We made it back! We're alive! And alert, yet tired.
Yesterday was an exhausting long distance event. We left our hotel in Madrid at 10 a.m. local time (2 a.m. hometown time). We spent three hours in the Madrid airport (mostly drinking cafe and eating, so it was good), then 9+ hours on a flight to Atlanta. Yes, that's correct, 9+.
The pros of the flight were the movies, "Scoop" which was okay, and "Invincible" which was good (I love me a sports feel good movie), and the food. On overseas flights, I feel they try to convince you about the time change using food. They bring out the food, proclaiming, Okay, it's dinner time, regardless of the actual time, and everyone just goes along with it. But the food was actually good, there was an ice cream snack in the middle of the flight, and I was sitting next to the most adorable girl ever (she was Spanish). At one point she clued me in to which in-flight radio station I should be listening to by saying, "Seis. Shakira" and dancing around in her seat. I almost spoke her level of Spanish.
The negative aspect of this flight was that about the time we wanted Son to take a nap (about six hours into the flight), he became Devil Child, writhing around, falling on the floor, pinching and hitting us. Basically proving to everyone on the flight that we are Bad Parents. On the plus side, the minute we boarded the plane in Atlanta, he fell asleep and slept the whole way home.
So, from Madrid to our doorstep was 21 hours. Oh joy! We went to sleep around 11:30, but we all woke up, wide awake, at 6:30. Son wanted breakfast, so we all got up. I just fed him an enormous lunch, so we'll see how our body clocks work on adjusting back to our schedule stateside. No more siestas or dinner at 9 pm!
All in all, a great trip. Son picked up more Spanish than we realize. Yesterday at the Atlanta airport he said, "Dos. I have to go dos. In my language, we say dos." Cute, and yet. . .
I loved Spain, though I won't miss the constant smoking. As a parting gesture, our departure gate was near the "Smoking Point" in the airport, which of course had no doors, so the smoke just drifted out so that we could all share in it.
As Son said, Why does everyone in Spain have to smoke? And let their dogs poop on the sidewalk. But that's another conversation all together.
Glad to be back. Stunned that I have to go back to work on Monday.
6 comments:
so glad you made it home, with your war stories about flying. We all have them. Travelling that far with a small child, however, is something I've never done. My closest was taking three kids (okay, that's pretty good) across the country. No pinching or hitting, but it did get a little loud there at the end.
glad to have you back safe and sound. Well okay at least safe. I have not traveled that far with a small child but I can only imagine. Glad you all had a muy bien tiempo or whatever. Talk to you soon.
Welcome back!
Welcome home. I am envious of yr travels! Did you watch Seattle pull another win out of their a** (not through their own doing, mind you)?
I'm surprised they are still smoking it up there. They were in the early 90s when I was there but I thought they'd have backed off like it seems many have here. I guess someone has to keep the American tobacco companies in business.
I remember a particularly terrible smoke filled bus ride from Barcelona to Valencia.
p.s. I'm waiting for the Barcelona pics.
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