August 21, 2008
Today was the day that I arrived in Spain. The flight was freaking long. First, I flew from Salt Lake City (Kelsey was kind enough to drop me off for my early flight) to Washington DC International Airport, and then to Paris, and finally to Madrid. The flight between SLC and DC was boring, I played on my iPod, read, etc. The flight from DC to Paris was the longest one because it was overnight. The crew on this plane were nicer than the ones in the States, which I thought was pretty funny. Everyone had a blanket and a pillow on their seat, and there was a tv in the seat in front of you. I watched Iron Man in Spanish until dinner, which was a roll, jello, pasta and water. I think there were cookies for dessert. The girl sitting next to me was from France and she was an experienced flier, and I just copied her when the food ordering came around. The flight attendants spoke in French to me (which I didn't understand) and the girl next to me kindly translated for me. I slept for part of the flight, and when I woke up I watched movies until landing.
In Paris, I had to get to my connecting flight. The plane emptied into the airport and I followed a red carpet to Security, which I had to go through for a second time. There was a lady in front of me who was arguing with the desk people about bringing in a bottle of alcohol. When the desk people were distracted, she took the bottle and snuck into the airport with it. I got to my flight to Madrid on time, and the plane was pretty empty. I had the entire row to myself, and took the opportunity to sleep.
At the Madrid airport, I got my luggage and asked the attendant lady how to get to the hotel, and she told me that I would have to call them, and she gave me the number. It took me ages to figure out how to use the public telephone, until I found out that the ones you could use a card with weren't working for some reason. A shuttle came from the hotel, and they carted me back to the hotel. It was very nice and modern. I went to my room and freshened up from all of those flights and decided to go explore. The hotel was near the airport, so I am guessing it was in the middle of a Madrid suburb. I walked to the gas station across the street and bought some food, and then walked down the streets a bit. I came across many stores that were closed, since it was siesta time. There was one fruit store that was open, and I went in to buy some fruit.
Back at the hotel, I waited for Lindsay to get to the hotel, since she and I were going to share the hotel since she was arriving earlier than her husband. When she arrived, we went to find somewhere to eat, and sat at an outdoor cafe. We ordered sandwiches and drinks, and talked a bit about random things. After we finally got attention of the server and paid our bill, we went back to the hotel to get a good nights rest.
