The Long Journey to Madrid
I was quite nervous when we got to the airport in
I then wheeled my bags all the way down to the terminal; stupid me. I then asked where I needed to go in order to check my bags and was told, "At the ticket counter," which was all the way back across the airport. I felt so dumb and stupid; I hated myself.
So I then trudged all the way back and checked my bags. My big one was 5.5 lbs. under the 50 lb. weight limit. I was relieved because I didn't want to pay the $80 charge for the extra weight. I was thankful that I had decided to divide my clothes between two suitcases. Prof. MJB,
We were to leave
The flight from RIA to Philly was AWESOME! I loved it more than I ever thought I would. It was so beautiful to see the cities between
The flight went smoothly, and after we deplaned the three of us had to haul ass all the way across the huge Philly airport. The airport is wonderful, and very clean and well kept. The stores it contained were amazing, and it was similar to a shopping mall. They even had a Harley Davidson store where you could buy motorcycles (in an airport?!).
We eventually made it to our gate and reunited with the rest of our group. Then
It wasn't long before we boarded the international flight to
I was seated next to Franny, who I had briefly met before. We both began to read to occupy the time waiting for take off. When it did, the view was amazing and the 8 hour flight commenced. We were served dinner, which was okay, but not the greatest (I know "What do you expect? It's plane food!"). I had the pasta, and it was quite good except the sauce was spicy hot. I ate the cheese, bread and crackers, and decided that was enough. The movie that was being shown was "Invincible." It looked quite good, but I decided not to watch it because I was busy reading, sleeping and listening to my iPod in order to occupy myself.
I was awake when the sun began to shine through the clouds in the atmosphere. It was one of the most amazing sights Iâve seen in my lifetime. Seeing clouds at their level, and even being above them, was incredible. When we were closer to the ground, I could see the Spanish mountains and the windmills that were perched atop the ridges. The ground looked like a patch-work quilt of greens and browns with an occasional dark river winding in between. A few towns could be seen scattered about the land with buildings of white and brown.
When we arrived at
After all of our luggage had been claimed, we went to meet our tour guide. When we came face to face, she was a twenty-something Spanish woman named Inma. She dressed very stylish, yet bohemian at the same time.
We proceeded to drive to our hotel, the Hotel Principe Pio. Here waiting outside was another professor, Fernando. The hotel is quite close to the royal palace and gardens in a park-like setting are directly across the street. My roommates are Meghan and Diana, who I know the best out of everyone in our group. The room is small and contains three twin beds and a bathroom. Out our window we can see apartments, clotheslines and cats on top of roofs. There is also a large Middle-Eastern-looking dome which is very colorful.
I went to lunch at a Turkish restaurant chain with the majority of our group. I found the food to be quite unappetizing, and couldn't finish it.
After that I took a nice two and a half hour nap to recover slightly. We were supposed to visit a tourist site this afternoon (the Palacio Real, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, or the Museo Reina Sofia), but we voted to have the entire afternoon to ourselves.
I think Meghan, Diana, and I are going to go sightseeing with others from our group. I hope we have a great time and don't get lost.
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