Traveling is always an adventure. From the places you go, to the new people you meet and the new foods to try, there are new stories being created with every experience. What makes these stories interesting are the little mishaps that happen in every trip. Some mishaps work out better than others but, once you get some distance from the actual event, those twists in the story are what make the whole thing memorable and make the story worth telling.
Saturday, 3 days before taking off to Spain, I went on a 2.5 hour bike ride with a small group and right before I started to head home I had a fun, self-inflicted, little accident. A huge 12 passenger van freaked out and stopped instead of getting out of the way causing all of us to abruptly stop, well my left shoe clip and my bike pedal didn't want to disconnect and I simply fell over onto a sharp curb where I was squished by Molly (my bike). I popped up and told my whole bike group I was fine and jumped back on my bike and rode home in silent pain.
I don't think I was fine.
Due to the large amount of swelling I was experiencing, my friends talked me into visiting the emergency room to make sure I didn't have a clot or broken bone; I was cleared on both counts. However, I was still nervous about the flight because I always swell up, so I borrowed a pair of compression socks and I was sorta fine.
Look at that bruise all the way from my knee to my foot.
The second twist had Nick up the whole 7 hour ride (his 3rd day with little to no sleep). Why? Well, when you own your own business and you travel, you have to work. We have a great Chinese group of students who send us papers to edit at the end of each semester and this semester was no different. However, we had one come in last minute; it was due in 15 hours so Nick got to work as we were just sitting around at the airport. He made sure he saved it on his computer so he could edit without the internet. As we got settled in on the plane both of our phones went off, and guess what, ANOTHER paper due in 14 hours. Nick quickly saved the document on his laptop and then for the next 6 hours he was that business man on the plane working hard typing away on his laptop.
We arrived in Frankfort, Germany and spent the day (Blog coming soon) before flying to Madrid late in the evening. When we arrived, we had to contact our hostel so they could send a shuttle to pick us up because everything else is shut down (it was midnight). I went to the information desk and asked, in broken Spanish, if I could use a phone to call our hostel. I grabbed my laptop and its case out of my book bag because it had all of our important information in it and set it on the counter. I took the number out and the man helped me contact them. Through a lot of pointing for directions on where to get picked up at, I decided to write everything down so I wouldn't forget. I said thanks and walked to the pick up spot with Nick. We made it to our hostel without any issue and passed out! But, the next morning as we were packing to go back to the airport to catch a bus, I realized that my laptop was not with me. You guessed it, I had left it somewhere and the only place I could think of was that information desk. In a calm panic (I was calm, Nick was panicked) we searched everywhere before the Hostel helped us call the airport to get lost and found information. They informed us that the items from the day before would not be delivered to the desk until 1 or 2 pm but our bus was pulling out at 1. So, we said a prayer and asked our shuttle driver to drop us off where he picked us up instead of at our bus terminal. We made it back to the information desk and again in broken Spanish I asked if they had a laptop in a black case and the two ladies looked puzzled as they exchanged glances with each other. Finally, one of them spoke as she held up my laptop and I burst into tears. Now that I had Blue Ninja back life was okay again. Well, almost okay since now we had to find our way to the bus parking area.
Proof that we found the bus!
We spoke Spanish to get on and it was really exciting. We took our seats and as we were getting comfortable Nick got up to put away his backpack and the bottom to his seat fell off. I just busted out laughing because we have had such a crazy day and still not caught up on our sleep. The bus driver told us we could move, so we did and guess what?? THAT seat was broken too. I couldn't stop laughing as we sat somewhere else and guess what?? That seat wasn't broken but it had gum all over everything. Finally we moved to the very back and everything worked out nicely.
Through all of the mishaps we kept our wits about us despite being exhausted. We made some great memories.
Saturday, 3 days before taking off to Spain, I went on a 2.5 hour bike ride with a small group and right before I started to head home I had a fun, self-inflicted, little accident. A huge 12 passenger van freaked out and stopped instead of getting out of the way causing all of us to abruptly stop, well my left shoe clip and my bike pedal didn't want to disconnect and I simply fell over onto a sharp curb where I was squished by Molly (my bike). I popped up and told my whole bike group I was fine and jumped back on my bike and rode home in silent pain.
I don't think I was fine.
Due to the large amount of swelling I was experiencing, my friends talked me into visiting the emergency room to make sure I didn't have a clot or broken bone; I was cleared on both counts. However, I was still nervous about the flight because I always swell up, so I borrowed a pair of compression socks and I was sorta fine.
Look at that bruise all the way from my knee to my foot.
The second twist had Nick up the whole 7 hour ride (his 3rd day with little to no sleep). Why? Well, when you own your own business and you travel, you have to work. We have a great Chinese group of students who send us papers to edit at the end of each semester and this semester was no different. However, we had one come in last minute; it was due in 15 hours so Nick got to work as we were just sitting around at the airport. He made sure he saved it on his computer so he could edit without the internet. As we got settled in on the plane both of our phones went off, and guess what, ANOTHER paper due in 14 hours. Nick quickly saved the document on his laptop and then for the next 6 hours he was that business man on the plane working hard typing away on his laptop.
We arrived in Frankfort, Germany and spent the day (Blog coming soon) before flying to Madrid late in the evening. When we arrived, we had to contact our hostel so they could send a shuttle to pick us up because everything else is shut down (it was midnight). I went to the information desk and asked, in broken Spanish, if I could use a phone to call our hostel. I grabbed my laptop and its case out of my book bag because it had all of our important information in it and set it on the counter. I took the number out and the man helped me contact them. Through a lot of pointing for directions on where to get picked up at, I decided to write everything down so I wouldn't forget. I said thanks and walked to the pick up spot with Nick. We made it to our hostel without any issue and passed out! But, the next morning as we were packing to go back to the airport to catch a bus, I realized that my laptop was not with me. You guessed it, I had left it somewhere and the only place I could think of was that information desk. In a calm panic (I was calm, Nick was panicked) we searched everywhere before the Hostel helped us call the airport to get lost and found information. They informed us that the items from the day before would not be delivered to the desk until 1 or 2 pm but our bus was pulling out at 1. So, we said a prayer and asked our shuttle driver to drop us off where he picked us up instead of at our bus terminal. We made it back to the information desk and again in broken Spanish I asked if they had a laptop in a black case and the two ladies looked puzzled as they exchanged glances with each other. Finally, one of them spoke as she held up my laptop and I burst into tears. Now that I had Blue Ninja back life was okay again. Well, almost okay since now we had to find our way to the bus parking area.
Proof that we found the bus!
Through all of the mishaps we kept our wits about us despite being exhausted. We made some great memories.
Your years in Korea prepared you well for Spain. Nice to know not a darn thing has changed. Love you guys. Move to Spain and get a place so we can come and visit.
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