Day 5: The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain... sounds insane.





I’m back again after a VERY long day. Brace for impact... this is going to be a doozy. So we started the day at a refreshing 2am. We got up and got ready pretty quick. We were out waiting for our cab by 3:10am. He had e-mailed me back after missing our pickup saying that he’d be at our hotel by 3:15am to take us to the airport. We waited. And waited. He did it again! So my dad goes out on the street at 3:25am to wave down a taxi, but not just a taxi, but a taxi van to handle our luggage. While my dad is doing that my mom is calling the MIA driver to say forget it. He answers the phone and says he’s 5 minutes away, by this time we are loading a new taxi. He says he’s not late and that he was supposed to be there at 3:30am. Not what you said in your e-mail buddy. So my mom tells him forget it and we head out. We got to the airport on time and check-in went pretty smooth. We actually had to wait for the employees to get there to check us in. After that we headed to security where we had the most laid back security experience ever. I’m telling you, the Irish are the coolest people on the planet. After security we walked 10 miles to our gate. I half expected people to be standing along the sides of us cheering us on & handing us cups of water as we passed by. I think that’s the farthest I’ve ever walked in my life. The terminal was really cool except they made you walk forever and then just for the fun of it... to get on the plane you had to walk down three flights of stair, with your carry-on, walk outside in the frigid morning air and then back up another set of stairs to get on the plane. If we weren’t already exhausted from the early wake up call, we were done in by the time we got on the plane. We had a baby sitting in front of us but she was really good, so that wasn’t a problem. The problem, however, was those lousy French. After today, they’re going back to Freedom Fries- in my vocabulary at least. We’re all ready to taxi from the gate and then... *ding* “This is your captain speaking. Due to the French air traffic controller strikes we are not allowed to fly in French airspace. Due to this ......(inaudible)....... 15 - 20 minutes.” Excusez-moi?? “Due to this we will be delayed here for an hour and fifteen to twenty minutes.”  Oh, but it gets better. After waiting over an hour to take off, we then have to fly around the French's precious airspace causing us an even longer flight! I was so mad! Don’t know if you’ve been up on the news, but there is a hurricane named Lisa out there. Just saying. Once we finally landed we walked right through customs & then onto baggage claim where we picked up our luggage. While we were there we watched an older lady have an anxiety attack that turned into a full on seizure. Her name was Mary and it was just about the saddest thing I have ever had to watch... other than the Yankee vs. Phillies world series last year. I know, how could I joke, but I have to- it was just too sad. After that we headed out with our luggage to meet our tour guide who was picking us up and taking us on a 4 hour tour of Barcelona and then dropping us off at our hotel. Now that was a sight! Remember the pic of our 9 bags. I was told at booking that we’d have a minivan. Not so much. He showed up in a Toyota 5 passenger car! That was a site to see. Due to the overload, he took us to our hotel first & then on our tour. We had the trunk full, 4 bags on the passenger seat and then another in the foot well where my legs should have been, forcing me to sit Indian style (criss-cross apple sauce, for the politically correct who get offended easy) the whole way. It was embarrassing but oh so funny. Just take a second to picture myself & my parents squeezed in the back seat of a small car, now add 9 suitcases, a small backpack & a driver. Priceless. Now we had just left Ireland & basically had seen almost no rain... we land in Barcelona, pouring on & off all day. Due to the rain & lack of sleep there are no pictures with my dslr or any of us. There are quite a bunch of the architecture here from a famous architect, Gaudi. Weird stuff if you ask me. Kinda like an adult’s Dr. Seuss. They’re really proud of it & it us breathtaking, just not in the “oh how beautiful” way, more like in the “what drugs was he on” type of way. As you can see I’m not a real big fan of Barcelona. I don’t know. I guess really it didn’t stand a chance after Ireland. It’s just a big, busy, dirty city to me. When I say dirty, I don’t mean like litter or anything. It’s hard to explain. I guess you could say grungy? I don’t know. I’m glad I’m here & got to see it, but I don’t need to come back to Spain... or at least not to Barcelona. After our tour we went back to the hotel and laid down for a bit before heading to dinner. We had probably the best meal of the trip tonight. It was so good! It was all kinds of tapas, pailla, rabbit, veal stew, chicken, flan, deep fried bananas, etc. So good! After dinner we got to see a Flamenco show. WOW! That was so cool. I took video but I don’t think I’ll be able to post it until I got home. Search “Tablao Flamenco Cordobes” on youtube or go to their website if you’d like to get an idea. It was the most amazing dancing, singing & guitar playing you could ever imagine. And the lead male dancer... let’s just say I’d visit Barcelona again after that. Wow. Even my dad commented about him after the show. I bought the dvd so maybe when I get home I’ll be able to post some of it. I don’t know how well my sound will be on my camera, since they served all-you-can-drink sangria, so needless to say we had a rowdy group! It was still an amazing experience though- drunk woman screaming like 14 year olds with Bieber Fever and all. Don’t even ask how I know about that. And can I just ask, what the heck does that little twerp know about love??? What is 10?  I digress. After the show, we walked out to pouring rain. Luckily I had brought my dad an umbrella & my mom & I our rain coats. We had about a 20 minute walk in the pouring rain back to our hotel. I almost face planted about 4 times, since I was in very slick bottomed flip flops, so it was quite the experience! Hoping my jeans dry by tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning we move into the Disney Magic cruise ship- our home away from home for the next 14 days!! 
Talk to you guys soon!
Don’t forget to check out my pics... use the link at the top. 

3 comments:

mayo3dill said...

Lisa...hope you got a pic of your taxi ride in the toyota.....I imagine it was on the same level as the pic of Nicky and all of us coming home to Ocala from the airport with Grandma. Barcelona.....definitely Dr. Seuss architecture!! Love ya Lisa!! Hugs to mom and dad.

Painter Mommy said...

Cliff and I went through your pictures of Ireland, still need to check out the Barcelona ones. Ireland looks great, I love all the stone work in the buildings and ruins. I love the beautiful red door of that first castle.

It looks like it was pretty cold there though. Wondering what the climate was like. I like the pictures of your mom and dad sleeping. LOL Anyway, I hope you are having a great time!

DAWN

mayo3dill said...

Where are you Lisa???????? I'm still here on day 5, the 17th, and today is SUNDAY!!!!!