On the international road again

Yesterday marked the beginning of the Great European Adventure 2008. My sister Julia flew in to Austin, and Friday morning we flew out; with stops at DFW and JFK, we finally made it BAR-CE-LON-A (*clap* *clap* *clapclapclap*). There were delays in every city, totaling about 2 1/2 hours. This doesn't include having to sit on the plane in JFK for 2 hours before we were able to take off. But it's all good.

Here we are waiting to board in Austin.


Me doing the three things I do best when I travel:

Sudokus...

Sleeping...


And eating...


We arrived in Barcelona unscathed.

Finding the hotel was kind of exciting. We took a taxi, and the cab driver didn't seem very sure as to where the address I gave him was. He had a GPS so it directed him where to go. (Though I think we were at times driving in circles or taking wrong turns.) He'd say something every now and then, even though we'd already established that we didn't speak Spanish (or at least not enough to be effective) and he didn't speak English. (He almost seemed as relieved as we were when we made it!) No worries. We made it. And we got checked in, and ready for first a nap, then exploring!