May 1, 2023
All right, here I be, in Madrid, Spain. I'm currently waiting for a couple of people from my study abroad to land so we can all travel to where we are staying (a suburb of Madrid called Alcalá de Henares where there is a university with dorms) for the next week together. Gordon always asks me how the flight was, and I told him today, the flights are always fine (unless there is a crying baby or someone next to you who falls asleep ON you). Yeah, the flight is rarely the exciting part. It is everything
in between the flights that is crazy.
On that note, the flight from Detroit to France was great--Mama gave me an Ambien to put me to sleep, I had my neck pillow and a window seat--I was chilling. Of course, right at the end of the flight ALL of the fluid in my body decided it needed to be OUT of my body, and I spent the last 15 minutes of the flight literally trying not to pee my pants. It was pretty close, but thankfully the people in my row (at my request) got up as soon as we could, and I went to the closest bathroom five rows back. TMI, but it was like a WATERFALL in there! Anyway, I got off the flight, and I have learned through years of travel that when in an airport, just follow the signs.
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At least I got a France stamp
in my passport... |
The first signs I found in Paris were the flight boards which, for some reason, were in NO discernible order WHATSOEVER (unlike the alphabetical ones in the States). We had München by Barcelona, and Madrid was nowhere to be found, so I just had to look at like eighteen different screens until I finally found my flight and the gate. I continued following the signs to get to 2F, the terminal I needed to be in. I get to a security checkpoint where two men who obviously don't speak English gesture me to the left (even though the signs for 2F pointed to the right). I get ALL my stuff on the belt, and then the guy behind the security lane (who obviously speaks some English) gestures to my water water bottle, shakes his head, and points to the trash can. I didn't want to perpetuate the dumb American stereotype, but I wasn't giving up my water bottle, so in the absence of somewhere to pour out the water in my bottle, I simply emptied the bottle into the trash can and put it back on the belt empty. He then rants at me for a good 45 seconds about the water now in the plastic bag (I don't
exactly what he said 'cause it was in French), but he was being super rude, and I wasn't gonna throw away my water bottle. And he wouldn't speak English to me--even though he asked me for my boarding pass in perfect English. Then I perpetuated the dumb American stereotype even further when we both realized I didn't have the boarding pass for my flight to Madrid yet--I just had my old one for DTW-CDG. After exiting the line, I asked the guys who originally directed me to the security post where I could print my board pass. The directions I got were up two floors and down one. Now that I KNOW where the Air France desk is, those directions make complete sense, but in the moment they did not. So for the next 30 minutes, talking to the same helpful airport agents like three separate times, I walk this stretch of airport between the security checkpoint and the tram. Finally, I met some other people who needed to print their boarding passes as well, and we found a separate stairwell that was the "down" one of the directions. At the Air France desk, I proceed to wait another 35 minutes (and I'm eighth in line!). When I get to the counter, the woman asks for my passport and the baggage claim tag (don't know what that is about), and after a few tippy-taps on her keyboard, we both just sit there and wait for probably ten minutes more before my boarding pass is printed out. I mean, I got it, and she did her job, but I'm just not sure why it took SO LONG.
Anyway, long story short, I don't like the French....
And to top it all off, when I got on my flight, Air France didn't have TVs!
When I safely got to Madrid, the only worry I had left was my luggage. But after waiting anxiously by the luggage belt, I spotted my golden yellow suitcase! (I was especially worried because I hadn't gotten any tracking notifications since Detroit--but I didn't expect France to have scanned my bag, so I wasn't surprised to find that they hadn't, even though my bag had gotten to Madrid). I had some extra time before more people from Study Abroad landed (so we could travel to our residence together), so I found an outlet, charged my phone and waited. When they got there and we headed to the bus stop, I realized how HAPPY I was to be in Europe again. The scent of cigarette smoke, the signs of a working public transportation system, the unmistakable but indescribable European modern architecture--it felt different, but it still felt like home :-)
The ride from the airport to Alcalá was nice and smooth, and the walk to the Universidad de Alcalá was relatively short--although one of the four wheels on my luggage broke off (I blame the French) so the cobblestone streets definitely gave me some struggles ;-) It was crazy, as we were walking up, some of the BYU students had just left, so after dropping off my luggage, Isaac (a guy with whom I had travelled from the airport) and I headed out and caught up with the other students. Mind you, this was 8:30 at night, but of course, because it's Spain, the streets were ALIVE! It was dark, but we headed out into the well-lit and lively streets, met up with some students, and explored the nearby cathedral, the old medieval wall, the Roman-style bazaar (yes, I bought some candies just for fun :-)) and took a ton of pictures! It is super fun to be able to just like...HEAD OUT. Like, I felt like such a young adult, just shooting the breeze, and walking around with other people my age. I felt very European, although we didn't get any alcohol or go clubbing which other people our age were DEF doing ;-)
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Alcalá is the birthplace of Miguel
Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote
so here is a statue of him |
All in all, first few hours in Spain were DOPE. Like, just ending the day exploring for an hour and a half felt so freeing. It was good to get out and walk around after flying all day, and I remembered how FUN Europe is. Of course, it helps a TON that (unlike missionary times) I speak the language ;-)
The ride from the airport to Alcalá was nice and smooth, and the walk to the Universidad de Alcalá was relatively short--although one of the four wheels on my luggage broke off (I blame the French) so the cobblestone streets definitely gave me some struggles ;-) It was crazy, as we were walking up, some of the BYU students had just left, so after dropping off my luggage, Isaac (a guy with whom I had travelled from the airport) and I headed out and caught up with the other students. Mind you, this was 8:30 at night, but of course, because it's Spain, the streets were ALIVE! It was dark, but we headed out into the well-lit and lively streets, met up with some students, and explored the nearby cathedral, the old medieval wall, the Roman-style bazaar (yes, I bought some candies just for fun :-)) and took a ton of pictures! It is super fun to be able to just like...HEAD OUT. Like, I felt like such a young adult, just shooting the breeze, and walking around with other people my age. I felt very European, although we didn't get any alcohol or go clubbing which other people our age were DEF doing ;-)
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