me gustas la manana

holaaaa!

in espagne now and had an interesting time getting here. spent yesterday climbing up a hill to get to the cathedrale de la bonne mere and there were stairs and strairs and stairs. this was in marseille and it was a lovely day. vee and i had our ridiculous arguments and discussions of what to eat next and that ñmade the climb go by a lot faster.

fast forwarding now to when we got to the airport which was a good 3 hours before we actually needed to board, i was worried that the shuttle would not get us there in time, traffic and other things but apparently there wasn´t anything to worry about and vee was right. but we were, sorry, i was very pooped and glad to just sit in the airport for a few hours before getting on the plane. if only it were that easy.

before we left serignan i made sure to check every inch of the ryanair site for cain baggage restrictions and i didn´t see anything, i repeat, anything, about liquids. i even asked vee to check and she didn´t see anything either. so we show up at the airport, one piece of baggage each, a backpack, and its stuffed to the seams with everything we will need this week including toiletries. so we get through check in and into the security line where lo and behold, we´re screwed cuz of the liquids and toiletries restrictions. i was sooooo angry. and upset. and there was that annoying part of my brain in that i-told-you-so whisper saying "what did you expect?" we did try and run our stuff through, and i will give props to the lady manning the screens; she was very sweeet in explaining that the limits pere bottle size had to be respected. she told us to decide whether the cost of checking a bag in would be worth all the toiletries and so we headed back out to decide what to do.

vee took charge and was analyzing cost benefits and whatnot but i was no help since i could not for the life of me remember what i had paid for any of the stuff. useless aren´t i? so we finally decided to chuck all the stuff and buy new toiletries and as i was on my way to the garbage can with the heavy bag of expensive products, a lady stopped me and asked if i could speak french. i said i did and she wanted to know why we came out after we went in, and she was worried cuz she sent her daughter through with our group and was wondering if she would be sent out too or something. a sweet lady. and so i explained and she sympathized and was kind, then i asked her if she wanted our stuff and she said sure! so i was happy that at least all of it wouldn´t be wasted. then she said something like, "oh you girls probably paid a lot for all this" and i think my upsetness showed on my face and so she said she would pay us for it! and i didn´t say anything and then she handed me a 20 euro bill! and so we thanked her profusely and i felt a little better.

a word to the kind french lady at the airport: we are sorry for completely ripping you off. most of the stuff was nearly empty and all of it was used. plus a lot of it leaked. you are a kind soul and i will never forget you. i hope you still use what you can of it so there will be less wastage in the world. vee still thinks that there was a lof of stuff that she could use but i think french ladies are more picky than they seem.

so we had an uneventful flight and manipulated the metro successfully, vee more than me, i still have several questions about words and directions. this is why i am not alone yay yay.

and today is cinqo de mayo and we just had breakfast at cat´s hostel, our new home for the next 7 days. we will now dress and go in search of toiletries before hopefully catching a free tour of madrid. viva SPAIN.

craving: more sleep in a quiet room
currently listening to. mumbles of different languages and typing