Scarf in process

Originally uploaded by illusionary_one

On the train and working on a scarf for Miss Fish’s Christmas gift. Listening to “Singing in the Rain” and enjoying the scenery going by.

Started it in plain stockinette, but frogged it around 5:30am since I didn’t like how it looked. Trying out a “diagonal stripe” texture now.

Made it home okay! I’m at my home computer, and I’m still wearing the same clothes I wore on the plane/slept in last night when I got home (gross!) but getting all of my thoughts down comes first.

The last moments in Spain: We only slept maybe 3 hours after my mad early-morning web journalling session, and then at 7am we were back up again, getting showered and making sure that everything was packed correctly. Went downstairs, had a lesiurely last breakfast. Wish I had tried tostada (toast!) in Spain sooner. I had thought that it was just toasted bread, but it was actually dipped, in olive oil, toasted, served with butter and jam, and you eat it like french toast in America. (With a fork and knife) Excellent!

We headed back to the lobby just as Gerwald was walking in the front door. (Perfect timing!) Julia was not with him, so I was sad because I really didn’t get to say a full goodbye to Julia. I had thought the night before that I would see her again in the morning. On the way, we took the scenic route so Gerwald could show us buildings and monuments that we may have missed seeing. We figured out which terminal we were departing from, and Gerwald dropped us off after some tearful hugs and messages to give to my family in America. As we headed towards our counter, which was a ways down the terminal, to check in, we were surprised to see Gerwald pop in the door ahead of us. (Turns out he had driven down the terminal road and parked again so he had 5 more minutes.) He wanted to make sure that we found the correct counter to check in at, bless his heart. More tearful hugs, many thanks for their incredible hospitality during our stay, and he was gone again.

We got checked in with no problem, (only one bag!) and headed to the strip of gift shops for last minute shopping. I had been looking all over the place for a paperweight for my dad, and while I had found one for Karen at the summer palace, I had not bought one for Dad there. I regretted it later because I had looked *everywhere* for paperwights and the closest things that I could find were either these funky plaster statues of bulls or buildings, or the glass balls with colored blobs inside, and neither type was what I wanted. However, at the museum shop at the airport, they had exactly what I wanted! Talk about a last minute save…

Proceeded to the gate, and heard a man talking in English about how the Trailblazers had done poorly while he was in Spain. I turned around to talk to him and sure enough, he and his family were from Beaverton. They were nice to talk to, and we kept running into them all the way until we were at the boarding gate for the Portland flight from Seattle.

Our flight to Amsterdam was quiet and uneventful. I tore through the Financial Times, read a great article on finding the perfect luggage for a trip, and soon enough we were in Amsterdam and running to catch our connecting flight to Seattle.

The family in Madrid had given me some gifts to bring to my family, and I had not asked about the contents or opened them to verify that they were legal items for me to carry. In hindsight, I probably should have. We had to go through exit security in Amsterdam, and they were *serious*. Here are the questions they asked us:

• What is your destination?
• Has your luggage been out of your immediate control?
• Who packed the luggage?
• When did you pack the luggage?
• Where did you pack the luggage?
• How did you get to the airport?
• Where was the luggage stored during the trip to the airport?
• What is your relationship to the person who took you to the airport?
• Did anyone give you anything to take on the plane?
• What is the contents of those packages?

I explained to the guard that I had known Pablo’s family for a couple of years, and that they were close friends of our family. I stumbled during the part about the contents of the packages and he told me sternly, “DO NOT GUESS.” I invited him to go through it, and he personally took my blue bag to the security screen. No problems there, the screen was just like domestic security in the States, but as soon as we got our bags back we dug through it to open the packages and make sure we knew what the contents were. (I had guessed correctly during the interrogation.)

The flight to Seattle wasn’t bad either, although my backside was unbearably sore during the last hour of the flight. We had departed late, so when we hit Seattle we knew that we were in danger of missing our connecting flight to Portland. Waited and waited for my bag to arrive at the luggage carousel, but apparently it had been bumped because there was a whole ton of delayed luggage from Europe that they sent over on our flight. Breezed through customs, and literally ran to the next gate because we had lost so much time waiting for my bag to arrive. Turns out our flight was delayed, and they had cancelled our seats on that flight because our flight from Amsterdam was late in arriving. However, they were able to rebook us with no problem, and we were on a flight to Portland in no time at all.

It felt nice to get back to the airport in Portland. We faked an arrival photo with my camera, and negotiated delivery of our delayed luggage with the people from Horizon. Driving through our neighborhood in Portland felt almost foreign. So good to get back to our apartment, though!

Turns out that my boyfriend’s car had been broken into during our absence, but the boyfriend of our apartment manager caught the guy and pinned him until the police arrived. My boyfriend has been subpeonaed (sp?) to appear at a grand jury convening on Wednesday, as the police has been looking to catch this guy because he’s been breaking into a lot of cars in the area. So glad we left emergency contact information with our landlady! A friend came over here and closed the broken window up with plastic, and our landlady put all the residents on full alert to make sure that no one else tries to break into the car while the window is gone. Ironic things about this? The thief was going after a really cheap, crappy stereo in the car, and if he wanted to steal the car, he wouldn’t have gotten far as my boyfriend had left his lights on the day before we left and the engine battery was dead.

So funny that the only robbery during our trip was at our residence in the States. We never got pickpocketed or robbed in Europe. Our only other casualty was that the laundry service at the hotel lost two of our shirts, but those were pretty expendable to begin with.

Good to be home. I think I need a shower now, then I’ll start planning our next trip to Spain, as we want to go back again very soon.