Final Destination: Palma de Mallorca!

Today was our last day at Linda’s as we are both onto our next adventure: Morrigan to Puente Genil (near Córdoba) and I to Palma.  Linda made us a delicious meal of squash soup (yes, I got the recipe), tomato and mozzarella salad, bread and cheese.  I forgot about my love affair with Manchengo (or just cheese in general), but it was quickly realized during lunch.  After, we dropped Morrigan off at the train station and Linda and I (and all my luggage) traveled to Madrid Barajas so I could catch my flight to Mallorca.  I am so blessed to have friends like Linda, she was extremely helpful, not only by allowing us to stay with her for a few days, but she showed us around the city, and helped drag my luggage numerous metro/train stops to the airport.  Thank you, Linda! 

I finally get to AirBerlin, say “adios” to Linda and start the bag check process.  AirBerlin says I can only have one checked bag.  Well, seeing as I have two, that’s going to be an issue, isn’t it…  The man at the ticket counter tells me for the other one, I have to pay 150 euros.  Well that’s perfect, I would LOVE to contribute that much money to AirBerlin, thank you for telling me that’s an option!  I try to pay the man, who has now switched to speaking English because I’ve just looked at him completely dumbfounded.  No no, he says, I have to go to a different line where someone else will take my money from me.  I love bureaucracy.  So, I whip out my Visa and try to pay a different woman who says, abbbbbsolutely not, I can only pay in cash.  Of course. Where’s an ATM? 

After I donate to AirBerlin, I find my gate and wait to board the plane.  I’m surrounded by vacationers, Spaniards, Germans, and a man and his wife who look like they just walked out of a Calvin Klein ad.  The husband, whom I was seated next to, was wearing brown, leather boat shoes, whitish-khaki pants, navy braided belt, and light blue yacht-owner looking button down shirt.  The only thing that would’ve completed this gentleman’s outfit is a cable-knit sweater tied loosely around is evenly bronzed shoulders.  He probably had one in his designer carry-on.

I haven’t landed in Palma yet, as our flight has been delayed.  We’re on it, just sitting, not going anywhere.  I will hopefully be in Mallorca by 8:00pm tonight (if this flight decides to get ever off the ground), get a taxi to my hostal, and start apartment hunting tomorrow.  Wish me luck! 

Part Two-just arrived at the hostal in Palma, it’s about 9:30pm.  Got here a little later than expected but I’m safe and have all of my bags which, is good.  I have to hand it to the Germans, once I got over the initial shock of paying for a second bag, I really appreciated their hospitality of the flight.  They had EXCELLENT espresso, which, most of you know I’m a HUGE sucker for, and, they had complementary lemon sandwich cookies.  Extra bonus!  Hopefully I will get some quality time tomorrow to find a place to stay.  There are a couple of groups on Facebook (what would I do without it?) with helpful comments from people that are also looking for apartments or that have found them recently, so that’s encouraging.  I’m still on the fence about living alone versus living with roommates.  On one hand, it would be nice to have someone to talk to and explore the city with, but I also like not having to ask permission if I want to have people over or visitors stay from home.  Maybe I’ll think this over while getting some tapas…  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks, guys!

Hasa luego,

Kayla

First day

Well, Morrigan (a close friend and travel buddy from Newark, NJ to Madrid) have arrived safely in Spain.  We both discussed how hard it is to leave friends and family behind.  It's definitely easier to have someone with me during the first few days of this trip; otherwise I think the stress of everything would send me over the edge.  I'm very grateful Morrigan received her visa since, as some of you know, it was an issue.

I flew from Des Moines this time around which, was nice because it's about a 20 minute drive from our house instead of 6 hours to Chicago like last time.  Des Moines was a little bit of a rocky start as our plane was delayed boarding (only about 10 mintues) because lightning was too close to the airport.  Fantastic.  After we finally got boarded and our luggage made it on (another small scare) we were off to Chicago.

I was in seat A (thank God) so I was able to rest easy.  The man in seat B arrived and found that both his row's seats A and C were taken, sighed loudly, and proceeded to see if there was another seat farther back that he could "spread out".  Okaaaaay... About 10 minutes later, he comes back and fervently asks the flight attendant what he should do.  (About what?!  Sit in your own seat!  It's a 45 minute flight, lock it up!)  I guess I should give him the benefit of the doubt, I'd be a little testy if I was dressed business casual also, but still.

By the time I arrived at Newark to meet Morrigan I was getting anxious to just be in one place.  Sadly, we still had our longest flight ahead of us.  I do have to hand it to Continental Airlines: their  personal TVs and plethora of movie/TV show choices  really helped pass the time; and the plane food wasn't half bad either.

After arriving in Madrid around 10:00am on Wednesday, the 22nd, we got our luggage and decided to tour Madrid for a while.  Mrs. Kuiken, our gracious hostess and my former high school physics teacher, wouldn't be home until around 6:00pm.  We stashed our luggage in the airport lockers (VERY handy) and went in search for lunch and, yes, Wi-fi ("wee-fee") internet.  Low and behold, we found the latter at Starbucks.  We found a small cafe and ordered tortilla española (egg, potato and onion omelette) and patatas bravas (fried potatoes w/ some type of hot sauce and usually mayonnaise) for lunch.  Yes, clearly, I eat my feelings.  It was so good neither of us cared.

One thing I did forget, and need to remember quick, is to look both ways when crossing the street.  At Iowa, since it was a college town, you didn't really have to look at all; you could cross and still expect to live.  Not here.  We almost got taken out by a couple of Smart Cars and you all know how much I despise those.

After our Starbucks run we decided to ride the Metro back to the airport and collect our luggage so we could meet Linda (Mrs. Kuiken) at her house.  Easier said than done.  I had two suitcases, each weighing 50 lbs, and two carry-ons (probably a combined weight of another 50 lbs, and I'm being modest.  Needless to say, we looked like COMPLETE tools trying to navigate back to the Metro.  For those of you who are inexperienced with Metro travel, let me paint you a picture.  You buy a small ticket slip it through a machine which reads it, spits it back out to you, and opens its plastic doors for about 3.5 seconds so you can pass.  The doors are skinny and you can't forcefully push them open.  Well, here's the issue: what are you supposed to do if you have 10,000 lbs of bags with you?  Luckily the security guard took pity on us and let us use the gate to the side.

We made it to our final stop and got a taxi to Linda's address.  Well, the taxi driver was unfamiliar with the location (perfect) so we got a little turned around.  He let us off at apartments 25-51 on Linda's street.  Excellent-Linda is apt. 26, we should be fine!  By this time, it's about 9:00 pm even though I told her we'd be to her apartment by about 6:30.  Extreme fail.  At any rate, I happily tell the guard we're looking for apartment 26 2D and to please call the tenant so she can let us up.  I'm told that 26 doesn't exist.  No. 26 DOES exist, why would you have something etched in stone on your building that is 25-51 if 26 was absent?  Oh, well, this is the odd buildings...  Do you understand?  It's 25, 27, et cetera.  Of course it is.  26, apparently, is 100 meters down the road.  Well, thankfully, 100 meters (in my mind) is just a quick jaunt so we should be there in about 2 minutes.  Again, false.  We start walking and then decide that one of us will sit on the curb with ALL of our stuff, while the other walks to find 26.  By now, I'm beyond the point of frustration and instead, think that our predicament is comical.  It wasn't.  Morrigan comes back saying she found 26, after about 15 minutes of me waiting, thinking she'd been kidnapped (I'm SUCH an optimist).  We FINALLY get to 26, thank you, baby jesus, only for the man in charge of the gate to say that, no, only one person lives in 26 2D and it's Frederic.  No.  No, it's not; it's Linda Kuiken and her husband.  (Maybe his name is Frederic...I don't think so...)  The gate keeper says I can call if I want but he's pretty sure Frederic is not here.  That's fine, look at ALL of your tenant and see which one is named Linda Kuiken, I'll call that number instead; maybe I wrote her address down wrong.  He looks at me skeptically and tells me to call Freddy again.  I do, look in the camera, nothing.  So, Morrigan and I and our luggage are stranded outside of building 26 with the security guard who probably thinks I'm making something up about there even being a person named Linda.  I turn around and there's Linda!  She DOES exist!  She explained to me that she and her husband are renting from Frederic so his name appears on everything.  After getting our stuff upstairs to her apartment and having a grand tour, we decided to check email one more time and hit the hay.  Hopefully the next couple days will be easier; we hope to tour Madrid and a couple of the museums here and to eat at the world's oldest restaurant.  It's named in one of Cervantes' books (maybe Don Q?) and a couple of other books by English authors, though I can't remember which.  It's called Sobrino de Botín; I'm pretty excited.  More later!

Oh-if you want to contact me I have facebook (probably most convenient for most of you) or email (kaylaesmith1@gmail.com) and I have an app on my iphone that is free texting.  My number is 1 (515) 824-7121.  Please include your name if you text me, as the name of the sender isn't saved in my contacts yet.  They all work here so far so contact me as often as you want!