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| Madrid Barajas - Terminal 4 (long line to change a ticket) |
PLANES.
“Buenos días”, I say to the man at the ticket counter as I hand him my ticket, passport, and a happy morning smile.
I was so excited to go to the States that I actually got to the airport a bit early, thinking that perhaps if I got there early, the flight would leave early too. I wasn’t on the same flight as Ismael who, essentially, would be on a direct flight later that day that would arrive at about the same time.
“Buenos días”, he replies.
A few long minutes go by and I ask him, “¿Pasa algo?”
“Pues, sí. Tu vuelo fue ayer,” he says to me as he hands back my ticket and passport to a shocked frown.
“AYER, por Díos, ¿Qué hago?” I ask this man who is now telling me that my flight was the day before what I should do. It was 5:30 AM on December 23rd and I was supposed to travel to the States for Christmas. Ismael and I lived in Tel Aviv at the time and we had flown to Madrid a couple of days before the US flight to celebrate Christmas with his family first. I, admittedly, bought the cheaper ticket that had a layover in London so I could buy the latest season of Sex and the City on DVDs that would work in our Spanish DVD player in Israel. What I didn’t realize is that according to my ticket, I was to fly in the day before Ismael and then go pick him up at the airport.
I whip out my phone and call Ismael.
“Mi vuelo fue ayer, ¿qué hago?”
Ismael is not a morning person and was probably having some lovely dream that I interrupted with my panic as he was just plain rude on the phone.
“Sarah, son las 5:45 de la mañana, ¿están abierto los mostradores?”
“No.” I respond. No ticket window was open; in fact, there was almost nobody in the airport.
“Pues, yo no puedo hacer nada. Hay que esperar hasta que abran,” says an angry Ismael.
At 6:00 AM, my cheap ticket with the layover in London to buy the DVD turned into an expensive ticket as I had to pay a fine to change the flight and the woman told me that I was lucky I had gotten there so early as I lucked out and got the last seat, in the last row, right next to the bathrooms on the flight to JFK from London. Lucky me!
My mom has always referred to me as the “World traveler” as I just can’t seem to get enough of traveling. I love seeing, feeling, tasting, and taking lots of photos of new places. By my mom calling me the world traveler, it makes me feel like it should be my profession, perhaps I should be writing travel books or interesting articles about what I see and eat or write that fiction novel I have been dying to write. But I think a better profession would be to perhaps entertain people about my travel flops! I may be the world traveler to my mom but let the truth be told, I have no idea how to read a map, I buy travel guides to read the brief history, see what the prime museum to visit is, where the best shopping is and to make sure I eat or have a drink at the best local restaurants. I tend to get so excited that my travel adventures start before I even get to my destiny.
Yet another incident happened just a few months ago. My flight was delayed by a couple of hours and I was feeling chatty so I called Eli. We were chatting on the phone and laughing, etc and finally, it was time for me to board. I continue chatting on the phone, show the man my boarding pass and up the ramp I go. I am still chatting on the phone and tell Eli that I have to hang up because I am getting on the plane. (I really can’t stand the people that talk while on the plane so everybody on board can hear their conversation and for the rest of the flight we know too much about the person.)
“Perdon, ¿me podría usted ayudar a subir la maleta?” I ask the flight attendant if he could help me put my case in the overhead compartment.
I am about to sit down and notice that there is a man in my seat.
“Perdon, hay un hombre en mi asiento”, I tell the flight attendant.
He checks my boarding card and looks at me with big astonished eyes and says, “¿A dónde va usted?”
“Bruselas.”
“Este avión va a Dusseldorf - ¿le han dejado entrar el avión?”
“Pues, sí. Eso parece.” I answered the man even tough I was thinking, “DUH, I am on the plane so of course they let me on it.”
He lowers my case and off I go running to find the correct plane.
As I am getting off the wrong plane, a person getting on the right plane asks me, “¿Todo está bien?” and I assure them that everything is fine but I just happened to get on the wrong plane.
As I am walking down the ramp, 5 security guards are coming towards me in Spanish style to escort me off the plane. I am not sure how I got confused because I generally check the departure board 7 times and check the boarding gate 7 times before it is even boarding time but I still managed to get on the wrong plane. Ismael would have freaked out as he was driving from Dusseldorf to pick me up in Brussels. It is scary that I was allowed to get on the plane but I was so worried about getting on the right plane to Brussels that I didn’t even really think about it at the time.
TRAINS:
When I was a student in Madrid, my stepdad had a business trip in Salzburg, Austria. My mom and I thought it would be fun if we met up there and enjoyed the city while Jorge, my stepdad who is really named George, had his conference.
I went to the travel agency, Viajes Zeppelin, for students in Madrid and managed to get a really cheap ticket, only it had a 5-hour layover in Amsterdam on the way to Salzburg.
“Cool, I get to see two cities for the price of one!” I thought to myself.
Ismael assured me that I could make it to the center of Amsterdam and back to the plane in 5 hours because the train service in Holland was excellent.
My flight arrived in Amsterdam and I buy my train ticket to the city centre. I asked 2 people how to get to the center and they both pointed to a train. So, I hop on.
I ended up sitting next to a student who was studying US History, she probably knew more about US History than I do. We talk about US History and Europe and the journey seemed to be taking longer than the 20 minutes Ismael insisted that it took to get to the center. The landscapes I saw from the train were simply amazing; flatland, very green and the occasional windmill, I was imagining people skating on the dam that followed the train.
“Where are you headed?” she asks.
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| Amsterdam Train Station & Bikes |
“To Amsterdam.”
Her face distorted and she tells me I must get off at the next stop because we were headed in the other direction.
“Here we go again!” I thought to myself.
So, a quick goodbye when the train stopped and I quickly run down the stairs through the tunnel and make it up to the other side of the platform and hop on the train, the train to the center of Amsterdam.
By the time I actually got to Amsterdam, two and a half hours had past. So, I quickly walked around, had a coffee and headed back to the airport.
and…AUTOMOVILES:
I had another incident in Costa Rica – I was on the bus and I was going to meet Kim & Kristy in Quepos, a small town on the coast. I fell dead asleep and all of the sudden I hear the driver yell, “JACÓ”. I had to take a bus to Jacó and then catch another bus to Quepos. So, I get up, grab my backpack, and jump off the bus. When my eyes finally opened, I was in the middle of nowhere! I was in the middle of the jungle with an elderly woman at the bus stop drinking a coke out of a plastic bag. I asked her what time the next bus came and she told me in 2 horas, si Díos quiere (in 2 hours, God willing.)
So, I parked myself next to the woman and we started chatting. Next thing I know, she is inviting me to her house to drink cokes out of baggies. Off we go trekking through the woods. We arrived at her house and it was the typical Costa Rican wood slatted house with a tin roof. She lived with her daughter and her 5 kids. Next thing I know, I am being served beers and arroz con pollo. I took several photos and wander back through the woods to the bus stop.
I finally made it to the final destination. We meet up at the local pulperia, check into our bungalow and off we go to the beach. After our beach time, we go back to the room to find that we had been robbed! They took all of Kim’s money, my watch and my CAMERA! I have no proof of my bus incident in the middle of nowhere!
Ismael always asks me about 10 times if we have the tickets. On one of our trips to the States, I claimed I had them. I swore I had them. So, we get to Barajas and wait on queue to fly Delta Airlines for 3 hours. Finally!! Our turn to check-in.
“May I have your tickets and passports, please?” asks the woman at the desk.
We hand over our goods and she asked us once again for the tickets.
“¿Billetes? ¿No son electrónicos?” asks Ismael.
I could feel my face turning white as the memories came flashing in a wild gush to my brain. We had received paper tickets in the mail months before and I safely stashed them in a drawer in the apartment.
I tell Ismael to stall the queue, as there were still about 30 more passengers to check in. Off I sprint.
I ran through the airport like a mad woman and ran to the taxi station. I showed a taxista a bill and essentially told him that I would double it if he could get to my house in Vallecas and back to the airport in 20 minutes. The taxista seemed all ready for the feat and when we got to my street, he actually timed me! I hadn’t been timed since my brother said he would time me to see how long it took to make him 2 pb & j’s with a glass of milk!!
I made it back to the airport almost exactly 25 minutes later with the tickets in my hand and an empty wallet. We made it on the flight.
I tend to think that adventure follows this world traveler wherever I go. I never manage to have a dull moment, always happen upon fascinating things, and always learn a lot; I even know where to get a tire changed in Ft. Williams, Scotland. Luckily, some former workmates gave me a bubble gum hot pink travel case that fits passport, frequent flyer cards and boarding passes and it has a strap so I can wear it on my wrists so I don’t have as many “incidences” anymore. I say that if you love to travel, just remember your passport and tickets, bring extra batteries for your camera, an empty stomach and let the adventures follow, or, lead you!
