Getting to Valencia was an interesting experience... Cristina and I started it off with a 6am plane flight from Jacksonville to Chicago, followed up by an 8 hour layover in Chicago. Naturally, we thought that we would put our bags in a locker and get a taxi into chicago to go get some lunch and then come back and still have essentially a four hour lay over. However it turns out they don't let you get lockers. So we just sat there... 8 hours later we get on the plane and think it's smooth sailing. We were wrong.
We land in Madrid and Cristina turns on her phone. Looking at the time and adding six hours she determines its 8:50; our flight leaves at 9:05. This gives us six minutes to get from our current gate through customs, through security, and to a new terminal. We started to run. I don't know if any of y'all have been in the Madrid airport but its ginormous. This is no small feat were about to take on here. Customs, no problems. Security, problem. They make you strip like all air ports do, But I'm wearing like the worst outfit the try and get off and back on in what needed to be about thirty seconds in my head. So off go the boots, the hat, the jacket, the belt, everything out of the pockets, computer out of the backpack, passport and boarding pass in hand. Good good. no problems i get dressed as fast as possible going a hundred miles an hour. Repeating continuously in my head passport, boarding pass, wallet, phone. In the mean time Cristina is already dressed, so she decides to try and go hold the plane that leaves in 5 minutes, and that sounds like a great idea. So she takes off.
I finally get everything back on and start running, realizing that EVERYTHING is in spanish (my spanish is not to hot) and that gate K, which is where my plane was taking off from, was twenty five minutes away. How do I know this? There are signs that tell you exactly how far away things are. I get on my horse. WAIT! Why are my hands free?? Right...no luggage. i left it somewhere. Conveniently, on the other side of security. So, the process starts over. This time I'm dressing and undressing even faster. Putting the belt around my stomach without going through the belt loops. the computing in hand, no time to put it back in the backpack and luggage in hand. Now I'm sprinting...to the gate that is 25 minutes away and I have never been in this airport before.
I get to the gate drenched in sweat and Cristina tells me the bad news. "we missed it". Being slightly annoyed considering how much effort i had just put in to make this flight, we go to the ticket counter. "I'm sorry, we missed our flight. We need to reschedule" Cristina says as she hands the man who speaks very little english her ticket and passport. "I don't understand" he responds. So she repeats herself again, and he responds with, "you mean that flight?" pointing to the gate across from him. "It leaves in an hour".. Cristina looks at her phone and has a "aha"
moment on her face. She had forgot to subtract and hour because we were flying from Chicago instead of Jacksonville. Madrid 1; Jon and Cristina 0.
We land in Madrid and Cristina turns on her phone. Looking at the time and adding six hours she determines its 8:50; our flight leaves at 9:05. This gives us six minutes to get from our current gate through customs, through security, and to a new terminal. We started to run. I don't know if any of y'all have been in the Madrid airport but its ginormous. This is no small feat were about to take on here. Customs, no problems. Security, problem. They make you strip like all air ports do, But I'm wearing like the worst outfit the try and get off and back on in what needed to be about thirty seconds in my head. So off go the boots, the hat, the jacket, the belt, everything out of the pockets, computer out of the backpack, passport and boarding pass in hand. Good good. no problems i get dressed as fast as possible going a hundred miles an hour. Repeating continuously in my head passport, boarding pass, wallet, phone. In the mean time Cristina is already dressed, so she decides to try and go hold the plane that leaves in 5 minutes, and that sounds like a great idea. So she takes off.
I finally get everything back on and start running, realizing that EVERYTHING is in spanish (my spanish is not to hot) and that gate K, which is where my plane was taking off from, was twenty five minutes away. How do I know this? There are signs that tell you exactly how far away things are. I get on my horse. WAIT! Why are my hands free?? Right...no luggage. i left it somewhere. Conveniently, on the other side of security. So, the process starts over. This time I'm dressing and undressing even faster. Putting the belt around my stomach without going through the belt loops. the computing in hand, no time to put it back in the backpack and luggage in hand. Now I'm sprinting...to the gate that is 25 minutes away and I have never been in this airport before.
I get to the gate drenched in sweat and Cristina tells me the bad news. "we missed it". Being slightly annoyed considering how much effort i had just put in to make this flight, we go to the ticket counter. "I'm sorry, we missed our flight. We need to reschedule" Cristina says as she hands the man who speaks very little english her ticket and passport. "I don't understand" he responds. So she repeats herself again, and he responds with, "you mean that flight?" pointing to the gate across from him. "It leaves in an hour".. Cristina looks at her phone and has a "aha"
moment on her face. She had forgot to subtract and hour because we were flying from Chicago instead of Jacksonville. Madrid 1; Jon and Cristina 0.
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