First (full day) in Spain

I decided to write about my adventures in Spain, especially for you, Dad.

So, this is how our flight went:

SA-NY: 6 hours (1 stop in Dallas)

NY-Madrid: 6.5 hours

Approx travel time, including when we arrived to SA airport, to when we arrived at Madrid hotel:
Monday, July 21 8:30am-Tuesday, July 22 10:30 am (You can do the math :)




Spain-July 21-22:
What a long trip! I probably slept about 2 hours total during the 14-16 hour trip (including changing planes, getting baggage, etc.)
Mom and I barely made it during the flight transfer from NY to Spain. Luckily we did!
Then when we finally arrived in Spain on July 22 at 7:30 am (Spain time), we went to go get our baggage. Poor mom, she was soo tired! Who can blame her? For some reason, with lack of sleep, I wasn’t tired. Just wanted to get to the hotel and get cleaned up. After waiting at the baggage claim for mom’s suitcase (mine had already come), we started to get a little worried. After all, she is the one who is meeting with important people for business. I’m just tagging along for fun. Soon after, we heard “Mr. Jates, blab la bla, Mr. Jates, blab la bla”. (Spanish speaking people always seem to have trouble pronouncing “Yates”.) I knew this had to do with her luggage. So, we go over to the information counter, mom in a complete zombie like daze. The information guy says to go to the Iberian airline counter. We go there and learn that mom’s luggage is still in NY. Great. And to top it all off, we lost the luggage claim tags. But, the gentleman told us we would receive it at our hotel by 10am. That wasn’t too bad considering it was now 8:30 am.

Next we exchange American dollars for Spanish Euros. What a rip-off! We got 59 Euros for $100. Good for Spain, bad for us.
Then, we get on the bus, then take a taxi to our hotel. It’s now about 11am. Mom is starving, tired, and has no suitcase. I’m ok; I’m not tired, ate a lot on the plane, and have my suitcase. I feel bad for her. After checking in to the GORGEOUS hotel, we go straight to our room. I shower and mom crashes on the bed. Side note: When we got to the hotel, there were a lot of "important looking" people in power suits and camera men filming them. I ask the guy who is checking us in what is going on. He tells me something in Spanish. All I could decipher was that the President of the Olympics was there. Cool.

We make several calls about our luggage and it’s not looking too good. We are told that the luggage didn’t make it in time, and was sent on the next flight (there are only 2 flights from NY to Spain) and will arrive at our hotel sometime after 10pm.

After resting for a while, we go to the hotel restaurant. It's amazing. We had the frendliest waiter, Javier. I think Spanish people are so much more friendy then Americans. And I love the Spanish accent (the one used in Spain). Anyways, I noticed on Javier's nametag, under his name read "Mi Pasion: Alejandra". This caught my eye since my middle name is Alejandra. I practiced speaking Spanish with Javier and asked him if "pasion" was a way of saying "my love" or "my girlfriend" in Spain. I know it literally means "passion". He told me, it means whatever excites you. Alejandra is the name of his unborn baby. She is due in August. It will be his first child. I thought that was very sweet.

Mom and I go get some tapas around 10 pm. As we were sitting outside at the restaurant, I run into an classmmate from elementary school! He and I actually went to the same elementary, middle and highschool! How crazy is that! We get home around 12:30 am. Still no luggage.

July 23
We had a wakeup call for 7am, but I didn’t get up until 10 or so. I was tired now. We inquire about the suitcase, still nothing. I feel bad for mom, as she had appointments scheduled this morning, but has no nice clothes. I know she is a bit stressed out, and still tired from the trip.
After the BEST breakfast (eggs, sausage, fresh squeezed OJ, every fresh fruit you can imagine, pastries, cheeses, churros (so good), coffee, ham, prosciutto, yogurt, and more) we are in better spirits. We stop by the concierge and received good news. THE SUITCASE ARRIVED and is up in the room.
After we get up to our room, mom gets into work mode and starts making calls using the calling card we bought at the airport. Why can’t they make those things any easier? They’re a pain, every time you make a call, you have to enter the 16 digit calling card number, then country code, area code, and finally the number.
Mom gets through to most of her contacts and already lined up 3 appts. As I write this, she is meeting with the first of many.
More to write later.

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