Buenos Dias! Aloha Espana! Wait, I mixed that up. Well drop an A, shuffle the letters…you get the idea. After 1 year of learning Spanish on my language app, I feel I can successfully accept an invite to an 8-year old’s birthday party and argue with my roommate over who is going to clean the dirty bathroom (No es mi culpa!). Hopefully none of that will come in handy, and thank goodness for the Spanish public at large that I have no way of talking about the status of my undergarments. The Italians I spoke to a couple of years ago are probably still traumatized.

Peter and I once again conducted packing jenga to get all of the crap we can’t possibly live without into our backpacks. I did however bring 4 pairs of shoes. #priorities. Unfortunately, I realized I made a strategic error when I was listening to the flight safety instructions. There was a little diddy directed at people wearing high-heeled shoes. Apparently they must be removed when evacuating via slide because they tear the slide. Do they know this from experience? Forget it, I don’t really want to know. I am now doubting my fashion choices. Instead of two pairs of sporty sneakers, I probably should have found room for stylish heels. Who am I kidding, I haven’t worn heels since I retired. Let’s all be grateful my ‘crocs’ didn’t make the cut.

Oh, and you may be wondering about our camera gear. We decided to mix it up and go light and lean this trip. We packed our point-and-shoots and small Joby tripods. We want to focus this trip on culture and history (and with four pairs of shoes already in the bag, there was no room for the big camera #shoestrumpcamera).

We decided to bring backpacks on this trip, because of all the moving, trains and flights, but also because we naively said “yes! we’d love to do that!” to something that has very small luggage requirements. I’ll fill you in on all the details in a few days, but when a friend says “Hey do you want to go on this with me?”, make sure you read more than just the splashy title announcing the event.

And no Andrade vacation would be complete without an initial trip to the store to buy tolietries. You know, basic things shampoo, lotion, the dreaded hair conditioner…and please I’m begging the universe, appropriately colored sunscreen that won’t trun my skin orange. We were so fuzzy after being up for 27 hours straight I randomly picked a couple of things off the shelf and called it “good for now”. We’ll see how tomorrow’s hair washing day goes. I suspect I bought hand lotion instead of hair conditioner. That will make for an interesting hair style. Talk about inflicting trauma on an unsuspecting population.

We did meet a lovely couple on the train from Madrid to Seville, Phil and Crystal. It took less than 45 minutes to establish that both Peter and Phil attended the same small private high school in Orange County. And that they both played on the football team. It’s moments like this when you realize how small the world really is, and how it doesn’t take much to make a connection. I really wish I had taken a picture of the two of them for Servite’s Alumni Office.

So after 2 planes, 1 train, 1 shuttle, 2 cabs, and 27 hours without sleep, we took a short walk around the plaza, bought some groceries, and called it a day. More to come tomorrow when we are more “fresh”.

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