¡Viva Espana!

We’re writing this with no Internet, in Microsoft Word, from the seventh story of our apartment. Below us the people of Tenerife are going crazy, feverishly waving flags, hanging out of their cars while honking their horns, yelling, screaming, taking their clothes off… Spain just beat Portugal in the Semi-Finals of Euro2012 and despite it being after midnight on a Wednesday the city of Puerto de la Cruz is in full celebration!

Fast-forward a few hours: Today began with a slow lull. Knowing that in just a few hours we would be taking off for an island paradise made sleeping Tuesday night impossible, turning us into zombies. We woke at 4:30AM, hoping to give ourselves enough time to catch the tube to Victoria Station, then on to the Gatwick Express, and finally to Gatwick Airport where we could board our 10AM flight to Madrid. As most world travelers know, days of travel rarely go entirely according to plan. There always seems to be something that goes wrong, gets forgotten, or makes the journey “extra special,” we are no exception to this rule – especially today. Needless to say we were both exhausted from lack of sleep, and had difficulty with even the simplest of tasks – reading signs, checking tickets, looking at flight numbers, answering simple questions, keeping track of our items, etc. On top of all that we were flying into a non-English speaking country; Megan’s Spanish is NONEXISTENT, and Kyle throws on an accent, but his words are useless at best (he basically speaks English with a “wannabe” Rico Suave twist).




Our first hang-up was in London when the man at the AirEuropa ticket check-in couldn’t find our flight, despite having confirmation numbers, Passports and credit cards. Eventually he was corrected by a colleague, which saved Megan from tears thinking she had done something wrong, like managed to book us on a flight that didn’t exist. Our next shortcoming was the inability to recognize the time change from London to Madrid, which shortened our layover time from what we believed to be an hour and a half to HALF an hour. Couple that with the primitive layout of the Madrid Airport, their non-functioning bus system, a barely English speaking “siesta” bound staff, and finally, Kyle getting stopped at security because of his suitcase frame (putting us on the later bus route), almost taking another bus to the wrong terminal, trying to get on the wrong plane due to misinformation; we were destined to miss our flight. Luckily, we had youth on our side as we picked up our bags and sprinted through the airport, arriving at the right place seconds before the gate closed. The flight to Tenerife was way more relaxed; a plane full of people vacation bound makes for a pleasant atmosphere! Arrival in Tenerife and the journey to Puerto de la Cruz was fairly seamless.




Next obstacle, hopping off a bus on a street you can’t pronounce, in a place you’ve never been with people that can’t speak your language… what a nightmare! We had a few names and addresses written down, but with Kyle’s broken ‘Spanglish” we couldn’t manage to locate our contact to pick up keys… as luck would have it, smiles and hand gestures once again managed to get us back on track. We finally located our contact, Mikel, got the keys to our apartment, which were in a bakery shop two doors down from his office – and acquired in a drug deal type transaction. About an hour later we dropped our bags and headed out in search of basic necessities and WiFi (not available in our apartment).

During our exploratory journey we ended up getting sidetracked and roped into watching the Spain vs Portugal match in a public square on the patio of a Spanish-German tapas bar. Needless to say, we still have no Internet or cell phone. We did however manage to buy a pre-paid Spanish SIM card for our British phone… that still needs to be “unlocked” to work… OOPS! But of course, these are the things that we love about traveling; getting ourselves into situations that makes us think on our feet and force us to acquire new skills… Can’t wait to see what awaits us on our first whole day on the island!

Xo,
M&K

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Header image:Arizona Roadtrip Sunset, By: Kyle Ledeboer
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