The journey

Well heyyyyy y'all! [How's that for sounding touristy?] My internet's been quite spotty, and my brain has been quite exhausted, so forgive me for the absence. I expect this is going to happen rather frequently, however, so…accept this as my apology in-advance for the next month or so. I'll post when I can, and I'm sorry if it's not as often as your curious little minds desire : )

Let's just start with the trip over. Here are the stats:

• It took me 
• 2 car rides 
• 3 flights 
• 4 airports 
• 2 bus rides 
• 1 metro trip 
• and a 1/2 mile walk to get to Fernando's house in Colmenarejo.
• Total layover time: 6hrs 01min
• Main flight-- 
• air time: 7:33 
• distance traveled: 6419km
• altitude: 11.8km
• outside air temp: -61˚C
• total time from waking up in DeLand to falling asleep in Madrid: 36 hours. Yeesh.

Little quote in the floor of the Milan airport. So fitting. So thankful to be here.

Thanks to my flight plan (a round trip to Milan, and a separate round trip to Madrid), I was limited to how much I could travel with. Because intra-European flights allow less baggage, I could [with a fee] check one 20kg bag, and bring aboard one, single, solitary anything (for you US travelers, that means no carry-on AND a "personal item," just one or the other).

I was worried about the 20kg limit, and I must thank my dad and step-mom for an outstanding Christmas gift they gave-- a bag scale!

I was able to load up my gear and regularly check if I needed to take anything out, but in all honesty it ended up being a space limitation more than a weight limitation. I managed to fit a small duffle in my suitcase though [Thanks SAndrews!], so I'll be able to have that carryon+personal item luxury when I fly home.

All of this is to say that I'm sort of glad for the restrictions, for it definitely made the journey over here just a little bit more manageable.

I think I ended up at 18.5kg. In other news, I have no idea why this picture came out this way, all squished and whatnot...

On a totally different note, for some reason I decided that I wanted to braid my hair for the journey over, but any right mind would realize that leaning up against a seat for hours on end just turns it into a rats nest.

That's okay though, my new roommate doesn't seem to mind at all. Cala likes me just fine, rats' nest for a head and all : )

I'll leave you at that. More on my first day in Madrid (which was yesterday) to come...
Hasta luego.
-M