Have I mentioned that I hate flying? We left Buffalo at 2:30 PM Monday afternoon and arrived in Barcelona at 10 AM Wednesday morning. I slept about 2 1/2 hours on the plane between JFK and Barcelona. Julie somehow slept about 6 hours on the same flight and I have no idea how she did it. We were about 60 minutes outside JFK when I noticed that Julie was ‘watching a movie’ with her eyes closed while slumped to one side. Holy crap, I thought, she’s had a stroke! Nope, she just fell asleep like she always does at home watching TV.
In my case, I laid back with my eyes closed for hours on end with sleep laughing at me. (Julie has denied me the opportunity to more colorfully describe my frustrations with the elusiveness of sleep) Eventually, at about 7:30 Barcelona time, 2:30 AM EDT, I finally drifted off. Less than 60 minutes later I was shaken awake by a loudspeaker blaring something about landing in Barcelone in “just over an hour”. (The following has been edited by Julie into a more PG version -)
Excuse me, but what in the name of bananas would our nice flight attendant want to tell me that for? I was really hoping to enjoy that last hour of sleep. By the time I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth and changed my shirt, they were no longer serving coffee. What in the name of bananas was going on with this flight!?!
Once on the ground, we collected our baggage and cleared customs, then wandered the sparse halls of the Barcelona airport for what seemed like days. I was in a caffeine-starved fog as we searched for the Uber pickup point. We made it there, only to find that the Uber driver did not have an espresso machine installed in the back seat of the car. “Bananas”, I screamed! That only got me a concerned look from the driver and a cold stare from Julie. We drove off in silence.
Once we got to the hotel, the cheery receptionist asked, “Your name por favor”. Julie started to answer “Porter…P-O-R-T…” when I cut her off. “Coffee… you have coffee? No?” Startled, the receptionist asked me, “Your name is Senor Coffee?”
As my response was forming on my lips – ‘no you blithering idiot, I want CAFFEINE…’, Julie evenly continued… “…-E-R, Porter”. All the while giving me a look that would freeze the balls off a brass monkey.
The room wasn’t ready, thank goodness, because we put our bags in the holding room and headed quickly next door for… coffeeee. It was awesome. Rich and strong. Now I can start to enjoy the trip.
The rest of the day is a blur…
Sparse doesn’t begin to describe the Barcelona airport!! Let the next adventure begin! I was thinking about you last night while I was watching Genius-Picasso.
Bananas….. is that the technical term?! Lol
Love the entry; looking forward to the next post!
Hah, I’m glad Tim found some coffee! I just made a personal note to have coffee ready whenever Tim plans to stop by. P.S. I’m also jealous of how easily Julie slept.
Not once in four months of training did I hear you utter “bananas.”
Perhaps a “kumquat” or two in times of duress.