Onward Hoe!

Oh how the tides they turn...

The first night I was in Europe, I missed my flight to Venice, and, tragically, had to sleep in the airport. All the wiser (see ¨Tips for Airport Living¨), I resolved not to miss any more flights so as to avoid such experiences in the future. Imagine my shock and surprise at myself when on Saturday, after only 1.5 weeks abroad, I actually suggested sleeping in the airport! Here's how it went down:

Peter and Chris were going to Pamplona to run with the bulls. They have to go through Barcelona and then to Pamplona. I have to go to Barcelona on my way to Malaga so we decided to overnight train it together. However, with everybody and their hermano going to Pamplona to get gored, all the trains to Barcelona from Italy were booked solid. There is no way we could have forseen this. I think Peter freaked out just a little bit while Chris and I laughed at the adventure. Enter Ryan Air. Yes, my good buddy, R.A. was to transport us bright and early Sunday morn to Barcelona where we should each then catch day-long trains to our respective destinations. It's amazing what R.A. will do for you if you slip 'em a little cash over the internet.

Here's where it got really fun.

Ok-not that punctuality has ever been my strong suit, but this was a bit much. Blast that extra day in Cinque Terre!! No--I wouldn't have missed it for the world, and none of these travel mishaps could have been predicted. So I got to Malaga this morning (Monday)...by bus. SIXTEEN HOURS on a bus. Yeah, slightly tardy, but not too horribly. I got everything done for class that I was supposed to get done. I have to get some housing things straightened out, but that's another story. The travel...

We were in the airport in Milan when this girl walks by, sees the Canadian flag patches on Chris and Peter's backpacks and says, ¨Hey Canada!¨ She ends up joining us and we discover that her name is Barb and she's going to be on our flight. She's all alone so of course we invite her to hang out. She does. We like her. We keep her all the way to Barcelona.

I didn't sleep much in the airport. The benches were so geniusly engineered so that they were reasonable comfy for sitting, but NOT AT ALL made for sleeping. I got maybe 2 hours´ rest. The flight to Barcelona, however, was great naptime. I was out before we ever took off and didn't wake up til the flight attendant forced me to sit up...and put my seat up...and my seatbelt on...and my window open...geez. I had high hopes that even with an hour bus ride into downtown Barcelona, I could get on the 11:30 train to Malaga and be here by 10 last night. However, we missed the 8:45 bus from the airport so we had no hope of getting there until 11:25, at which point we still had to find and take the subway to the train station. Oh yeah---and 40% of all trains weren't even running because of a strike.

So we get to the station in Barcelona to find that there are tickets available to neither Pamplona nor Malaga. So if I wanted to take a train, I'd have to wait for the next night's overnight, which would have put me here tomorrow morning. Ugh. So I took a bus. I big freakin long bus ride, parting from Chris and Peter for the first time in 3 days. It was tough. I really like those kids.

I arrived in Malaga this morning...stinky, tired, really, REALLY DIRTY (DERELICTE!!). I haven't bathed (really), slept in a bed, or changed clothes in about 3 days, so I'm going immediately to get my housing worked out so I can do that...a LOT. My first apartment turned out to be full already. But I couldn't do anything about it til now because it was siesta time and the office was closed. It is open now. Off I go.