Without question, today was the hottest day yet for Spain. Today was the day...the day that I would test my resilience...the day that I would finally know if I could go a whole day without sunscreen....(except for on my face...I heard that too much sun on your face makes you look old sooner). After I got up I went up on the terrace to check my email and sweat in the sun a little. I decided to get ready for a relaxing day before I start my long journey home. My flight is to leave Malaga at 9:50pm and arrive at 12:35am in Cologne. Then I wait until 9:35am when my flight leaves for Canada. There isn't enought time to find a hotel and get a good nights sleep, so I'm just going to stay in the airport. I've decided that I'm not going to sleep so that I can start getting my body back into the BC sleep cycle. If I have a snooze on my flight to Canada (at about 10am...which is 1am BC time) then it should start me off on getting used to Pacific time. Then I can stay up for the rest of my flight until I get to Prince George where I can sleep at the normal time (9 or 10pm).
Anyways, in the afternoon I got a chance to go shopping for a bit and look (yet again) for the Spanish patch. I still didn't find one. At 2:15 we went down to the outdoor pool to go for a swim. Wow was that ever refreshing...they must have had that pool at the perfect temperature for a 34 C day. I dove in head first swam for a bit and then dried off in the sun in about 5 minutes. It was great. After that we went out for supper to a nice little restaurant. There was a meal for two which had a huge selection of things to share. Paella, Chorizo, Blood sussage, stuffed peppers, eggs potatoes and peppers, and a whole bunch of other things that I can't remember. The bad thing was that Peter is alergic to potatoes and about half of the stuff had potatoes in it...he got stuck eating a bunch of bread. And on top of that, the Paella must have been cooked next to some potatoes because Peter didn't feel very well after eating it.
After that we jumped in the car and started on the winedy road to Malaga. The road to get there is actually pretty good. The highway has 3 or 4 lanes and the speed limit is 100-120km/hr...the only problem is that there are toll booths every 25km or so; some cost more than others, but I guess it's the price you pay for being able to get somewhere fast. When we arrived at the airport I quickly found the line where I could check my bags and then said my goodbyes to Pete and Bob. I won't be seeing Pete until Christmas because he is going to Toronto to do his Masters degree. He decided it would be easier if he went from Spain straight to Toronto and then just had the rest of his stuff shipped on the bus.
My plane to leave Spain was a bit delayed, but it didn't matter that much to me since I don't have anywhere to go once I get to Cologne. When we drove into Malaga it was 37'C and when I landed in Cologne it was 10'C. It took me a few seconds to adjust.Now I'm just waiting in the airport...I might make a phone call or two, check my email, post this message, and try to download some of the music from World Youth Day.
God Bless,
Andrew
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Hey Andrew,
Hopefully you're rested and recuperated and ready to enjoy your last week of summer...
Just thought I'd give you a little update on my eventful past couple of days. The excitement started after we dropped you off at the airport. Dad and I were driving back to Ronda - we were about 20 minutes from the airport - when suddenly my dad got this funny look and said "What's going on?" All of a sudden the motor crapped out and he couldn't accelerate. So we coasted to the side of the road, stopped, turned off the car and restarted it. It seemed to be running OK except that the engine warning light was on so we thought we'd drive it to a service station in Sad Pedro. We passed through the next toll booth and a while later got to another toll booth. As we stopped to pay the fee, the engine turned off again - only this time we couldn't get it started. So the toll-man helped us push it to the side of the freeway, and we went to ask about using a phone. Huge language barrier. Nobody there seemed to understand English very well, and they weren't letting us use their phones (in the toll booths). So I got the keys (after 5 or 10 minutes) and tried to start it again. Luckily, the car started and we continued to drive to San Pedro. About 50 kms later we realized that we had already passed San Pedro - we were so busy looking for a service station that we missed the turnoff. So we doubled back and the car died twice more - but started each time after we pulled to the side of the road and gave it a few minutes break - and finally made it to San Pedro where we couldn't find a service station (we kindof suspected that there wouldn't be too many open on a Friday night). So we thought we'd chance it and drive to Ronda since we had no way of contacting the rest of family who were waiting there for us. Thankfully we made it the whole way along that winding road (with no shoulder to pull onto if the car would have died) without incident. So we got to sleep and woke really early the next morning to get to the airport for our flight. It was a tight trip (our luggage spilled over into the back - and even the front - seats) and the warning light for the engine was on the whole way but we were relieved that the car didn't crap out again.
So we all checked in in Malaga and as Mom, Elizabeth and I boarded the plane to Madrid I was prepared for a full 16 hours of flights and transfers to Toronto. Unfortunately for me, while boarding the plane I must have accidentally dropped my passport. I think I dropped it in the loading dock, but I didn't realize it was missing until we got off the plane in Madrid. As soon as I noticed that I didn't have it, I pulled an illegal maneuver and went in the 'out' doors and back towards the plane, but was stopped by a flight attendant before I could check were I was sitting. So I asked at the airline counters if they could look in my seat (I thought it may have fallen out of my pocket there), and they ended up searching the whole plane with no sign of it. I had made a photocopy of my passport before I left, and this was still in my wallet, so I figured I would try to use that instead. However, when I tried to check in at British Airways the guy told me that I needed a police report so that he could check with UK immigration. I went a filed a police report and still had about an hour until my flight left, so I went back and tried to check in again. No luck. I was turned down by immigration (mostly because of policies due to the recent terrorist bombings) and so the guy said I had to contact the Canadian Embassy. So I called... closed. Soooo, to make a long story short, I'm stranded here in Madrid waiting for the Canadian Embassy to open tomorrow morning. Then hopefully I can get some sort of identity card and hop a flight to Toronto before the middle of the week. I have been able to check out some nice sights in Madrid, and get lots of work done on my Photo Web site, so I guess I'm making the most of my extended vaction, but I don't care much for not knowing how long I'll be here, or what's going to happen. I'm looking forward to finding out tomorrow what the embassy has to say.
So anyways, that's my little adventure. Hope things are well there.
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