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And Jupiter aligns with Mars
By Me | June 18, 2007
Here’s the first sentence from my horoscope on June 17th:
Today, Dawn, you might be presented with an opportunity for long distance travel.
That’s a lot closer to accurate than my horoscope usually is, since the 17th was the day my plane landed in Bilbao, Spain.
As it happens, another thing my horoscope told me recently was that Mercury would turn retrograde on Saturday — you know, the day that I left. For the uninitiated, when Mercury turns retrograde, you start having trouble with machines breaking, delays in all kinds of things from business deals to dinner arrangements, and travel and communications go awry.
Yes, I’m back here delivering more of my microbusiness wisdom to the folks in the Basque. I left JFK Airport on the 16th and came into Bilbao on the 17th, via Madrid. My hosts were supposed to send a taxi to meet me at the airport and bring me on to San Sabastian, where the conference is taking place.
Now, I’m not really into using astrology to anticipate what’s going to happen to me and, more often than not, my horoscopes are more for amusement (because of how wrong they usually are) than for anything else. Not this time.
My ride and I seem to have missed each other.
I don’t know how much international travel you’ve ever done but there are few things in this life that are more exhausting than traveling for over 24 hours. I left my little upstate NY village at 10 a.m. and didn’t step off the plane until 2 p.m. the next day. Of course, that’s 2 p.m. six hours ahead of the place I started from, but still …
So there I was, tired and getting increasingly hungry. I was also more broke than anybody ought to be when they’re going that far from home. And I didn’t have the brains to exchange any of my money while I was at JFK (although I did think about it … one of these days I’m going to start listening to myself). That means that I didn’t have anything to eat and almost nothing to drink from the time they served me breakfast on the plane on Saturday morning.
Nobody came to meet me at the airport — well, actually, they did but, for some reason my ride and I didn’t cross paths that afternoon. I tried the information booth at the airport and I tried the tourist information place at the airport and got the same story: we might be able to help with this or that but it’s going to cost you money.
Why don’t you just take a cab to San Sabastian (an hour and a half away)? Why don’t you book a room here and contact them from there? Oh, you want to use the Internet here in the airport? We don’t have wireless access but we do have these cute little machines that take our coins but not yours. And you can use the computer Internet access in the tourist office but only if you have 3 euros. Credit cards? No, we don’t take credit cards.
And so on.
Oh, and when I was thinking about just turning around and coming home, I went to the Iberia ticket office to see if I could move my flight up by three days. I could too, but only if I happened to have 200 euros available. The exchange rate is about US$1 for every .80 euros. You do the math.
So that put the kabash to that idea.
In the end, I wound up sleeping on a bench in the gallery (for observing arrivals) at the Bilbao airport with a very nice young man (also very cute … it’s amazing how many seriously good-looking people there are in Spain) who spoke very little English but who was evidently waiting for a flight that wasn’t going to happen until the morning.
I guess I should mention that we slept on separate benches.
Next day, feeling somewhere between desparate and hopeful, I went back to the tourist office and conned them into helping my by letting them know that I was there as a guest of the Basque government and that, if they didn’t help me, I’d wind up having to live at the airport until my flight home on Thursday. We fished out the contact information we needed from my web mail and the lovely senorita was finally able to get in touch with the appropriate party.
They thought I must have somehow already checked into the hotel (although they hadn’t actually told me which hotel I’d be staying in) and had no idea I’d been waiting at the airport for, by then, more than 24 hours. Needless to say, they were properly horrified and contrite and, within 25 minutes after that conversation had taken place, I was on my way to San Sabastian in a very smoothly running and clean taxi.
I think the scenery was lovely but I couldn’t say for sure. There was nothing you could have done to me to have kept me awake during that cab ride.
And, in the end, it was all worth it. The place I checked into looks like the urban villa of a very rich aristocrat, all old world charm and full of furnishings that are several times older than I am. Derek (lover of antiques) would be completely drooling over this stuff. And it’s a rather amazing room. Not a suite … I can only imagine what those must look like … but, for starters, it’s got the biggest bathroom I’ve ever seen anywhere except in movies.
There’s even a telephone extension next to the toilet. (Hey, some things are important)
There’s a bar in the cabinet under the TV, with everything from Pringles to 12 year old scotch. Under the very broad category of Guest Services, they’ll do everything for me from shining my shoes to doing my laundry. I find I didn’t need to go out and by an electricity converter so that the outlets in my room can talk to my appliances; they supply those at the front desk. If I wanted to, I could even make an appointment at the spa to get a massage. And, if I had any currency left, they could exchange it for me at the front desk.
I could go on but you get the idea.
I could get used to this place. Especially since somebody else is footing the bill.
And that’s another thing. The Basque government may have blown the Dawn-to-hotel relay but what I found when I got here more than made up for it. In addition to this incredible room (did I mention the view of the sea? too bad I don’t have a camera with me this time), there was a suitcase full of regional gastric delights waiting for me. I’m not going to sample any of it but the food was nice of them. And the suitcase will be very useful. They also offer to send it on after me, in case I anticipate getting through Customs with it will be a bit of a hassle (which I do).
They even gave me a Spanish cookbook. Full of Spanish food. Written in Spanish. Sra. Marcin, Gina’s Spanish teacher, will love it.
Well, you didn’t think I was going to keep it, did you? I don’t read Spanish. I don’t speak it very well, either, although I’ve been phasing in and out of the language since I’ve been here. This has been total immersion for me. Remember, I just spent more than 24 hours in an airport where almost everybody around me was speaking in Spanish and where those folks who did speak English didn’t speak much of it.
Gina told me that I should take her with me as my interpreter. I could have used her skills yesterday and she would have gotten a good language workout.
As matters evolved, I was able to make myself understood, more or less, for the most part. My peculiar mangling of the language did provoke the occasional smile but, since I managed to get myself to this hotel, I don’t think I did too badly. I’m even finding myself starting to think in a peculiar hybrid of English and Spanish in the privacy of my still-scattered mind.
Dawn to housekeeping senorita: “Em … por favor, necessito … em … como se dice? … [insert appropriate gesture] … para fumar?”
Housekeeping senorita: “Ah!” Following which she rattled off the appropriate word for ashtray but she said it so fast that I lost that particular opportunity to expand my vocabulary.
It’s been like that. Delivering my speech — in Spanish, translated in the local high school Spanish AP class — will be interesting.
And that’s the tale of this odyssey so far. Since I actually have access this time, stay tuned for more from the Adventures of Travelin’ Dawn.
[tags]Spain, Basque, travelogue[/tags]
Topics: Stuff |
4 Responses to “And Jupiter aligns with Mars”
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June 18th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
roflmao I TOLD YOU I WOULD HAVE BEEN USEFUL XD
Have fun.
And you should have seriously brought a camera… GODDAMNIT DEREK YOU SHOULD HAVE LET HER BORROW IT!!
Missin’ you! And reply to my email soon
June 18th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
I hope the rest of the trip is um… uneventful
But it looks like your week has started like mine.
Wish I was there with you and not just to admire the antique furniture.
Derek
June 19th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
No one famous? Too bad
I really wanna try some of that food lol.
And Derek’s really pissing me off. I even blogged about it.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
oh, and LMAO I TOLD you I shoulda been able to come so I could be your interpreter!!!