Okay... I'm back in New York after 11 wonderful (albiet very stressful at times) days in Spain.

It was wonderful to meet some of you at the dinner in Madrid. Sorry I was kind of out of it and couldn't stay out... I hadn't slept in lord knows how many days and I was dealing with the stress of not having a place to go the next night and how exactly I was going to murder my friend for going to Bilbao without warning.

I spent the first day and a half in Madrid, although I didn't really do anything. the first night was spent arguing with Air France over where the hell my luggage was. The second was spent waiting in line to see my Busta. Third day I headed off to Vigo and had a WONDERFUL time with my friends up there. The chapapote hadn't reached my best friend's town yet, so we spent many hours just walking up and down the beaches looking out at the water and enjoying the ocean. Unforuntately, it did arrive 2 days after I left without any warning.

From Vigo I went to Granada (with short stops to change buses/trains in Madrid and Sevilla) to meet La Rosa de Espana. She is the sweetest most beautiful person, inside and out, that I have ever met in my life. We were literally crying on each other when we hugged... And her father invited me to sit at her table during the dinner!! Que viva la Rosa de Espana!! Te queremos!!

From Granada it was back to Madrid, where I met you guys after 2 sleepless nights and the stress of trying to find a place to stay cause my friend just randomly up and went to Bilbao to see Bustamante without any advance notice. She will die. But luckily I have amazing wonderful friends in Galicia and my student in Madrid and they were able to help me find a place to sleep.

I spent the last few days in Madrid and on my last day a friend came up from Sevilla and we did the whole touristy thing. He'd only been to Madrid once in his life. He kept saying, "They hate me here because I'm Andalucian!! Don't you see the way they look at me? It's discrimination!" Okay Pablo, whatever. Maybe he should have left the "Andalucia" shirt at home

Overall it was a wonderful vacation and I'm paying for it with a nasty cold that I developed on the plane. And Air France destroyed my luggage on the way home. I hate Air France. I will never fly it again!!

Hope everyone else had a wonderful time over the holidays and maybe one day we'll catch each other again!

Melinda

Oh, and of course, here's my best memory of Spain

Glad you had such a great trip! A note for the future: Please don't use "Bilbao" and "murder" in the same post...it may set some people off.

Second: I'm glad to see that Air Chance has made another believer...I won't fly them after that gruel they passed off as food in '99, so I hear you, hermana!

So how will your Bilbo-bound friend meet her maker?

and speaking of lost luggage on international flights don't you just love the reimbursement limits they impose...barely covers the cost of the bag itself...the only plus is that if you write a letter to the airline to complain you'll probably get a first class upgrade next time you fly them...unfortunately you have to travel with them again...

I'm going to write my letter tomorrow. I've been a little sick this week so I haven't had a chance. I didn't completely lose my luggage, thank god. It just came late. However, my ticket says I will be reimbursed if my luggage arrives late. So they'd BETTER pay me back. I wish I'd known when I arrived... I would have made damn sure I didn't leave Barajas without something. My friend in Galicia told me her brother travels a lot and refuses to leave the airport until they pay him for his late luggage. Usually he gets around 50 euros and sometimes they take it out of their own pockets just to get rid of him.

Melinda

melinda be thankful you did get your bag back in one piece...i had a bag rifled through at gatwick and a bunch of stuff stolen or damaged...at the time the international compensation limit was $200...i was out a lot more than that but was basically told TS! i wrote a couple of letters to the powers that be at virgin atlantic, including richard branson. i itemized my loses, they came to about $750...virgin sent me a check for $200 and a letter explaining that this was the limit and TS. but on my next flight i was upgraded to business class...nice touch but hardly adequate compensation.
up until 9/11 i flew strictly carry-on...now it's almost impossible to do that...can't travel the world w/o my trusty swiss army knife...or without a shave...though my new plan is to just buy my personal items when i land.
and now with the new regulations in place they don't even want you to lock your checked luggage anymore! i'm waiting to see the increase in stolen item claims from this one.
oh well...happy trails...

well it almost came back in one piece. Actually, it came back in 2 pieces because they broke one of the pockets off the front. They gave me a new (better) suitcase with no questions asked, though, so I didn't really complain about that. Although they waited until I'd been standing there doing nothing for 15 minutes while they did the paper work until they told me I had to repack my things into the new one. I had planned to fly with my luggage all carry on, but I had brought a lot of gifts for my friends and I couldn't squeeze everything into the one suitcase so I had to check it and carry on my backpack. And next time I'm moving (hopefully) so I definitely won't be able to.

Melinda

i'm still jealous that you got to meet Bustamente! But I did get a copy of the OT La Pelicula on DVD so...sigh...I almost bought the bustamente calendar and the bio books they were selling on all the chicos, though I couldn't find one for Rosa and that sullied the whole thing. Certain Chenoa and Bisbal Cd's have an extra DVD, and I even found my Bisbal one here in the states.