Getting to Barcelona

A view over the Mediterranean before we landed.

January 19-20, 2020

After falling asleep sometime after midnight without even realizing it, my alarm awoke me at 2:30 am. I hadn’t even realized I had fallen asleep but now I was wide awake. So, I got my phone charger and shoved it into my already-stuffed backpack. Then I threw some cold water on my face, got dressed, and we were off to the airport.

3:30 am at O’Hare Airport.

We got inside at 3:30 am. I checked my luggage and went through security without waiting in line. My gate had maybe four people sitting in it. I chilled for a bit, got some water in my Hydroflask, went to the bathroom and got situated.

Before getting on the flight, an elderly man dropped his neck pillow, so I grabbed it and gave it back. Then, as we got in line to board the plane, a middle-aged couple was chatting with me about how they are visiting their friends who own a catamaran in the British Virgin Islands. (This may be a sign, I’ve always wanted to live on a boat.)

Once seated, it turned out that the elderly man was sitting next to me, and he woman he was traveling with. He ended up asking me “Have you ever read a a newspaper?” as I found a Spotify playlist for the flight. After telling him I’m earning a degree in journalism, we just chatted. He ended up being from the town next to mine and talked about this new Mexican restaurant - I ended up going to the grand opening last night. Small world - really small world.

The flight took off around 6 am. I listened to music and slept for a bit, dosing in and out of sleep. We landed in Miami about a quarter before 10 am. Once off the plane, I texted my friend who was already in Miami and on the same flight to Barcelona as me.

I met her and four other girls at our gate (a couple flights early). There, I started this blog post, charged my phone up, caught up and eventually ate at T.G.I Friday’s (lol I know) [Side note: I decided not to do vegan full-time on this trip. I will do it when I cook - I don’t know how to cook animals products - and if possible when I eat out. However, when we travel outside of Spain, I may do vegetarian/pescatarian. Will update as the trip happens!]

Then, we sat at the gate, waiting for more people from our program to meet us and, about two hours later, we boarded the red eye flight to Barcelona.

As I boarded, I was nervous that my neighbor would speak English (I had a window seat). Surprisingly, the woman who sat next to me asked if I was from in Barcelona (a good sign I guess!)! She was a British woman woman and turns out that she works on ship! (Another ship connection, weird!) I think it was a cruise, and she worked at the kid’s club onboard. She was nice but stressed because she had a connecting flight (and she most definitely missed it). I was intrigued by her job - she works for 5 months, gets off for 7 weeks, and does it all again! All her flights are paid for, she just finished a 5-month job in Fort Lauderdale, and in seven weeks she was going to Australia. In between, she is visiting her ‘boat boyfriend’ whose home is Barbados. (Ok, is this real life?)

I dozed off for a bit and woke up to service. The choice was between chicken and pasta, I obviously chose pasta. After that I maybe slept for an hour, maybe more. Time is weird in airplanes, especially when you’re running on two hours of sleep.

Lady next to me was still freaking out that she would miss her connection. The flight attendant is saying the weather is so bad in Barca that we may not land there. Might go to Milan/Lisbon/Madrid. We landed at BCN about an hour and a half late. (But we left on time?!) Apparently it had to do with the weather.

Anyways, we landed and all the luggage from 14 kids from my program on the flight made it. We went through border security easily, then were shocked at how customs worked here. I could get used to Europe.

And now the adventure really begins...