The Long and Winding Road Home - Part I - Madrid
By the time that my friend Paul was to arrive in Madrid on December 19, I had already gone through a rollercoaster of emotions and a whirlwind of goodbyes, but had pretty much come to peace with the reality - I was leaving the place I loved. I’m glad I got that out of the way beforehand, because there was a new rollercoaster soon to come my way.
Paul’s flight was scheduled to arrive at 7 AM at Barajas airport, which is at least an hour by metro from my place, after which I had to catch a shuttle bus from the metro stop to the new Terminal 4 where he was supposed to be arriving. I seriously had not been up that early the entire time I'd been in Spain (unless I was coming at it from the other side), but being the good friend I am, I made the trek to the airport.
So, I was running a bit late (imagine), but not too terribly late, but late enough that when I arrived, and saw that the flight had already arrived, I wasn’t sure if we’d missed each other. I waited… and I waited… and I waited some more. Finally, I asked at the information desk if it was possible that the passengers from his flight were still awaiting their luggage, and they assured me that anyone from that flight should have already received their luggage and left the building. As a last ditch effort, I decided to call Paul’s hostel to see if he had arrived there... nothing.
I didn’t know what to do, and by this point, it was nearing noon. I decided to hop the bus to the metro for the hour plus journey home, only to arrive home to an email message from one of our friends in San Francisco, explaining that Paul’s flight had been delayed from SFO, that he missed his connecting flight, and he would be on another flight that arrived at 3:45 PM. I sighed a huge, pregnant, unhappy sigh, and headed back to the metro to the bus to the airport. Just as I was pulling up at the airport metro stop for the second time, I received a message alert on my phone. It was a message from Paul saying that he’d caught an earlier flight, that he was already at the hostel, and that on top of it all, the airline had lost his luggage. I’m not sure what kind of noises I made when I received that message, but I can tell you that they were not happy noises, nor were they pleasant noises. They were very, very NOT happy noises, but what can you do? It was the luck of the airline goddesses, and it was not on our side on this trip.
At least I had some time (during my four hours at the airport) to snap some good shots of the new Terminal 4 at Barajas, which is amazingly beautiful and modernistic and has won a slew of design awards. BTW, I take back what I said in one of my first blog entries about Barajas being archaic. Seems pretty danged modern nowadays.
Needless to say, it was a very happy, albeit frustrated moment when I finally arrived to the hostel and gave Paul his WELCOME TO MADRID hug :) Over the next couple of days, we toured the city together. It was his second time in Madrid, but I'd say he probably had more fun this time, though I’m probably biased. On December 23, my friend Jerry arrived for to join in the fun. We had the best few days together and a really laid back and entertaining Christmas. I got to introduce them to my good friends Will, Edison and David, and we had good food and good times (for the most part.) There was that one incident where we almost froze to death while waiting for a cab into the city center, but we survived and were the stronger for it!
We acted like statues...
...then Paul and Jerry acted like even stranger statues...
...then, after having so much fun together on Christmas night, we had to say goodbye to Jerry :(
On December 26, Paul and I proceeded to pack up my belongings, ship a couple of boxes to SF and hop a flight to Paris for the next leg of our adventure. Bon voyage, eh?
By the time that my friend Paul was to arrive in Madrid on December 19, I had already gone through a rollercoaster of emotions and a whirlwind of goodbyes, but had pretty much come to peace with the reality - I was leaving the place I loved. I’m glad I got that out of the way beforehand, because there was a new rollercoaster soon to come my way.
Paul’s flight was scheduled to arrive at 7 AM at Barajas airport, which is at least an hour by metro from my place, after which I had to catch a shuttle bus from the metro stop to the new Terminal 4 where he was supposed to be arriving. I seriously had not been up that early the entire time I'd been in Spain (unless I was coming at it from the other side), but being the good friend I am, I made the trek to the airport.
So, I was running a bit late (imagine), but not too terribly late, but late enough that when I arrived, and saw that the flight had already arrived, I wasn’t sure if we’d missed each other. I waited… and I waited… and I waited some more. Finally, I asked at the information desk if it was possible that the passengers from his flight were still awaiting their luggage, and they assured me that anyone from that flight should have already received their luggage and left the building. As a last ditch effort, I decided to call Paul’s hostel to see if he had arrived there... nothing.
I didn’t know what to do, and by this point, it was nearing noon. I decided to hop the bus to the metro for the hour plus journey home, only to arrive home to an email message from one of our friends in San Francisco, explaining that Paul’s flight had been delayed from SFO, that he missed his connecting flight, and he would be on another flight that arrived at 3:45 PM. I sighed a huge, pregnant, unhappy sigh, and headed back to the metro to the bus to the airport. Just as I was pulling up at the airport metro stop for the second time, I received a message alert on my phone. It was a message from Paul saying that he’d caught an earlier flight, that he was already at the hostel, and that on top of it all, the airline had lost his luggage. I’m not sure what kind of noises I made when I received that message, but I can tell you that they were not happy noises, nor were they pleasant noises. They were very, very NOT happy noises, but what can you do? It was the luck of the airline goddesses, and it was not on our side on this trip.
At least I had some time (during my four hours at the airport) to snap some good shots of the new Terminal 4 at Barajas, which is amazingly beautiful and modernistic and has won a slew of design awards. BTW, I take back what I said in one of my first blog entries about Barajas being archaic. Seems pretty danged modern nowadays.
Needless to say, it was a very happy, albeit frustrated moment when I finally arrived to the hostel and gave Paul his WELCOME TO MADRID hug :) Over the next couple of days, we toured the city together. It was his second time in Madrid, but I'd say he probably had more fun this time, though I’m probably biased. On December 23, my friend Jerry arrived for to join in the fun. We had the best few days together and a really laid back and entertaining Christmas. I got to introduce them to my good friends Will, Edison and David, and we had good food and good times (for the most part.) There was that one incident where we almost froze to death while waiting for a cab into the city center, but we survived and were the stronger for it!
We acted like statues...
...then Paul and Jerry acted like even stranger statues...
...then, after having so much fun together on Christmas night, we had to say goodbye to Jerry :(
On December 26, Paul and I proceeded to pack up my belongings, ship a couple of boxes to SF and hop a flight to Paris for the next leg of our adventure. Bon voyage, eh?
posted by Chromest*r at 5:07 AM
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