I actually had a pretty good experience flying Space-A back to the States. I drove down to Rota straight from school on a Friday and was actually able to get on a flight to Dover that night. The 'A' in Space-A stands for available and basically means you hitch a ride with cargo planes that are traveling to different bases. Fortunately for us, there are flights to Dover, Delaware several times a week and best of all IT'S FREE. It fills up a lot in the summer when kids are out of school, and sometimes you have to wait days to get on a flight, but the price is most definitely right. I really lucked out getting on that flight, as it was earlier than I had expected. Both to and from the States, I was on a C-5 cargo plane, and there were about 50 or so passenger seats on the plane. Things were very similar to a commercial plane in its set-up, except you were given ear plugs b/c the engine was so loud and the bathrooms are a little less to be desired (I had to empty out the sink as it was full of boxes of earplugs). There are a few pilots who act as flight attendants, collecting garbage from people and passing out snacks. On my way to Dover, I got some peanut butter crackers, a Snickers bar, and TWO boxes of Hi-C orange as my snack. Awasomeness. You can also purchase lunches that consist of a sandwich, pop, water, candy, and crackers for about $5. Pretty. SWEET. I didn't have any one else in my row for either flight, so I was able to sack out the whole ride. On the way back, I had caught a cold, so I was grateful for the ability to chug Nyquil and snooze. That NEVER happens on a commercial flight. I highly recommend flying Space-A if you have the means. It is so choice.
RANDOM AMERICAN OBSERVATIONS
-Accents are awesome. Just awesome. I miss hearing accents.
-You can get any type of food in America and chances are good that it's deep-fried.
-I can go outside in mesh shorts and a wife beater and not be stared at like a leper.
-American sports are so much more varied than European ones... and IMHO, more fun to watch and attend (see Game 2 at the United Center)
-My mom's cooking is delicious.
-Shenanigans with friends are the best.
I got back into Spain the Wednesday before Memorial Day, and we left for a weekend trip to Portugal for the holiday on Friday. Needless to say, I basically unpacked one suitcase into another, but the beach is always worth it. We had rented a house in Lagos, Portugal with Will, Alex, and his gf Ana, and we were going to barbecue, swim and relax. Elliot insisted on bringing enough food and supplies to last us through the apocalypse, so we were well fed, boozed, and entertained for the entire weekend. The man really does think of everything, including bringing the Wii and a transformer so we could use his iPod speakers. I, on the other hand, don't think past bringing a bathing suit, sunscreen and maybe a football. We are a good match: he reminds me to bring toothpaste, and I can tell him, "No, you don't REALLY need to bring that 50 ft inflatable gorilla."
We were supposed to take Alex's car, but when he pulled up his trunk was already full of his and Ana's stuff and two gas cans from base. After chuckling about his thriftiness and attempting to pack up his car, we ascertained that it would be wiser to take our car b/c it was roomier. That, and we weren't exactly able to fit all of Elliot's gadgets. Will was taking his motorcycle, so we only had the squeeze the four of us in the car. We unpacked Alex's car, packed up ours, and finally hit the road around 4:30. Lagos is about 3 hours from Utrera, so we were expecting to get there around dinnertime, grab a bite to eat then hit the town. We had filled up our car on base, so we didn't have to stop to get gas until we were about 44 kilometers from Lagos. You may find it odd that I remember so exact a number. Read on.
We had been blasting the air conditioner up until this point, and it was leaking water when we stopped to fill up on gas. Apparently Portuguese cars don't do this, because two concerned Samaritans were trying to point out the leak to us, thinking it was gas. After I told them in broken Spanish that all was well and thanked them, Elliot proceeded to fill up on gas. Ana and Alex got some snacks for us, and we were back on the road.
Right away, the car started making this sound like a propeller. Thinking something was just stuck out the door, we dismissed it and kept on rolling. Then, Elliot was saying that the RPM's were stuck, and even when he tried to accelerate, he couldn't. Realizing that something was up, we exited at a town by Albufeira right as the car stopped accelerating. Finally, as we were able to turn to go to the gas station, it just died. We had to put it in neutral, and the boys had to push it to the side of the road, by a house that was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Since we were in Portugal, and no longer Spain, our phones were roaming and the Internet wasn't working. Despite what are sure to be ludicrous charges on our next bill, we first attempted to call USAA. After many failed attempts, we tried to have Alex and Elliot's coworkers back in Spain look up rental car agencies and tow truck numbers for us. We even turned the data roaming on and attempted to search for them ourselves. Ana called up her brother who also looked up numbers for us. Fortunately for us, Ana is Spanish and Portuguese is similar enough that the people can understand her, so she was able to speak to the different people we called. The sun was slowly starting to go down, and it was becoming clear that we weren't going to be able to rent a car. A bit exasperated, I opened up one of the Leffe Blond beers that we had packed and had a drink while we contemplated strategies. Elliot finally got a hold of USAA and they arranged for a tow truck to pick us up. We would be on our own to find a rental car though. We made sure to let him know that we would need to have room for 4 people, as he would have to give us a lift into town. When he showed up about an hour later, he was in a tow truck that would fit only 2 other people. Boo. He called up his buddy who's a cab driver and had him come to pick us up and take us all the way to Lagos. They were both really nice and didn't charge us for the cab ride, and we got into Lagos in about half an hour. By this point, it was dark but we somehow managed to spot a garage that was on the way to our rental house. Elliot popped out with the tow truck driver and was going to leave a note for the owner about our car. The rest of us took the cab to our rental house where Will had been lounging for awhile, and Elliot stayed behind with the tow truck driver.
After the comedy of errors that had already taken place tonight, all we expected was for the house to be a nightmare. Fortunately, we were pleasantly surprised as the house was awesome. We had gotten a four bedroom house that was fully furnished with a nice swimming pool, chaise lounge chairs, and a charcoal grill. Elliot done good finding it. We were relieved when the doorbell rang and Elliot walked through the door, though slightly nervous when the first thing he did was open up the bottle of Johnnie Walker Green Lable and take a swig out of it. Fearing the worst for our car, my stomach was in knots. It turns out that my worries were for naught. The owner of the repair shop was next door at the local restaurant, and he was able to
have the car fixed by the next morning. Turns out that Boy Wonder accidentally put DIESEL in the gas tank. In his defense, he was distracted by the concerned Portuguese, and the handle was marked "Gasoleo" which is apparently Portuguese for "Don't use this in your normal non-tractor car", something that we did not know. We were relieved that it wasn't an issue with the car, just a human error. After grilling up burgers as a form of mea culpa, Elliot and the rest of us drank beer and played card games for the rest of the night. I don't think we would have wanted to start the vacay any other way :)
Lagos is on the southernmost tip of Portugal and was a popular port back in the day. The main area of town is at sea level with the houses and apartment complexes on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The ocean is incredibly clear and is this beautiful blue-green color. The beaches have great sand and were walking distance (downhill) from our house. The next two days were filled with grilling, football tossing and lounging on the beach, and exploring the main area of the city. Lagos is a smaller city and not as known for their nightlife like Albufeira, but we still managed to find an English sports pub to watch the Manchester United vs. Barcelona game. Since we now live in Spain, we naturally were rooting for Barcelona, although I have very little interest in soccer. Ana was super pumped though, so it was fun to support her team. After the game we got dinner at a Portuguese restaurant where I had a steak with mushroom sauce, french fries, and veggies. The menu was very similar to Spanish restaurants, but I was still able to get some delicious Portuguese bread.
We made our way back to the sports bar where they had a "Lollipop Party" with some celebrity dj's that I had never heard of and met an English guy who worked there named Charley. Since the party was lame and no one was in the bar, he took us to a few other bars including a Canadian tropical-themed bar (it blows the mind to even try to picture it) with Connect 4 at the tables and karaoke, a bar that was kind of questionable that had a 9-shot challenge (the winner had done the 9 shots in 5 seconds flat), and a bar that the boys swore was a gay nightclub. Just because the scantily clad male bartenders were grinding up on each other doesn't mean it's a gay nightclub. The club was pretty packed with people dancing (or ginding) on each other, a pitcher of a mixed drink with giant straws, and lots of British people. Overall, it was a super fun time and we definitely made the most of our night.
Despite everyone coming down with a severe case of "WejusthadspicyIndianfoodlastnightandarepayingforitthismorning", the weekend can be summed up with the following words: great food, great friends, great times.
No comments:
Post a Comment