Made It To Barcelona!

I'm writing this in our room at the Hostal Lazza in Barcelona for later upoad to my blog when we find an internet cafe (pictures will come later). Here is me with a 1,75 Euro bottle of wine that actually tastes really good (Comportillo Cosecha 2007 from Rioja). I had Elena take this picture so I could show you what a homeless, jobless guy looks like when he's drinking a $3 bottle of wine. ;-)


Anyway, we last saw the parents leaving from Janesville. We looked something like this:


We were a bit worried about the VanGalder bus because we switched at ROckford, picked up a few hotel people, and then got stuck in traffic. Anyway, we arrived about 40 minutes late, but we had enough time to check in and get to our gate. The international terminal at O'Hare sucks. There are no bars, restaurants, stores, or anythig worth looking at. Just a couple of kiosks--one duty free and one not.

I'm not allowed to tell this story, but I will anyway. We didn't get the seats that we picked on the Expedia seat picker and Elena made the LOT girl go back and see why. After a few minutes she came back and said there was nothing in the reservation. Then she capped it off with "you must have done something wrong." I thought it was funny, but Elena didn't. It was an Eastern European customer service catfight in the making. Sadly, no cat fight.

The flight was long. 9.5 hours long. It was a relief to get off in Warsaw. Elena needed a latte that wasn't made with Nescafe because anyone who has traveled to Europe with Elena knows that she goes out of her way--way out of her way--to make sure she doesn't have to consume Nescafe. Yes, my arch enemy is the Social Conservative, and Elena's arch enemy is the restauranteur who serves Nescafe. We deborded and got into another security line to get on the next plane and Elena got a latte at a place called Coffee Heaven. She said the latte wasn't great--not bad, but not good either. So I think they should rename it Coffee Purgatory. Well, the security line doesn't allow liquids, so when we got near the front of the line and Elena had most of her latte left, we went back to the end of the line.

The flight from Warsaw to Barcelona was more pleasant. We were able to catch a little more sleep (it was like 3am our time). We finally arrived at the airport. It took a while to figure out what carousel our bags would come out on because 1) the carousels are individually marked instead of there being a central set of screens that point you to the carousel, and 2) Warasw was spelled Varsalia or something like that and the flight number was in really small print. OUr bags were quick and we got out. Then we got on the shuttle to the train. THe shuttle is free. Then we took the train to Barcelona. That was free too. Then we took a subway to the station right by the Sagrada Familia. The whole way, we were lugging our excessively heavy luggage. I think it's because Elena overpacked her clothes and she thinks it's because I overpacked by books. Of course I'm right--but that doesn't matter because Elena is the woman. ;-) So the official reason is that I overpacked my books.

Well, we got to the Hostal Lazza and checked in. They do take credit cards--just not today. So it's a god thing I got some cash at the first ATM I saw.

We showered and went out for a nice walk down to the Arc de Triomf and the museums. Then we walkde back and stopped into 3 different grocery stores as we figured out how to do dinner. We got 100 grams of a sausage, a tube of chevre, a baguette, and a bottle of wine. Total was about 6 Euros. And that's what we ate. Now it's almost time for bed.

Interesting observations:

• The passengers on LOT applaud when the plane lands. On the first flight, they applauded on take off
• The 'walk' signals in Barcelona suddenly turn into 'Don't Walk' and traffic starts up
• Couples make out by the museums in Barcelona
• POlish flight attendants are young and pretty--I guess discrimination is allowed
• Iberian girls are still sexy. And becuase they are short, a larger percentage of them are in my height range
• There are lots of banks and pharmacies in Barcelona

Jefferson to O'Hare to Warsaw to Barcelona

Well, we're packed and on our way. We're going to Janesville to get the bus to O'Hare.

Everyone's getting ready so I better fold up the laptop.

I'll blog later. :-)

Almost Ready

Hmmm.... Elena beat me to the punch. Usually her blogs lag mine and she uses mine as a reference to write hers. Well, I shouldn't say "usually" since she just started. Anyway, we leave tomorrow. So here's what I had to do to get ready:

• Buy travel insurance. Did that just now. Thank goodness for the internet and online insurance. $500,000 policy with a $1000 deductible for $438.
• Decide which books to take. Just my little language books and travel guides.
• See people--saw Ken and his wife Josey two nights ago. Saw my brother and his family last weekend.
• Buy a few items--nylon cord, a money belt, a compass, and a new Moleskine to start a new travel journal.
• Repack--need to reduce the amount of stuff I need.
• We also got a hostel room in Barcelona and a week in an apartment in Montpellier.
• Charge my iPod. I have 19 This American Life episodes loaded onto it.
• Figure out my passport--I'll get it renewed at the Consulate in Marseilles.
• Confirm our tickets--LOT 2 from O'Hare to Warsaw and LOT 437 from Warsaw to Barcelona.
• File taxes--hey I need my stimulus money to stimulate the French economy, right?
• Deposit a check--not so many branches of my usual bank out here.
• Laundry.
• Turn off voice mail on my cell phone so I don't spend $2 to receive a non-message that somebody left. BTW AT&T international Customer Care is 1-916-843-4685. Did you know that you can't use AT&T voicemail to have an outgoing message unless you accept voicemail? Back in 1998, I had an answering machine that let me choose between outgoing message only or outgoing message with voice mail. I can't believe I can't do that in 2008. Shame on AT&T. Also I needed my phone unlock code. Again, AT&T didn't send it to me--only a message saying that my issue was resolved successfully.
• Wash the car.

Credit Card

Last week I tried to get a credit card that had an expiration date after my trip ends so I don't have to deal with it expiring when I'm abroad. The problem with that was that when they send out a new credit card, they cancel the old one. I was about to head across the USA so I decided to wait until I got to Wisconsin and get an expedited credit card sent to me here.

But when I called, they started out by telling me the same stuff that the first guy said, but after a bit of time, the customer service guy said that they could send out a new card with my same number and not turn off my current card. So I'm getting an expedited card and my current card is still good while it comes out. Why couldn't the first guy give me that offer? Oh well. At least it's going to work out well. I just have to be home Tuesday from 8 to 5 to wait for the courier.

Seeing The Brother

Later today we are all heading to Chicago (actually a northern suburb) for dinner with the brother, wife, and nieces. My cousin and his wife might be there too. It'll be one last chance to see them all before my risky adventure in Africa.

Flight Booked

We have officially booked our flights. We leave from O'Hare at 6:30pm on Friday, March 14. Connect in Warsaw. Then to Barcelona! Why Warsaw? Because the cheapest flights by far were on LOT Airlines out of Poland--only about $640. Who would have guessed?

We got a hostel in Barcelona near the Familia Sagrada for a couple of days. So we are set to get to Europe! We will figure out how to get up to Montpellier from Barcelona.

Bad Gas

We woke up from our slumber in Murdo. No murders in Murdo while we were there. We hit the road and drove east, and east, and east, and east. It was very windy--the kind of wind that makes you drive with the steering wheel aimed at 1 o'clock (okay, actually more like 12:20). We gassed up in Mitchell at a Cenex and headed east. Once again my mileage was off. We only got 240 miles on the tank instead of the 360. Just like my tanks in Vancouver. So is it bad gas? Or the wind? Who knows? We gassed up again in Albert Lea, Minnesota and the mileage was back to normal. But the wind also died down at that point. Why do all my mileage events have to have these extra variables so I can't isolate the gas as bad gas? Anyway I had a fun time talking about bad gas. Elena also enjoyed my bad gas jokes--for a while.

We got to Minnesota and then through Minnesota, finally arriving in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Then we headed 2 or 3 more hours to home.

We saw no police in South Dakota and Montana. But once we hit Minnesota and Wisconsin, there were police speed traps. In one case in Wisconsin, a police man decided to enter the highway right in front of us. So we had to wait until he pulled someone over before resuming our scofflaw speeding ways.

My parents expected us a day later and we didn't call. Just decided to drop in. At about 6:30pm we pulled up to the house, and I tried the door. Locked. Then I rang the door bell. My Mom answered wondering who it was. I got almost my whole line of "excuse me kind folks. Would you be willing to put up two homeless unemployed people?" before she realized who I was. About 5 minutes later my Dad came home. Then we all drank a 1.5 liter Yellow Tail Chardonnay and 2 Pizza Pit pizzas.

So we made it safely from Vancouver to Jefferson in 4 days! Very nice. No problems worse than the key fob stopping--and that was a worse problem for the people in the Motel 6 who had to hear my car alarm go off 3 times that night as I tried to fiddle with it.

The only regrets--I wish I would have taken some pictures of things that I wasn't aware of until it was too late:

• Exit sign in Montana "Anaconda Opportunity"
• Exit sign in Montana "469"
• Skeleton of man walking skeleton of dinosaur
• Every single kitschy Wall Drug sign for the miles before Wall, SD
  
• Perfectly cast shadow of the profile of our car on the wall next to us
• The Missouri River
• The Mississippi River
• The Buffalo Bar and Restaurant in Murdo