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Well, apparently my airplane karma is still very, very bad. When we arrived at Fargo airport, we were asked whether Delaney had a ticket. Of course not, she's 1. Well, apparently 1 year olds need tickets for international flights even though we booked through AA's website and told them we had a baby with us. We were informed we would have to pay the full fare as listed for that day! Of course, we threatened immediate bodily harm at that point. Somehow they were talked down to just $240 for Delaney's ticket and though still angry, we proceeded to our plane, which was late. Luckily we had a 2 hour layover in Chicago before our flight to JFK. At O'Hare our flight was listed as on time right up until it was supposed to leave, then a 'twenty minute' delay. (We only had 65 minutes in JFK to make the Barcelona flight). We get on board and are told they are waiting for the luggage to be loaded, another 20 minutes. Then we pull away...then we are told that air traffic control is too backed up and we'll be grounded for 45 minutes..effectively missing our flight to Spain. So I call
AA and we are told we can't fly until 24 hours later and that Dad and Glenna will have to take the flight alone and find a place to stay (since I had all the money for the apartment). Angry, I briefly cursed a few AA agents before descending into despair. Others on the plane hear me on the phone and we soon find out there are at least 9 of us headed for Barcelona. I call the agent back to ask if they will hold the plane. Not only will they not hold the plane, there aren't even 9 seats for us all to make it 24 hours later... More cursing.
I break the bad news to Dad who has been sitting at JFK for 6 hours. We begin praying for a delay. At touch down in NYC we call Dad. Amazingly he answered and they haven't even started boarding yet! After all the stressing (and cursing) we make the flight (which didn't leave until 2 hours AFTER we got there). Dinner is served around midnight.
Luckily Delaney slept almost the entire flight to Barcelona. We collected Delaney's first passport stamp, called the apartment owner (who had
been waiting for us for hours...oops), and hopped on the train to Barcelona. We checked in, grabbed some groceries, and gave an orientation tour to Dad.
First Full Day....
After Delaney's morning nap, we headed up La Ramblas to La Boqueria, a large open air market. Delaney seemed to love all the fresh fruit and dead fish. We stocked up on dried fruit (Delaney's favorite) and then walked through the gothic district. We stumbled upon a protest of some sort (which we promised not to get to close to) and took pictures from afar. Then we made our way to La Plata for a tapas lunch....whole sardines flash fried, tomatoes/onion/olive salad, fresh sausages, and sangria. No one spoke English so you knew it was good 😊 Delaney loved some fish heads and sausage and the Spanish love to pet her head like a dog. Weird, but cute.
We're still recovering from the horrific trip, but plan to get the vacation started in earnest today. So far so good!
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Mirm
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Glad you made it!
Who chose those sausages when there were sardines available?