A Tale of Three Cities (Airport Adventures)

So even though I have more to write about than the airports, I'm splitting it into separate entries because they are separate stories. I like continuity. Before I talk about the airports, though, I'd like to share an interesting observation. Before I actually logged into blogspot, all of the buttons were in Spanish. I don't know why, but I didn't really expect that to happen, mostly because I thought Spain had its own separate set of websites. On the bright side, I just learned how to say "log in." Right, on to airports.

First of all, for anybody who would be worried, a seven-hour flight to Europe is not bad at all. I was wishing for more flight time to be honest; it wasn't quite long enough for me because I was napping and would have loved to stay asleep. So when we flew over London, where I made my connection flight, it was still really dark out. This was really exciting to me. I love flying over cities at night; flying over Washington DC is so cool-looking. London? Not so much. Maybe it was too cloudy, but I couldn't see anything at all until we were really close to the ground and when we were close enough well, to be honest, London kind of looked like a dimly lit Christmas tree. There were buildings, but none of them were lit up very much. There were cars on the streets, and there were streetlights. These were pretty uniform, though, and not very bright. I did observe that the cars were, indeed, driving on the other side of the road. (I already knew this; it's just fun to see for yourself.)

London airport is, I have to say, not particularly different from any other airport that I have been to. The layout of the airport is a little different; it takes forever to get from one place to another; I had to take two separate "buses" to get from where I came in to where I needed to be. Also, you don't learn you departure gate until 30-40 minutes before your flight is scheduled to take off. For my flight it was more like 20-25 minutes beforehand. So there are lots of group waiting areas in each terminal. The only other differences are that most people speak in a British accent, which I love, and all the prices are listed in pounds. Which doesn't really matter, because in the airport they accept any currency "of value." They were quite happy to take dollars, euros, or a credit card.

I had a five-hour layover, so I found a cafe, ordered breakfast (it was 8:00am for London), and a raspberry orange juice, which was quite good. Then I walked around all the shops, which were just your run-of-the-mill airport shops. Of course, since I was in an international airport, there were lots of tax-free shops that sold really cheap alcohol, perfume, etc. Then I got tired and waited until my next flight, which was to Barcelona.

Barcelona airport was still not that noticeably different from other airports; I guess an airport is an airport, at least in terms of the Western world, but there are a couple things that stick out in my mind. El Prat, the name of the airport, is not small by any means. But it is all connected. What a nice relief. Of course the most obvious change is that the signs were in three different languages, Catalan, Spanish, and English. It was also a very cool-looking airport; there were statues and the like. (See photo) I had to wait to check in, so I went to a lunch cafe and got a bite to eat. The food was a little bit different, but they had plenty of stuff that was very "American." But like I said, no huge difference.

So here ends my reflection on the airports, which is drawn-out for no reason other than to amuse myself before I can go to lunch. Lunch in my building does not start until 1:15, which is practically when lunch closes in the US. I did know this information coming in, of course, but even when your mind is prepared, your stomach isn't. So no huge airport crisis, no lost luggage and no lost Suzanne. Next post(s) will be about my first night and day here. Some interesting stuff.

VERY IMPORTANT!!!!! I want to share my Skype name with everybody, but I'm not putting it up on a public website, so email me or facebook me and I will send you the name if you want it. I miss everybody already!