I left my parents in Atlanta on Friday and boarded my plane to London around eight. I had the aisle seat which was fortunate, however I sat next to a man with the largest shoulders i have ever seen (sorry Roland). He must have been a Rugby player because i had to lean left for most of the trip.
I slept for maybe two hours on the plane which was tough once I got to London. One nicer part of the flight was you could order Alcohol as a drink and with dinner for free since it was British Airlines. My pre-dinner beer and with dinner wine helped my snoozing immensely.
The London airport was MASSIVE. There were so many terminals. There was also an incredible amount of high-end shopping ie gucci, prada, loads of alcohol for sale, etc. I ate brunch at a cafe and it cost me 22 dollars...not happy about that but a man's gotta eat.
The fight to madrid was lovely because the plane was practically empty. I had an entire row to myself and I laid down and passed out for two hours of the flight. Once the attendant woke me up for the descent I looked out the window and the view was incredible! It looked just like you'd expect it would when we were passing over the small rural villages. They had red roofs and they were all crowded together and surrounded by farms. The mountains were just barely tipped with snow and they were surrounded by rolling brown hills specked with farms and more villages. Madrid was quite a sit from the air as well. It is a large and sprawling city. We were to far from the center for me to locate and major landmarks from the old city.
Once I went through customs I went searching for my gate and found a familiar face. Carey Mears saw me before I saw her. It was quite a relief to see someone I knew after such a long time traveling. We swapped our stories of travel and mused about the horrors of losing our luggage together (which ddn't happen thank the Lord). We then found a place to grab a beer and we both enjoyed a San Miguel, which was very good and it made me reminisce about drinking Pilsen with my father in Costa Rica. We took the 45 minute flight to Sevilla and both recovered our baggage. We parted ways once we reached the taxi station and wished one another luck.
I rode in the taxi to the address I gave him on an index card. He dropped me off after a ten minute ride in silence and I gave him the fare. I rang up to Josefa on the intercom and she buzzed me in. I walked up the stairs of the nearest apartment inside the gate and rang the bell....no answer. I was worried. I took my bags and walked back down and saw a woman poke her head out of another door inside the gate and look at me puzzled. She said "David?" and I smiled and said Si Si Hola Josefa. She indicated I should give her dos besos so I kissed her on each cheek and she took me inside. To my surprise there were three chinese girls in her house. SHe told me they would be here for only a few more days and then it would just be me and her.
Josefa told me I should call her Pepi after I called her by her name again. She talks very fast and I find myself nodding and saying "Si" after most things she said regardless of wether it was crystal clear or totally cryptic. I eventually told her my ears were slow and stupid and she has slowed her speech down and started using smaller words.
After briefly unpacking she ushered me to the dinner table and I ate pasta and salad. She then ushered me to bed because I was very tired. I fell asleep around ten.
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