JVS 5 - Trains, Flowers, and Fruit
I can't believed I actually managed to blog every day this week (Mon-Fri). I can't remember the last time I did that. This has certainly been an exercise in discipline, stress management, and sleep deprivation. Why do I insist on writing at 2am?
OK, where was I...? Ah yes. Flying home from Jersey.
Summary of lessons learned: never again book connecting flights that a) require me to pick up my bags after the first leg and check them in again at the interim airport before continuing on to my destination, and b) always make sure to leave at least 1.5 hours between flights. This is doubly (if not triply) true when traveling with children.
A simple 20 minute delay of the first leg of our trip had us scrambling to fetch our luggage and saw us manically sprinting through London's Gatwick airport in a feeble attempt to make our connecting flight home to Barcelona. Poor planning on my part made sure that, even if the first flight had not been delayed, we never stood a chance.
There were no more flights to Barcelona for the rest of the day. Shit! A defeated and out of breath march with heads hung low lead us to the airport hotel reservation counter. After spending 15 minutes trying to convince the woman behind the counter that Emily was not four years old ("but she runs and speaks so well!") and that we would therefore not need a "family-size" room, a night in the nearest Holiday Inn was agreed upon. We booked the next flight to Barcelona (6:55am on SleazyJet) and made our way to our temporary digs.
The positive? The hotel set up a crib for us, free of charge. The Thai vegetable curry from room service was surprisingly scrumptious. Emily went to sleep with minimal coaxing. Jan had a relaxing bath. I didn't get fooled into using the extortionate Wi-Fi connection. And there probably weren't any bed bugs in the room even though I had an uncontrollable urge to scratch my arms every time I sat on the couch.
Nobody got as much sleep as they should have before we were out the door by 5:30am. Bus to airport; tram to terminal; plane to Barcelona; taxi to city center. I had to go straight to the recording studio to make an 11am session in which I voiced a corporate video for McDonald's while Jan was stuck with the luggage and Emily.
As brain-bashingly exhausting as that trip was, I have mostly fond memories of our time spent in Gatwick airport, thanks in no small part to the following two videos:
Comments
Thanks Josh, I really enjoyed the story, as well as the daily updates (though I missed a day in the middle, and actually got two in one day yesterday!!)
I hope your sleep dep does not catch up to you. Sleeeeeep!
Posted by: Marli | July 11, 2008 6:27 AM
Argh - sorry your great vacation was marred by the return trip. . .
Emily *is* very advanced in her talking/walking . . . I think she's secretly an adult midget you hired to pretend to be a toddler for yet-to-be-determined, but certainly nefarious, purposes. . .
(Can you get her a belt? or maybe some suspenders, or something? =})
Posted by: Beren | July 12, 2008 5:14 AM
Emily has made it abundantly clear to her immediate family that she rocks her trousers low on purpose. Like in the ghettos of LA, she says, it's a symbol of respect to her brothers in the pen. At least I think that's what she said. She wouldn't let me turn down her Notorious B.I.G. album and it was kinda hard to hear.
Posted by: Josh | July 13, 2008 1:36 AM