Flight to Spain!

January 8, 2010

My flight to Madrid was very long but I was still able to get there in one piece. My whole trip started off on Wednesday January 6^th when my mom and I left to stay in a hotel in Chicago overnight. For dinner we ate the Cheescake Factory at the Woodfield Mall. It was very good! I had the bistro shrimp pasta for dinner and the banana cream cheesecake for desert along with a raspberry lemonade to drink. The next day it snowed-a lot- and we were worried that my flight to Dallas would be delayed. I took a flight to Dallas with a group of girls and even though we were able to board the airplane on time for the most part, we had to wait up to 2 hours in the plane before we could leave. They were doing required system checks such as defrosting the plane, filling up on gas, getting stand-bys on board etc.

When we checked into the airport, they told me my luggage was much too large to fit into the overheard compartments and they would put it on the luggage below the plane. I was fine with this and they gave me a ticket stub that would with my luggage which I kind of expected I could use to pick up my luggage right a way at the Dallas airport. When we arrived in Dallas, I asked a worker where I could pick up my carry-on and he told me at the baggage claim. So I left with another girl to go collect my luggage.

Because our flight left 2 hours late, we only had about an hour before our flight for Madrid would ‘depart.’ I eventually retrieved my carry-on like 15 minutes later and was then told to go to a security check-point which really was a short customs check point. I got through it ok but a worker told me there were questionable items in my huge carry-on. These suspicious items included my jewelry ( I did bring a lot), tea packets, and small cards I was planning on mailing. 5-10 minutes later I got my luggage back and had to pack it away there. At this point it was probably 5:10 or 5:15 and I was still at Terminal A and had to get all the way to terminal D for my D30 flight for Madrid.

I took the skyline train system to my terminal which made at least 8 or so other stops before it got to my terminal. While I was on the train there was a family that got on that was speaking all in Spanish and I kind of wanted to ask them if they were going to Spain but I didn’t and was glad because they got off at 2 terminals before mine.

After about 20-25 minutes on being on the skyline, I final got to my destination at D30, I started looking around as I was walking towards the gate for my group, but they were not there. Behind the desk at the D30 gate was at least 5-7 airport workers waiting for just me. I was the very last person on the flight! One of the workers, maybe a pilot joked, “Where were you? You have like 20 messages on your cell phone!” Exhausted, I just nodded and replied, “Yes.” Truly, I did have 3 messages from these workers. When I didn’t show up (and before this Andrea had let them know that I was in that airport and on my way to the gate. I also had one text message because one of the ladies figured that since I was 19, I don’t call/listen to voice mails, I text!! If I had the time and more hands I would have answered these calls, but being determined to get on that plane to Madrid, I just ignored them.

With my oversized carry-on, I went on the plane and off to Madrid. I would have slept on the plan as suggested, but I just couldn’t…instead I watched two movies- “Shorts” and “Monsters vs. Aliens”…also, as I was trying to fall asleep at 12 am…The Office came on with the Pam and Jim wedding episode so of course, I had to watch that.

After claiming our luggage we went outside to wait for our free shuttle to the hotel-Kris Suites. After about 30-60 minutes we started to call for the shuttle but we were having some trouble. We eventually got through and were told that it would be there in 5-10 minutes, probably only because there was another man on the shuttle who probably called beforehand.

Our hotel room is really nice, we have four rooms- a bedroom with 2 beds, a living room with a bed, couch, coffee table, mini fridge, small tv, and plenty of storage room. A bathroom and even a kitchen with large fridge and freezer, stove, oven, sink, dishwasher, and even a washer for clothes!

For food we went to the mall where it turns out they have a grocery store. Me and another girl Kristin from my hotel room got strawberry yogurt (which we had to ‘drink’), turkey, bread, and this strange butter, Levital, which is rubbery-like, not yellow, and has a nutty/smoky taste to it, but I really like it a lot anway. So that it’s for now…I had a really exciting day in Madrid that I will type about later.