12/5/04

it rained all night, why? because we were camping. it has rained every night we have camped since arriving in europe w the exception of one night. so the tent was wet again. we got to our bus stop for the airport on time and got to the airport with no problem. we go up to the info desk to find out where to check in. I say "where do we check in for our 12:15 flight on ryan air"? the help desk lady says"ryan air?, you must go to treviso airport for rayan air flights. this is marco polo airport. There are no direct busses or trams or trains that go between marco polo airport and treviso airport. so we had to take a texi for 60€ from one airport to the other. so we arrive at the correct airport and get in a short line to check-in. they wouldn let us check calebs bag with the tent and sleep pad attached so we thought that we could take them as carry ons along with our remaining bag and sleeping bags. we go through security and theyt tell us that we must go back to check in and check the tent because it has tent stakes in it.(very dangerous you know). we turn around and there are literally 100 people waiting in line now to check in. so we got back into line to check our tent. we finally pass through security and customs and sti in wait for our"cheap" flight to barcelona. when does the fun start? while waiting to board our flight on announcement is made in italian and everyone around us gets up and moves towards gate 1(our assinbged gate) ok, i guess its time to line up. then after 15 minutes of standing in this non moving line another annou ncement is made in italian and then broken unclear english that some people should go to get one and others at gate 2. caleb and i are at the very end of the line at gate 2 because we dont know whats going on. eventually we go outsite to get on the plane and realize that there are no assigned seats. once borded we discover that there are no seats left together. we land in girona airport(rough landing, new pilot maby)and after speaking with the tourist info we discover that girona barcelona airport is actually more then 80 kilometers from barcelona! no wonder the plane tickets were so cheap. so we get bus tickets to barcelona(11€ a piece) however all these europeans were much quicker then us(or pushier we cant decide) AND ONCE AGAIN we are the last to board and cannot sit together. bummer but oh well. the view from the bus was great. once again moun tians and new greenery. the architecture is very different from anything we have seen before. the sun was shining brightly hooray! when we arrived in barcelona about 1.5 hours later the usn had tucked back under the coulds and the cold returned. we were in the mids of looking at the map of our new temporary home city when this short what turned out to be an itilian, buy asks us if we are looking for accomadations? yes. he and his girlfriend rent out a room in their apartment for 30€ a night. we have use of their kitchen, laundry, our own privete room, shower and bathroom. emiliano is studying finance here in barcelona and his girlfriend Alessandra is studying drama. they are really nice. they walked me to the supermarket to get groceries and for the first time since we arrived here we made dinner! homemade food! it was like food for the gods! after dinner we talked politics. E said that everyone is hating America now because of bush and the war. We said we understand and that we voted for kerry. :)
Alessandra asked us to go to a small one man comedia ´dell arte (old italian theatere with masks) preformance. We went and it was great! staying with these two is giving us the intimate cultural experence that we have been longing for. Somthing very good after such a trying travel day.