First of all 7am is WAAAAAAAY to early for a flight. I think I’d rather be shot in the head before I take another 7 am flight (unless its for something like getting to go give birth to Matt Damon’s babies).
We left the house at 4:39 (can you tell I know the exact route to the airport by now?) Took the 5:04 direct train to the airport (there must be a lot of idiots have early morning flights) and were there by 5:45. Even though Zurich was having the first snow since, like, 1947 everything was still on time. My favorite part of the Zurich airport is when you get to take the little train from the main part to Terminal E. In the train you get to see a 30 second little video that always gets me so excited because at the end a cow moos – hehehe. Kyle also likes it because when you going away from the main terminal you get to see Heidi (think Jessica Rabbit from ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ with braided pig tails and lederhosen). We ALWAYS go to Terminal E – who in their right might flies domestically within Switzerland, it’s like the size of a postage stamp! Well, this time we had to talk to Terminal A – it’s just as far away, you just don’t get to take the train. I would have been really disappointed but then realized that I was going to the freaking Mediterranean!
While we were waiting in the gate Kyle insists that I stabbed him in the eye. My story is that it’s not my fault if he can’t control his own bodily convulsions. I was pointing at him and he thought it would be a good idea to head butt my finger with his face…see how well that worked out for you Kyle?!? (sometimes I really think boys are the stupider sex :P)
Everything was going smoothly until after we got on the plane. The captain comes on and says it’s going to be a little while – the tractor thing that is supposed to push us back is missing. We started pushing away from the gate and then stop. The tractor is stuck in the snow – we need to get a bigger one “don’t be scared when it feels like the earth is falling out from underneath you, the tractor is just stuck and we have to get back down to the ground before the bigger tractor can take over”. About 10 minutes later he gets on the loudspeaker and says that it’ll be about 30 minutes before the bigger tractor gets there. Once the tractor gets there he comes back on and says the plane now has to be de-iced (um, it’s snowing OF COURSE the plane has to be de-iced…) an hour later, at least, we leave. Our hour and 23 minute flight took us just over 5 hours gate to gate…good thing I was going to the Mediterranean!
So on our way through customs I realize that Barcelona doesn’t have nearly the same customs ‘regulations’ that Amsterdam did. In Amsterdam the customs guys were all like 18 year old super models (even Kyle made a comment about it at the time). Everyone is lucky that those guys had shirts on…otherwise I would have never left the airport and Kyle would have had to find is second wife earlier then originally anticipated :) ).
Once at the airport we got directions to take the train 3 stops then take the metro 2 stops, walk around the corner and we’re there. Luckily Kyle and I had done some research beforehand. The directions were exactly right but that was no help in purchasing the actual tickets. Even the machine we used was helpless! We wanted to buy or tickets in English so we picked that option – the only thing it changed was “Otros Opciones” to “Other Options” on the screen of about 15 things (Megan, if that’s not right I want you to reprimand Kyle like you would your students – he should know better!). But we knew we wanted a T-10 card and went on our merry way.
You have to remember that we had to pack 20 days worth of clothes and all the stuff that goes along with it. Our suitcases were HUGE and super heavy. We have a pretty good system: Kyle will carry the 2 big bags and I carry everything else (this time that was my Vera duffle, purse, camera bag, and Kyle’s overnight backpack). Every time we went down a flight of stairs Kyle would count them. By the time we got to the forth flight Kyle said that if their wasn’t an elevator we were going to have to live in the subway tunnels until it was time to get on the boat or we found an elevator – luckily there was an elevator at our stop.
We finally get to our hotel (the directions were actually very good), get checked in and up in our room, and Kyle instantly, INSTANTLY passes out on the bed. I have a new camera I need to learn to use, a new book that burning a whole in my bag (yes, please tell me how lame I am – the book is ‘Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times’) so I leave him a note that I’m going to the pool on the roof to read and play.
Key in hand, I head up to the top floor, I wonder around the 1 (singular) hallway looking for where the hell the pool is when this guy comes out of NO WHERE and scared the crap out of me. He only speaks Spanish and I didn’t have my personal translator with me so there I am trying to explain to him that I want to go to the pool (it’s like high 50’s – that’s warm enough to sit in the sun, fully clothed, reading outside). At one point I say ‘aqua’ thinking that he might get what I want from that – instead he hands me his water bottle, not exactly, but that is what I said… Finally, he decides I’m completely incompetent and shows me how an elevator works (since I still have my key in my hand he knows I need to eventually get to floor 4). I decide to head to the lobby and sit around there with my book and camera (I found out the pool was closed for construction – probably what that guy was doing).
There are 2 things we do in every city we go to.
- Go to the Hard Rock Café (if there is one) and pick up their city pin (I think I have 7 or 8 now with many more to come!)
- Find a super cool magnet that must: a) be 3-D b) state the name of the city (or mountain when we’re in Switzerland, not just country or region) c) be super cool
So, off to find Hard Rock! We had a map to get there but somehow got a little turned around and ended up on the ‘shoe street’ (I think Kyle knew this place existed but tried his hardest to keep me away from it…). So, we did a little woman’s shoe shopping but ended up with nothing (I don’t think I was in the mood). We finally found Hard Rock and by this time we were starving! Kyle had a plate of meats for dinner – no I’m serious, it was almost like we were back home – and I had honey mustard and a unlimited refillable Diet Coke (I’m sure something came with my honey mustard, like fries or chicken nuggets or something – but I don’t remember). We were both very happy with our dinner selections.
After dinner we stopped by the Hard Rock Store to pick up our pin and then headed out to find the Barcelona casino. We didn’t know exactly where it was – just the bus stop. But we weren’t taking the bus, we were taking the subway. So we found what we thought was the closest subway stop to that bus stop and headed off. When we popped our head up from the station we were in the deserted warehouse district. Kyle thought ‘Hey, this looks seedy, let’s walk around here for a while!!’ (He also thought the river was north of us – it was south.) After about 15 minutes of walking around and thinking we were going to get mugged we decided to head back to the subway and head home.In the subway we thought about going to Las Ramblas to check it out at night but then remembered the 3 am wake up call and decided we liked sleep more…there’s always tomorrow!
Here are a couple more pictures of things we found around Barcelona on the first day:
(Please notice that trees and dogs are acceptable but volleyballs are not)
You can never go wrong with Starbucks!
I never need to go to the grocery store again! I could live forever from this vending machine - heck I could live on Oreos and Sunny D alone! (I think that's a rotisserie chicken on the right)
1 comment:
Dear Crystal:
You are an awesome and detailed blog writer.
-Jess
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