DAY 1 - PENSACOLA TO LISBON, PORTUGAL:

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We got to the Pensacola airport in plenty of time, checked out luggage, and boarded our first U.S. Airways plane to Charlotte, North Carolina. In Charlotte, we had about an hour layover for our next flight to Philadelphia. Since it was lunchtime already, and we didn't have that much time, we decided to buy some sushi to take with us and eat when we could. Good choice, since we went to the wrong terminal and gate the first try and had to back track almost all the way back to the terminal we landed at, leaving about 15 minutes before boarding. Our next flight, from Charlotte to Philadelphia, also left on time, more or less. We arrived in Philadelphia, supposedly having about 4 hours of layover there (as planned for safety sake), but that connection didn't quite go as planned. First, they changed the gate, and had a possible delay shown as 11:15pm versus 8:45pm. We ended up not leaving until almost midnight! We were supposed to get a full meal and small breakfast on this flight, so we weren't going to buy another meal, just pick up some chips and drinks while we waited. At about 10pm, when they were sure the flight would be delayed until at least 11:15pm, they brought out a bunch of bottles of water (oh joy!), and some chips and cookies for snacks to tide us all over. By the time we actually boarded the flight, we were getting tired and sleepy. Since we'd only had one actual meal all day, we both fought sleep and waited for our meal. It was pretty good, for airline food, being a choice of chicken with rice or pasta. Manoli had the chicken and I had the pasta. With a small salad, roll, and dessert bar, it hit the spot. The weirdest thing about this and the previous flights was that I had selected seats for us, way ahead of time, next to each other and with an aisle seat for Manoli. When they checked us in at Pensacola, the lady said she'd taken care of our seats (?) and we would be seated together all but the first flight, and Manoli would have an aisle seat all 3 flights. It was no problem the first two flights, but for the final leg to Lisbon, we were assigned seats in the VERY back of the plane, furthest from the bathrooms, and with no reclining seats! We were together, and Manoli had an aisle seat, but we both struggled to sleep, even with an empty seat next to us. Really made me wonder why the lady in Pensacola had done us such a favor reassigning our seats!

***SORRY FOR THE DELAY, BUT THE HOSTEL WIFI WAS DOWN YESTERDAY, 5/9

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