I’m here in Madrid after a little bit of extra travel. Apparently, the pilots of our flight from Atlanta to Madrid realized sometime over the Atlantic ocean that some critical navigation component was malfunctioning. Ooops. So we turned around and went back to NYC to get the part repaired. We weren’t let off the plan, so it was basically just like an extra three hours tacked onto the flight (1hr back to NYC, 1hr on the ground, 1hr back to where we were). All in all, I’m pretty wasted, but not too badly. I did manage to sleep about 4 hours last night, so I should be good until a reasonable time this evening and I can get a full night of sleep.
I’m hoping we find my parents though — unfortunately, we haven’t heard from them in three hours, and they were supposed to call us some time ago. All calls to the friend they were travelling with go straight to voice mail. We’re hoping it’s unrelated to the bombs that exploded on the roads as they were driving from the airport, but who knows. Fortunately, none of the news stories mention any casualties, so the worst case is they had some nasty traffic.
The authorities may have turned off cell phone coverage to a certain area after the bombs went off too. I think that they do that sometimes so no one can detonate another bomb using a cell phone.
Hopefully you have found them by now though.
Left by David on December 6th, 2005
Apparently it’s a really big deal. The terrorists call and notify the authorities ahead of time when they’re going to set off the bombs, sometimes waiting as much as a day or two before blowing them up. Not really a big deal at all. Mis padres (my parents) were unaware bombs had even gone off, they were just apparently dialing the wrong number on my brother’s cell phone. Plus, they took a couple hours nap (something I managed to hold off, so I at least went to sleep and woke up on a more Spanish schedule).
So yeah, good news is that they’re ok.
We walked through some famous city squares last night. Apparently, the fact that it was a holiday (apparently it’s always some holiday or another here) and a major toy store was lighting up their ‘nativity’ scene combined for crowds you could barely shove your way through. I saw ‘nativity’ scene, because this nativity scene, while at the very center does contain some of the usual suspects, also has mermaids, a giant submarine, and hundreds of other animated figures on a half block long and quarter block high display covering the entire facade of the store.
Left by Jordan on December 7th, 2005
I didn’t pay very much attention in Sunday school, but I’m pretty sure in some versions of the Bible the three wise men do arrive in a submarine.
Left by John on December 7th, 2005