probably not the cute monkeys I’m imagining…the experience is probably better in my head).

So we bought our train tickets at the Renfe station for the AVE going clase preferente, our only option for Saturday travel, from Barcelona to Sevilla for Saturday instead of the original plan to go clase turista tomorrow. Papo figured we would save on the cost of a night at the Navy Lodge by extending our stay at the Holiday in on points to make up half the difference in cost. With our tickets in hand (or rather in pocket), we went back to the hotel via the Metro and ferrocarril S 55.

Upon arriving at the hotel, we found out that there is actually a Formula One race in town, which explained the race car driver at the head of Las Ramblas that we saw earlier in the day …and this was going to mean no free points for our hotel. Instead of the Navy Lodge of $75, we were going to have to pay 110 Euros, (1€ equals ~ $1.36). We tried talking with David, the extremely accommodating front desk manager but he couldn’t do anything; we even tried calling the Holiday Inn hotline directly: nothing. So we were out of options. The train tickets weren’t changeable so late in the game so we booked the reservation for the extra night.

Then we had the brilliant idea: there was another holiday inn in downtown: we could just go over there tomorrow for the 15,000 points instead. So we called the Holiday Inn Company to see about booking the new hotel. As it turned out, David had actually just added the night to our standing reservation which was only payable via points—we weren’t going to have to pay the 110 Euro or move. It was something like a miracle.

So with those problems behind us we were able to get a little bit of dinner downstairs being that it was already 10 o’clock. I had soup that I think was something like green pumpkin soup with the white stuff in it, and we had chicken (on account that there was no turkey left).

Finally off our feet, and our dogs were tired, we were able to go to sleep and get some rest without the expectations of the alarm clock the next day.

*~The Traveling Buddies

Current Location: Sant Cugat, just outside of Barcelona (St. Joan Station on the ferrocarril)
Day 6: Over and Out.

On the Road Again....

Day 6
0830 Local Time May 05, 2010 – 2245 Local Time May 05, 2010

Mornings seem to be starting earlier and earlier even though they have actually gotten ever so slightly later than when we first started. But alas, today was another travel day. We got up, ate cheese toast at the hotel, and set out along the highway pulling our luggage. I’m really not a fan of the luggage pulling—it makes things significantly more difficult than just regular walking and is assuredly going to leave my legs black and blue from dragging it into metro trains etc as quickly as possible with a million people around trying to also get on that train—or through that station, or what have you.

Anyway, we got to the Atocha train station with planned in time for getting lost. Luckily, we didn’t get lost so we had an extra hour to relax. Unfortunately, our train was delayed an hour so we sold our souls for 3 Euros a piece Coke Lights and a travel pack of Chips Ahoy. This, along with a little bit of trail mix, ended up being lunch; we just didn’t know it yet.

The train got under way at 1330, an hour after the original planned time and we got into Barcelona around 1745. From there, we struggled with the Catalan signs (well…most of them are in Spanish too, but Spanish and English were no longer the bold signs) to figure out where on earth we needed to go now to get to the hotel. At information, I found out that the easiest way to get there would be to take the metro to the stop, Diagonal, and then from there to take the ferrocarril to Sant Cugat (why did we have to pick a place where I wasn’t sure how to pronounce it??? It’s coo-gaht).

We got off at Sant Cugat but not really because we couldn’t get through the gates. Apparently we had only bought a Zone 1 ticket and not a Zone 2 ticket pass so we were let through but only because we were the bumbling Americans, I think. By this I mean, they didn’t seem to have much problem letting Papo through but somehow I was a little more responsible and they weren’t as willing to let me through. Huh.

Once off the train, we made a quick ATM stop and quickly discovered we were in fact not where we were supposed to be (surprise surprise). A short cab ride away we got to the hotel and they very pleasantly checked us in and hooked us up with internet and a different room that had two beds instead of one. Everyone in the hotels has been extremely pleasant I think to the point that it is really worth noting. So to anyone who’s looking to go to Spain, the Holiday Inns really do seem to be nice places to stay.

At this point, we were a little exhausted after hauling luggage every where and then getting lost without lunch so we took ourselves back to the main square/plaza of Sant Cugat (just one stop over on the train now with our 10 trip zone 2 passes). There we had pasta dinners in a very quant little place and frozen yogurt in another from which we were allowed to take a menu so I’ll have that for my class to show them. =)

After dinner we got back to the hotel, Marc (my pen pal) had called again (he had called before we got there and said he’d call later—before we left we said in case he called to let him know we were having dinner and to ask until when we could call back). So he had called and said just to call back right away and we did. The plan now is to meet him in Barcelona’s Plaza de Cataluña at 11 tomorrow. And that’s all for today folks!

Current Location: Sant Cugat, just outside of Barcelona
Day 6: Over and Out.

Toledo, Prado, and Dinner!

Day 5
0830 Local Time May 04, 2010 –0030 Local Time May 05, 2010

Eight o’clock in the morning came a little earlier than is generally acceptable for eight o’clock in the morning, but we got up and ready to head out with Alicia and her sister to Toledo at 10. After a complimentary breakfast of thick toast with cheese and multi-fruit juice on my part and toast with cold cuts and orange juice along with several failed coffee attempts on Papo’s part, we met with Alicia and her sister, Laura.

Alicia drove us into to Toledo (about an hour away) which was once the capital of Spain because it’s a fortified city on one side and on the other side is a river with huge hills. Toledo is also under some sort of UNICEF code that requires it to maintain its historical accuracy look. The streets are cobblestone and sometimes large enough to walk three small framed people across if you’re lucky but usually just around two people abreast. Now we know why they have really small cars. At one point we had to duck into a doorway to let a car pass because we couldn’t just stand up against the wall—somehow the car was getting through without breaking its side mirrors off (this is still a little bit of a mystery). Similarly, I think I know where I can go to catch a motorcyclist...a quick clothesline move and I’d be set (although this would most likely entail a broken arm at the very least).

Toledo also does this special metal work where they hammer in gold and silver into jewelry and all sorts of things. I’m 99.999% certain that if I ever brought Will to Toledo that I would never be able to convince him to leave. There were swords and full body armor galore in the shops and for the ornate-ness of the work the price might have even been fairly reasonable…too bad the euro is doing better than the dollar.

We went into a cathedral which, as Laura so astutely put it, was specifically constructed to make you feel small, the ceilings were very high and vaulted. On the outside were intricate reliefs and statues. I have lots of pictures—they will be on facebook soon enough…the internet connection isn’t always the best though so I might have to wait to steal all the bandwidth when I get home to upload them.

Around 2 o’clock, after seeing a cathedral, mosque, synagogue and El Greco’s house (among other things Toledo has to offer), we went to lunch in a place that Laura and Alicia had picked out and had cochinillo, which is baby pig, along with baby lamb, huevos rotos , which are eggs mixed with potatoes and chorizo, and an array of vegetables. Our waitress didn’t think that we could share this food because our table was too small, but we did manage.

After our “early” lunch, we hopped back into Alicia’s car in the parking garage (side note: parking in the USA is nothing compared to parking in Europe. There is basically no space whatsoever to spare in a Spanish parking garage and the curves and so on are extremely tight—like the people from the Italian job clearly didn’t learn to drive in Europe because that heist wouldn’t’ve been a problem at all as far as driving was concerned: nothing compared to parking in Europe). But anyway, we left the parking garage and Alicia and Laura dropped us off outside of El Prado.

The Prado, in case you haven’t heard of it, is a world famous art museum. I actually taught this past semester a unit on Spanish art, and inside I was able to see three of the painting that we really discussed in depth. But more on that in a second. As we walked from getting our tickets over to the entrance we came across a fellow who puts your name on old fashion bullfighting and flamenco posters which I picked up two of. These should be pretty neat to have in the classroom.

Anyway, in the Prado we first came across the many works of Goya, a court painter turned impressionist revolutionary. Of his paintings, I thought one of the ones I hadn’t seen was the most striking; it was one that was paired with the one we studied so in depth. This might be because I hadn’t picked it apart and so was able to enjoy it simply as a piece of work. Los Fusilamientos del 3 de mayo though was extremely large and very neat to see on account that I knew about the history behind it and exactly what was going on in all the areas of the painting.

Upstairs we came across Velasquez’s Las Meninas. This one in particular I think was the most worth seeing in person because I could actually see for real the “focusing” on the center and how as you move out from the center Velasquez made the painting less clear. I knew this was the case, but as far as I was concerned the center of the computer image didn’t look any more or less blurry than the sides.
But after walking for so long all day, we had some very tired dogs. My ankle hurt and Papo’s knee hurt from where he tripped off the side walk. Please note that it was not me who tripped but him.

We took in a gigante Coke Light at a local Burger King (that happens to be a very expensive Burger King…) and looked into the little shops next door. By that time, it was around 2015 and we needed to find the Metro to get to La Plaza de Castillas which is a very large metro station and plaza. We managed to get there and also to reunite with Alicia and Laura who took us to their home to have dinner with their mom.

For us, they cooked what could be considered “tapas de casa.” We had baby shrimps, octopus with potatoes, a variety of thin sliced meats including Iberian ham and chorizo, Manchego cheese, bread, empanadas with tuna, tortilla española which is potatoes and eggs sort of like an omelet. All of this was then followed by a very traditional and tasty dessert that is similar to vanilla pudding (but not entirely in texture) with cinnamon and breading/larger-and-softer-version-of-a-vanilla-wafer on top.

Durante la sobremesa, we found out that Laura and her husband actually live pretty close to us—or will be living close to us as soon as she gets her visa. Alicia brought out the pictures she had in an album of her trip with us and we laughed over them. It was really a nice evening.

Alicia and her mom then took us back in the car to Plaza de Castillo via a long road in the city and tour guided us as we went along, pointing out the different buildings we saw and what they were along with the fountain where the soccer team, Real Madrid, celebrates when they win a big match.
We made it back to the hotel just in time to go to sleep so that we could be ready for the next day—the train to Barcelona!

Current Location: Alcorcón, Spain.
Day 5: Over and Out.

From Rota to Madrid

Day 4

1900 Local Time May 02, 2010 – 2300 Local Time May 03, 2010

Dinner was very nice. We went with Alan and Debbie (an easy pair of names to remember =)) walking around Rota until we found (thanks to many jumbled directions explaining where the restaurant *wasn’t*) Marcón Los Arcos. Everyone there took the waitress’ suggestion and ordered paella but me. I had some sort of steak type thing with mushrooms and potatoes which was quite exceptional. I hear that the paella was very seafood-y.

After having our dinner with them, we parted ways: they went back to the room and the traveling buddies continued on to downtown Rota where we consumed more chocolate than was really necessary in the form of specialty ice cream and layered cake. In this little café we hatched the plan for the rest of the trip. It went something like this: tomorrow go to Madrid, Tuesday—Toledo, leave Wednesday for Barcelona, stay until Friday morning, come back to Rota for Feria and to see the monkeys at Gibralter. I’m pretty psyched for these monkeys.

At that point, we called it a night, set up the alarm for the morning and went to sleep. In the morning, Papo went to help another couple who flew over with us get their travel plans straightened out (they were already missing part of their cruise that they had planned). As it ended up, we went with them to the estación de policía to get our passport stamped and then traveled together via taxi to Puerta de Santa Maria to catch the train.

The train station should have gone relatively smoothly. I’m pretty sure all the words you’re supposed to know to talk to about the train I was taught somewhere around Spanish 2 or 3. Unfortunately, the vocabulary section of the book does not account for “how to solve the problem when the train ticket you just bought leaves in an hour but your credit card is no longer working and you don’t understand why you can’t make an international call”.

After fumbling with the phone, we ran to another phone across the street, and then finally figured out that you don’t need to press #06 to make the international but you do need to dial 00 before dialing the country code. In the end, we made the call to the bank, told them “yo we’re in Spain quit holding up the money” (or something like that) and then ran back to the oficina de venta for RENFE tickets. Unfortunately, credit card still wasn’t working but thanks to someone else who sold us their Euros in the airport for dollars, we were able to purchase our tickets to get to the next train in cash.

So the four of us boarded our train with the help of a Spanish gentleman who happened to be going to the same place with his family. Then we sat tight and watched the countryside go by.

We arrived in Sevilla and grabbed a quick lunch at a rather neat sandwich shop which was really busy in the train station. Our waiter’s name was Alex, he seemed like a pretty nice kid even though we didn’t get to talk too too much. And before long (we got a few more dollars exchanged for euros in the mean time) we were boarding the AVE train to Madrid.

And then we sat for another long time but this time in first class where we were offered complimentary refreshments, una merienda, and free headphones for a movie (Napolean y Yo) along with newspapers (I have two) and two moist towelettes. We saw along the way a lot of olive trees along with a couple of castles which were pretty neat.

When we got to Madrid, we parted ways with the couple we were traveling with, Judith and David, and took the Tren de Cercanías to Alcarcón to find our Holiday Inn Express. We got to Alcarcón without any trouble but upon arriving were nicely lost as to where the hotel was and unfortunately no one seemed to have heard of it. This puzzles me a little bit because the Hotel was a mere handful of blocks from where we were standing.

We did, however, run into a very nice girl who was new to the area who helped us using her ipod (pronounced ee-pod) that was able to connect to the WiFi (Wii-fee). She brought us up a map and tried to help us as best as she could since the Holiday Inn Express didn’t list any street number. So we walked a little ways in the general direction that we thought was right and stumbled upon it across the street. Lucky for us, we made it with very little trouble and checked in.

Our room is quite nice: two twin beds and a shower/bath; it has a TV and the lights only work if you put the keycard into a slot. This is actually a very reasonable way to save electricity, I think. You only get one key card so you can only have electricity if you’re in the room. Works for me.

We managed to get in touch with Alicia, the foreign exchange student we hosted 7 some years ago. To put this in perspective, this was before the fall of the Twin Towers and also before I spoke any Spanish. The fact that I didn’t speak any Spanish when I met her makes it really seem like a long time ago. Tomorrow we will go with her and her sister to Toledo and spend the day and then come back to Madrid and eventually have dinner with her family. We’re looking forward to it.

By the time we had all this squared away, it was around 2030 which is a reasonable (almost) time for having dinner. We got a recommendation from the girl downstairs (who we have bugged I don’t even know how many times now with questions) for a tapas restaurant where we went and had some excellent comida. I’m not really sure if we had tapas though. We asked for tapas and said we had no idea what to get, she recommended some things and it was really good. At first we had (and split) a type of toast with some meat on it, and then these homefries type things with mustard, ketchup, and sour cream. Interestingly, it’s perfectly fine to smoke in those types of restaurants. Clare: we thought of you and how much you wouldn’t’ve liked that.

Then we walked back to the hotel and are now quite exhausted from a long day of traveling. We’re looking forward to not lugging suitcases around with us tomorrow (woo-hoo!).

*~The Traveling Buddies

Current Location: Alcarcón, Spain (a ten minute train ride outside of Madrid)
Day 4: Over and Out.

Across the Pond!

Day 3

1330 Local Time May 01, 2010 – 1830 Local Time May 02, 2010

Things started off I’d say shaky at best. We had a decision to make: wait at Dover and take the tentative flight to Spangleburg or take a flight to Charleston AFB and try to take a flight to Rota. I made the executive decision: let’s try to go to go directly to Rota. After all, this would solve our problem with trying to remember the real name of Spanglefurt. So we crossed our fingers and did manage to get on the flight to Charleston.

This was good because then we got to see the second room in the Dover Terminal. We felt like now at least we were making some progress. Our plane was a C-5. We got in a little bus that shuttled us over to the plane, and then back to the terminal because the mission was delayed 30 minutes, and then back again to the plane when it was time to board.

On this C-5, we actually flew backwards. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. We didn’t *fly* backwards, but we did ride backwards, which is a little strange to get accustomed to when thinking about the movement of the plane but otherwise, if I hadn’t known I was going backwards then I probably wouldn’t’ve realized it except at take off and landing (I was leaning into my seatbelt at take off and back against my seat when we landed).The flight was easy; we did wear earplugs though to block out some of the extra noise the plane made. It was actually a cargo plane and when we exited we went out through the cargo hatch.

As it happened, the plane to Charleston was the same plane that was going to Rota that night. So when we got in, we marked ourselves present, sat tight for a couple hours (played on Sporcle.com which was funny…it only took 8 of us to figure out all 50 capitals of the 50 states). Lucky for us, there were 73 seats available, no hazardous material, and only 23 of us. So we climbed back on the plane, and received our $4.25 meals which included a hoagie, a full size candy bar, can of soda, water bottle, and individual pack of cheetos. We also got a blanket and travel pillow wrapped in cling wrap. For any of you thinking about wrapping my Christmas presents in plastic cling wrap, for your sake I don’t suggest it.

And basically I slept most of the plane ride. We departed at approximately 0100 hours local time and arrived at 1530 local time (a difference of 6 hours). After helping someone out with sending an e-mail to their son, we hiked over to the Navy Lodge and now I’m a much happier camper because I’m clean and my hair doesn’t look like a grease monkey. The plan is to head out for some dinner tonight, and since I’ve stopped taking the cold medication I’m actually starting to feel a little bit hungry. =D

*~The Traveling Buddies

Location: Rota, Spain
Day 3: Over and Out

Day 2

Day 2

0900 Local Time April 30, 2010 – 1330 Local Time May 01, 2010

Well, so far not so good for the Euro-Hopping Duo. After the shower routine we had the day crew back (who are quite friendly and helpful). We filled it with a little bit of napping (and by we, I mean I). It’s a pretty good thing that they have WiFi here because that would’ve made the day go a lot slower.
There is also all of one option for eating on base that delivers to the terminal. There is a Burger King in walking distance, but the only delivery locale is a pizza joint. So for lunch we had pepperoni-spinach-broccoli pizza for lunch and shared with some of our fellow traveling mates. That’s one thing that’s nice about Space-A. Because everything is so not set in stone, most people are relaxed and flexible. Would you like an apple or an orange? Here, have a slice of pizza. So that’s been nice.

But unfortunately, eventually all the flight times were changed from tentative seats to no seats, which was a bummer. Germany wasn’t even an option any more. So as it was, we decided to call it quits for the day and hook ourselves up with a Holiday Inn Express night via free points. Definitely have to like those free points. We also had free roast beef sandwiches that were pretty good at that hotel.
We have learned that if you’re planning to take a trip you should do the following things:

 Sign up everywhere (or, as many places as you can when you send out that e-mail) –Just because Dover is close to you, you might be hopping to another base before you hop out of the country.

 Sign up around 45 days in advance just incase you get delayed (especially if you have cruise tickets). This way you won’t have your name restart on the list back at 1.

 Bring a towel. These are especially useful when showering outside of the hotel realm.

 USO rooms are very nice, but to use them you have to leave your luggage in the car. The USO room is highly recommended as a travel stop and as a place for watching movies. And on that note I would also recommend the Kingdom as a movie to watch if you have Netflix.

 Don’t eat a 500 calorie Danish in the middle of the night. These are not healthy and generally throw off eating patterns. 0300 is not an acceptable time to be eating anything.

 Space-A flights are not like a box of chocolates. Boxes of chocolates have a key that are quite correct as to what flavor of chocolate you’re going to get: the key for seats and flight times is not set, and is subject to change.


So today we’re quite well rested which is good. Definitely superior to sleeping in that chair. Looks like the plan is going to be head to Charleston this afternoon and hope to catch a Rota flight from there! Wish us luck!

*~The Traveling Buddies

Current Location: Dover AFB, Delaware
Day 2: Over and Out.