Frankfurt, Germany 11:00 a.m.
(time change, ahead seven hours)
We landed a few hours ago to find a cold, windy, and wet day outside. For the first time ever, I got off a plane via stairs - outdoors - and rode a bus to the terminal, just like in a movie! A nice woman with an English accent answered my question to let me know the bus was headed to the correct terminal. While still on the plane, though, I was following a German man as we were de-boarding, and he started going on about something with me in German, so that's twice now I've been mistaken as German. He was nice, though - he noticed free postcards on the wall in business class and handed me three, so now I can write home when I get to Pamplona : )
Inside the Frankfurt airport everything is in German and English, so I'm much less terrified, and the people at customs and passports checks have all been pleasant. This time I leave from gate A32, terminal A, which took literally almost 20 minutes walking to get to. I met a nice couple on the way, and they wished me luch when we got to the terminal and they were going to a different gate.
I've met up with the other girls now, Kate, Stacy, Lindsey, and Leslie. Apparently, they had the U.S. Ice Fishing team on their flight, as well as a 19-year-old kid with a drug problem on his way to detox in France.
At first, I was in the original (and now wrong) terminal, A32. A woman with three young children was there, the youngest was a little girl who was in the middle of a screaming temper tantrum. I'm now very glad that I was in the wrong terminal.
One more flight to go, and then a train or bus ride to Pamplona!
- Alex
12:15 p.m.
I've just boarded the plane to Madrid, where I was sitting next to a lovely woman named Maria. She's traveling to Segovia, just outside of Madrid, to see her mother who is going to be 100 in May, and because of her age is in poor health. Maria is a missionary in Bolivia for the Catholic church, and that is where she is traveling from. She was excited to hear that I will be studying in Pamplona, and is a very kind woman. The flight attendant came by while we were talking to ask Maria to put her bag in an overhead compartment because she was next to an emergency window, but Maria only speaks Spanish, and the flight attendant only German and English, so I translated! However, in the end they had to move Maria so that she could keep her bag with her, so now I've got the whole row to myself.
- Alex
5:37 p.m.
The flight to Madrid was nice, after where I felt off. I tried to sleep laying down in my row, but they came around with lunch, which was pretty good. After eating, I think I slept across the seats for a bit, but I ended up sitting and sleeping. I've read a bunch of the book about traveling, that Chelsea gave to me, and it has some handy tips. Despite all my nerves about not knowing where I'll be living, and not knowing my course schedule yet, I'm starting to feel really confident about this trip. We got off the plane and, after saying good-bye to Maria, went to get our luggage. Nothing was lost, and we all got all of ours pretty quickly.
Once we were done with that, we paused, and I wandered off to ask about a bus to Pamplona. The lady said take the 200 bus to Avenida de America, where we could get tickets to a long-trip bus. I actually did most of the speaking at the info desk, with the employees outdoors to find the bus stop, and finally with the bus driver. I was glad I could do it!
At Avenida de America we bought tickets and had an hour and a half wait til we left. We sat and I talked with Kate a lot. We got food - I got a piece of Spanish tortilla, and they got sandwiches. We've now boarded our first bus, and we'll switch to the final part in Soria.
I am in the captial city of Spain!
Estoy en el capitol de Espana!
- Alex
1:05 a.m. Pamplona, Spain. Hostel.
We're here! After the bus ride, our transfer at Soria - when we realized Leslie was sick and vomiting - and the last leg of the bus ride to Pamplona (I slept, but what I saw of the countryside is beautiful), we squeezed into two tazis and were driven to the hostel office. The lady there walked us, in the rain, to where we're staying. It's nice - clean, secure, hotel-like. I got Skype and called a few people. I couldn't get ahold of my mom, but I talked with a bunch more people on Facebook chat, too. All is well! We're getting up super early tomorrow to look for apartments, though, so...buenas noches!
- Alex
Hasta luego!
Alex
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