I haven’t written much here lately because I haven’t been traveling, so I am sure that people do not want to hear about my boring everyday life. So the last 5 days, since I have been on a trip, I kept some notes as to what I would be able to talk about that might seem a little more interesting; at least to myself.
I was initially supposed to be going to California on the 26th so I call up work on the 25th because they usually call you a day in advanced to check you in for your trip. Since this did not happen, I figured I would take the initiative and call in to be sure that they didn’t forget to call me. (Yes, it happens) I was told that I was no longer going to California. I was a little disappointed because I was going to have a longer stay in San Diego, and was hoping to hang out with my step brother who is in the Marines there.
Instead they tell me I am going to Spain and Africa. This is cool to me, because I have only been to one country in Africa, and though secretly I am hoping it’s not the same country, I would have been just as happy if it was there again.
I ask them to send me my trip details, and they do…. Oh goody! At first I though ‘oh fuck’ but then I figured, it is what it is.
The trip taught me a lot about myself, and about others. Honestly I was not overly excited about my colleagues. I then learned that for one, I had completely misjudged, for another, I grew to know her better, and have a much better appreciation of, yet another, my opinion remains the same, and another, I actually almost feel sorry for.
The one that my opinion doesn’t change on is the same one that I was with on my last adventure. Just a negative Nancy! Everything that comes out of her mouth is either how bad someone is, what someone did that was bad, how bad it is being around bad people and how ‘they’ are such horrible people. I feel that the finger that points is often at a mirror.
I figure, I am going to enjoy this trip regardless of the ignorance, regardless of my preconceived opinions, and regardless of the time frame.
We get to one of my favourite cities in the US. Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This small town has a population of 20,784 (thanks Wikipedia) and I have never encountered a rude one! The place has a great mix of professional and artsy people. It is funny because for a town that is fairly small, it really has a wide array of different foods from all around.
On this trip I didn’t really do much in Portsmouth, although I usually tend to like to walk around because I love the town so much. We only had a short time there, so I had dinner at the hotel. If you’re ever in Portsmouth, and are staying at the Sheraton, you HAVE to get the Lobster and Corn chowder. Simple presentation, complex taste! For people that know me, I enjoy food, but only recommend something if I feel it is worth trying! I would go out of my way to get a bowl of that soup!
The following morning, I decide that I want to go to another one of my favourite places called ‘Friendly Toast’. If you’re a foodie, you might know that this place was just recently named the best place to get breakfast in the USA. Honestly, I wouldn’t know, I never have ordered breakfast here. The atmosphere reminds me of Austin, Texas. Which once again, if you know me, you know that Austin is by far my favourite city in America (if not the world). The servers are allowed to be themselves; they do not have to follow the typical “Corporate American” look with short hair and black pants and white button up. The servers are allowed to be relaxed, have tattoos, green hair, purple eye shadow, one leg, glasses, glass eyes… who cares!! I love that kind of atmosphere, it allows you to be yourself and just enjoy a meal!
That afternoon we left for Rota, Spain. We go to the hotel about 4:30am and breakfast wasn’t until 7:30. Well, I have somewhat come into a pattern where if the breakfast is free at the hotel we are staying at; I will stay awake and be the first one in line. I stayed up with 2 other people. We sat and chatted, watched the clock. Chatted some more watched the clock…. Tick, tock, tick ,tock. My god does time creep when you want some free food!
The breakfast at the hotel was really good. They had cloves of garlic next to the bread, and the most amazing olive oil. I probably ate about 5 cloves of raw garlic. Yes, I know exactly what you are thinking!! I didn’t care! I had that plus some champagne, and I was set! (I had other things, but they weren’t really interesting enough to talk about)
So I go to bed after brushing my teeth about 500 times to try to get the taste of garlic off my tongue… it doesn’t happen!
That afternoon we fly to Bamako, Mali (in Africa for the geographically challenged) Nothing major there. Hot. Humid. Rainy. Hot. Hot. And again… HOT! It was 125 degrees that afternoon there! That’s about all there is to say about Mali.
We get back to Spain and we are told that we are not going to stay in Rota.
I am a little disappointed by this because the town seemed really quaint. Also, the truth of the matter is, I was going take a day trip to Morocco. I was looking at the map and realized the southernmost tip of Spain is only 9 miles across the sea to Morocco. In the hotel I found a brochure for day trips to Morocco, and a couple of colleagues said they would be interested in going, so we were going to do that. Well, needless to say, that wasn’t going to happen now!
Instead we would be taking a flight to Madrid.
An hour flight later, we arrive in Madrid. The taxi driver was a nasty piece of crap that apparently hated life. I had to tell him about himself in Spanish. After of course he got us to our destination; I didn’t want to be left in the middle of Madrid… only because I had never been there.
We had 25 hours to kill, so a group of us decided to go ahead and take a nap and meet up at 4pm. We meet up at 4pm, have a coffee and head out. We walk to the train station, and I am shocked that it is only 1 Euro each way for the train. That’s less than $2US round trip. The train station is extremely clean, which was shocking because its hard to find a clean train station anywhere in the US.
We get off at the Gran Via stop. Start walking around. We decided we were going to become a “Tapa Hoppa” and go from tapa place to tapa place! Each time one person would choose a tapa, and pay for that round.
The first one we stop at, someone orders some Pata Negra which I guess is the best kind of ham. Beats me, I don’t eat ham! I did however try a tiny piece, and didn’t see what all the fuss was because to me it was tasteless. So I stuck to drinking my sangria and eating the bread with tomatoes and garlic on it! (yes, I know… more garlic)
We eat and carry on our way.
The people of Madrid are rather interesting. There are shops and restaurants everywhere, and filled in between them are nice little parks where people lay half naked in the sun just enjoying the life of relaxation. Something I feel that we in America really don’t do enough.
The next place we stopped at, we had a THerveTHa con Limón (it took me a while to get used to how the Spaniards speak Spanish , but I eventually got it) and some olives that were freshly cured in… you got it… GARLIC!! WOO HOO! So I am in heaven, I have a plate that consists of 2 of my favourite things, green olives, and GARLIC. I order some “spicy potatoes” and we eat and drink, and carry on.
When you go to a country, it is very common for people to want to get things the country is known for. For example, in the Philippines they are known for their dried mango, in France for wine, in Mexico their vanilla, in Thailand their underage opium stung out hookers. Ok maybe not the hooker part, I just wanted to be sure you were paying attention.
Anyways, the best way I have found, and often the cheapest, is to go to the grocery store. Most ‘gift’ shops that sell products unique to that country trend to overprice things. Why? Because we as the traveler, still think its “cheap” because its EXTRA expensive in the states.
Spain is pretty well known in the culinary world for their olive oils. Personally, I really have one brand of olive oil I am fond of (that comes from Morocco), but I still like olive oil.
We go inside of a grocery store, and I look around for products, like olive oil. I find the aisle of olive oil. Yes, AISLE, an entire row of olively goodness! They have oils that range from 1st pressed, cold pressed, bench pressed, virgin, extra virgin, or plain old slutty! And guess what? They are cheap! What would usually cost me about $25-$30 for an organic olive oil, I got for $5-$7… oh, I should have mentioned it is a LITRE of oil. I also bought some of the beer that is has lemon in it, but its not like the Bud Light lime, it is much better.
The day carries on with more walking…..
Pictures….
More walking…..
Eatting…
Walking some more….
We then decide we are all about dead, and really need to eat… again. Then head back to the hotel.
For our finally we decided that we have to have some paella. That, after all is what Spain is known for no?
We order that, and in the meantime, a colleague had purchased something pickled. Yep, you got it… GARLIC!
So while we are waiting for our food, we get ghetto and break out this huge jar of pickled garlic and olives. Eating it with our bread, drinking our cerveza… excuse me thervetha con limon!
The paella gets to the table, looking awesome, and HUGE. I couldn’t believe that it was supposed to be for 2 people. It fed all 4 of us, and we really didn’t even finish all of it.
I kinda wanted to just sleep right there at the table. But I am sure they kinda frown on that, so we got up and headed to the train station.
We get on the train, headed to what we THOUGHT was our stop. After 4 stops I look up and notice that we are going the opposite direction of where we are suppose to be going. I tried to say something to the group a few times, but as often is the case, no one is listening to me… so I said ‘fuck it’… I didn’t care, I was comfortable, and I wasn’t walking, so it wasn’t hurting me none!
Eventually someone actually took a breath (yes I know, you would expect that I was the one running my mouth, but believe it or not, there are actually times when I do not speak much) I managed to slip in we were going the wrong way, and had been for a couple of stops!
We switch trains (no biggy) and head the right direction.
The following day we fly back to Miami. Direct... No stopping! Hooray! But… with all good comes the balance of bad.
I luck out, because I have an aisle seat, but apparently jokers were wild that day because the man in the middle was this fat man. Half of him decided that my lap looked comfortable, so it sat there! There was no moving because it was a full flight. Oh, and to top it off, he takes a sleeping pill, and passes out a little after take off.
So with his head bobbing like a bobble head, I am waiting to hear his neck snap, and out of nowhere, this snore comes out. I have never heard someone snore so loud. People 4 rows up were looking back.
I am not going to be able to sleep like this.
Well, let me just tell you; sometimes I think I have a brilliant plan. “I’ll take a sleeping pill, have a little champagne, and that will help me sleep regardless.”
This is NOT a good plan!
Never has been.
Never should have been.
And never will be AGAIN!
Oh I got sleepy alright.
In fact, I even fell asleep for a short bit.
Then the lady with the doublewide hips come walking past and hits me in the head.
Then the man walking with a cane hits me with his cane.
Then someone was getting something out of the overhead bin and backs into me.
None of them say “sorry” or “excuse me” of course. In fact ole wide hips does it SEVERAL times!
The point being… I was not able to sleep.
The moral of this story is… don’t think because your mind and body say sleep, that other peoples actions will agree with them!
Oh, oh, oh, I forgot to mention. We were delayed an hour leaving because there was some mechanical problem with the plane. (this is relevant to the next part of the story, I swear)
So we finally get to Miami. We go through passport control. I felt stupid of course because it is a complete mental effort for me to try and remember where the hell I had been. It seems sometimes we travel to so many countries, and then they ask you… where you have been. I’m sure I look a little suspicious when I look up (as if the answers are written on the inside of the top of my head) then I always say with a questioning voice as if I’m not sure myself…. Well, I want to say Spaaain, but can I use a life line and phone a friend?
Luckily my final answer was correct… and the Customs official had a good sense of humour. (sometimes they are complete bastards, I mean seriously, its hard to look more American than I do!)
I head over to collect my checked bag.
We wait…..
And wait……
Alarms sound, and “yaaay” the belt is moving….
3 bags come out.
Circle around…
Then around again…
And again….
Ok, this isn’t funny anymore, I have been on a plain for almost 10 hours after 5 days of listening to cattiness and gossip, almost childish like behaviour from other colleagues, was next to a fat man sitting half on my lap, snoring… loudly, wanting to sleep but unable to, only having 2 hours of sleep the night before, being beat to death by other passengers…. Where the freak is my luggage?
All of a sudden, chimes.
I know what is about to be said before its even said.
“Ladies and Gentlemen on American Flight 69 (yes that was really our flight number, how awesome is that), we are currently having trouble getting the cargo door open, but will be working on it momentarily”… wait… working on it momentarily? Here’s an idea heffa, work on it NOW!
We wait for what seems like an eternity, but it probably was like 30-45 minutes. Eventually the alarm sounds, and the belt starts turning again.
“Yaaaay” time for my bag….
A colleagues bag comes down… I pull it off the belt for them…. They go on their way.
Ok- side note. This is the point where I get a little pissed off. The entire trip, I get an earful about how no one waits on anyone, and how nice I am for always helping with bags, etc… BUT, when the wheels are turned, and they want to get going, all rules are cancelled. I walk fast by nature, and it annoys the hell out of me to have to walk slow… but I do it… why? I respect that other people do not walk as fast as I do. However, I guess that since I’m a man, they can just walk off and I’ll “catch up”… screw that, I’m going to enjoy my time alone, and walk by myself!
Ok- back to the story.
Another colleagues…. Repeat
Another….
Another…….
The last one…..
And there is me, standing like a jack ass. Here I have helped all these bags with their bags, and now I am pretty much just standing there alone!
Finally, I get my bag, and go through the agriculture check. I did have one of my colleagues wait up a little ahead of me, so we pretty much went through at the same time.
The 2 of us eventually caught up with the rest of the crowd, got on the company van and headed back to headquarters.
I checked out, got my next assignment (as it stands now, but we all know that always changes)…
Not a very exciting one, no international. If the people stay the same, I will have a couple decent people, and one that I truly can’t stand. So this for sure will be an adventure in itself!
This adventure was a good one… but a trying one….
Until next time…..
“Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears” ~ Barbara Johnson (1947-2009)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment