Sabbatical 9/05 - Travel Day
After a long day in the Alhambra, it was nice to get off my feet for a day as I traveled via plane to Lisbon.
The first part of the trip went according to plan. I rose early, enjoyed an excellent breakfast at the hotel, and then cabbed it to the Granada airport.
The first leg of my flight was back to Barcelona. I finished reading the copy of the Tales of the Alhambra I'd purchased at the gift shop the day before on the first flight.
In Barcelona, things fell apart. The next plane was there, but flight crew was not, and apparently had been absent since the night before. There were a number of people at my gate who had been stranded for more than 18 hours. I settled in for a long wait with some magazines.
One of those magazines had a picture of Donald Trump's wig being lowered on to the White House as Trump had just declared his candidacy for the presidency. Because of that cover and my obvious American accent, I was approached by an elderly Australian gentleman who was curious as to whether I as American thought Trump was serious. I said that I was sure he was not, but that if he managed to drive Jeb Bush out of the race he would have done his country a great service. At the time, he thought this was hilarious. In retrospect, it looks terrifyingly misguided. In any event, he did say that he figured Americans usually did the right thing eventually, although he alas neglected to identify the right thing.
Time went by.
More time went by.
I finished my magazines. I read more of my few remaining books and had a late lunch. Finally, the flight crew arrived and we flew to Lisbon. I arrived in the late evening, and after some misadventures with subway maps which resulted in I arrived at my hotel. My trip only had four more days to go.
PS - I apologize for the colorized version of Casablanca. It's an abomination, but the only clip I could find with that line.
The first part of the trip went according to plan. I rose early, enjoyed an excellent breakfast at the hotel, and then cabbed it to the Granada airport.
The first leg of my flight was back to Barcelona. I finished reading the copy of the Tales of the Alhambra I'd purchased at the gift shop the day before on the first flight.
In Barcelona, things fell apart. The next plane was there, but flight crew was not, and apparently had been absent since the night before. There were a number of people at my gate who had been stranded for more than 18 hours. I settled in for a long wait with some magazines.
One of those magazines had a picture of Donald Trump's wig being lowered on to the White House as Trump had just declared his candidacy for the presidency. Because of that cover and my obvious American accent, I was approached by an elderly Australian gentleman who was curious as to whether I as American thought Trump was serious. I said that I was sure he was not, but that if he managed to drive Jeb Bush out of the race he would have done his country a great service. At the time, he thought this was hilarious. In retrospect, it looks terrifyingly misguided. In any event, he did say that he figured Americans usually did the right thing eventually, although he alas neglected to identify the right thing.
Time went by.
Click to viewMore time went by.
I finished my magazines. I read more of my few remaining books and had a late lunch. Finally, the flight crew arrived and we flew to Lisbon. I arrived in the late evening, and after some misadventures with subway maps which resulted in I arrived at my hotel. My trip only had four more days to go.
PS - I apologize for the colorized version of Casablanca. It's an abomination, but the only clip I could find with that line.