Spring Break Returns

After a series of cancelled trips in 2020 and a domestic Israeli Easter last year, I am once again traveling during spring break.  This year my Aunt Marty asked if I wanted to meet her in Spain to hike part of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage-type walk many Christians do. We decided on the last portion of what is known as the Portuguese Way.

Our plan was to meet it Madrid and we had reservations on the same flight into Vigo, here we would taxi to our starting point in Tui.  We start walking on Sunday, arrive in Santiago on Good Friday and head to the Basque region on Easter Sunday.

I went through the familiar anxiety about packing but would like to report that I truly began packing last Sunday and was totally ready to go on Thursday night when I went to bed....it felt amazingly! I can see why so many people pack early—it really reduced anxiety!

But this isn’t not about luggage. I was about to sleep about three hours before I took a taxi to the airport at 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning (the TLV airport is an airport where you always want to be at least three hours early—I’m not in Boise anymore!).

When I got to the front of the line I learned that the reason I wasn’t able to check in’s online wasn’t because it was an international flight as I had assumed, but because Iberia Airlines had oversold the flight by about thirty seats. Chaos ensued and about two hours later I had cancelled that flight through American Airlines (I booked with miles) Andy bought a ticked on the next flight to Madrid on Pegasus Airlines while I was standing in the check-in line! 

In the chaos of planning I thought if I could get to Madrid I could take a train to Vigo that night. Once I got through security and calmed down I realized I was mistaken and the trains were sold out for the day. There was a flight from Madris to Vigo Sunday morning early, however, and I could get that one if all went well. I booked that ticket through American during my layover in Isranbul! Fun fact: it only cost 10,000 miles on the AA app but 20,000 on the website.

And so I awoke this morning refreshed in a Madrid hotel close to the airport. All I did when I got in yesterday was cry from exhaustion, eat a decent meal through room service (that was still cheaper than the same meal in Tel Aviv in a restaurant! ), learn about the terrible working situation of truckers in America on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and sleep.

I'm writing this on my phone in the Madrid airport, awake and refreshed from rest and a latte. Assuming all goes well, my bag and I will meet up with Aunt Marty in  few short hours.

 had oversold