Today I am bedridden and thus have been forced to look through my old documents and organise them (yes forced people!!). When I say 'old' I mean about a month old seeing as I have only had this laptop sine the beginning of Feb but anyway, whilst looking through I found this which I wrote at the airport and on the place when I flew home a little while ago. I re-read it and found it pretty amusing so thought I would share regardless of the fact that it doesn't really have anything to do with anything...
I am currently sitting in the airport at Madrid and would be fairly grumpy if I wasn’t so excited about seeing SO many important people today and tomorrow!! I am heading back home for one night where I will get to see my lovely famille (minus daddy Baikie who is currently in Portugal on business) and Sam AND Keri is coming to England so YAY!! Then on Thursday morning we are both traveling up to Durham J
You may now be wondering why I might be grumpy well… so far my morning has gone a little something like this. The bus was ten minutes late which meant standing outside in the cold on my own… then I hit rush hour people traffic travelling into Madrid (think rush hour into London and then double it and put it on a double decker train… NOT fun, although a great opportunity for people watching) The train and metro rides went by surprisingly quickly despite the hundreds of people. I had allowed plenty of time for delays seeing as I am in Spain, it was morning and I had to get a bus, train and metro but nope nothing. So then I checked in (no printer meant having to do things the old fashioned way and as I am flying with Easyjet they are nicer than Ryanair and let you check in at the airport free of charge). There was no queue a check in and NONE at security. I began to think… what has happened?? So this has resulted in my sitting at a café, eating THE most disappointing toastie of my life, with over an hour to wait before the rugby scrum to get on the plane.
A little side note to say that today I was possibly THE worst person for security… so I am wearing a coat, that had to come off (yes fairly normal I know but it gets better…) then I am also wearing a belt to hold up my jeans which otherwise leave very little up to the imagination AND boots. What a fool you may be thinking… yes I am a fool as I also have a laptop which had to come out of my suitcase AND they made me take out my iPod, camera and phone and scan them all through a separate little machine. So once I had removed everything they wanted from my person and bag it was time to walk through the scanner (with plastic socks over my socks may I add… plastic socks which when paired with slippery floor = interesting!) THEN I went and beeped through the scanner didn’t I so got a nice feel up from the Spanish lady before then bending over to put my boots back on and flashing the entire airport!! HAHA! Then I had to go through a passport security portal which bearing in mind I have never been checked on my way IN to Spain creates an interesting situation as they care more about who is leaving than who is coming in?? After all this I looked at an information screen again and saw several cancellation messages. I thought to myself 'Bloody hell after all that if my plane is canceled I an NOT going to be a happy bunny.' Luckily, it was not although now I feel like I am tempting fate and have a very strong urge to go and look at the screen.. In fact I am going to go and do that now.
Ok , so have checked and changed location. The flight is still going and is boarding 20 minutes earlier than expected which is a pleasant surprise. Now it is probably time for some interesting observations from my time so far in Spain.
Things I have noticed so far:
- Spain is cheaper than Austria!! MUCH cheaper which is not a bad thing!
- The Spanish are perhaps not quite as welcoming as the Austrians but that opinion may change over time, for example the lady at the bank yesterday was very friendly and helpful.
- The organization in this country is like 0… actually 0. No one seems to know what is going on where or when or how or who or what! Which is not particularly helpful when you are new and have no clue.
- The bus drivers love to talk to each other out of the window as they drive past each other. Yesterday the driver actually had half his body out of the window trying to talk to the number 5 driver going the other way. Last week we nearly ran an old lady over as she was crossing because the driver wasn’t paying attention to the road.
I have just heard the couple behind me speaking in English and it weirded me out for a second. It is interesting; I was speaking to Sarah’s housemate about this… reverse culture shock. You may be thinking, what is she on about? Well reverse culture shock is the shock you get when you back home as opposed to the one when you first leave. I was really confused when I made my trip back to Durham in November because I suffered such culture shock, more so than when I went to Austria. I think it may be because you prepare yourself more for when you go out to a country but there is definitely not enough information given on the problems you might encounter when going back home. Your ear gets so used to hearing a foreign language that when you are suddenly surrounded by English again you get confused, and signs too. Going from everything being in Spanish or German to seeing everything in English again is also weird.
I am now in the plane which is VERY empty, it is giving my flight from Austria to Durham the first time a run for its money with regards to emptiness. I now learnt where Easyjet are perhaps more stingy than Ryanair. Despite there only being about 50 people on the flight they made quite a few people put their bags in the little box thing AND they charged people for having two bags (something with Ryanair generally lets slide.) Maybe it’s because there are less of us, so they are trying to make up money? I thought I had found the worlds biggest cheap flight Nazis in Perpignan but now I think Madrid may have one up on them. The people in the terminal were SO grumpy. On the other hand the in flight attendants are very friendly and smiley.
Side note – the captain was just giving his little ‘hello’ speech and he said, and I quote, “There are a few lumps and bumps around so keep your seat belts on”. LUMPS and BUMPS… in the AIR?! Are you JOKING?? Hahahahaha!!!! I am also watching Two Pints” and just laughed out loud much to the amusement of the air steward pouring coffee next to me he he!
No idea why the font is all funny but hey... just spices things up I guess!! :)
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