My Birthday

Hello All,

Jamie and I are now in London, after a very interesting departure from Spain, which kinda happened to be over my birthday.

First off, I'm sick. I don't know with what, but it's essentially a sinus infection of epic proportions, with the added funness of a fever. I know funness isn't a word, but it fits my purpose, and you know what it means, so there. There have been rumors that I might have swine flu, but, I feel somewhat better now, so I don't think that was the case. However, I have been sick for the past... week or so. Nothing like waking everyone up in the dorm room of 10 with my late-night coughs. Or the cold sweats in the middle of the night. Or the horrible pressure that was behind my eyes, which have finally presented themselves in a stuffy nose that I have now.

Regardless, I was excited to be leaving Spain, to have an actual bed here in London, where we are staying with the Omene family.
On the eve of my birthday, Jamie and I went out with some Swedish guys (who also introduced me to a cheese in a tube, which was absolutely delicious) and a british girl who has been traveling for 4 years to a Tapas bar. You order one drink, and can then eat as many tapas as you want. Considering my health, I was more into the food, and not as into my drink. After stuffing myself with little delicasies, I promptly went to bed, since apparently 1 beer is 1 to many for myself in a sick state. Jamie woke me up at 12:30, to say "happy birthday!", give me some medicine (I didn't even hafta move), and then I went back to bed, content to know I was now offically 22, and still sick.

So, we wake up around 10:45 on my birthday, and decide before we go to the airport, we wanted to see El Parque Guell. A park designed by Antonio Gaudi. We checked it out for about an hour, and then decided that it was about time to get to the airport. We ask our hostel manager, Jonathon, "Where is the Reus airport, and how do we get there?" He must have heard the word "Airport," because he quickly told us how to get there. We jump on a train, and around this time Jamie says "wouldn't it suck if this was the wrong airport." Well, Jamie has a budding career in being a psychic, because she was right. Sure enough, we ask "where is the terminal for RyanAir?" They say "Not in this airport...." Well, begin panic mode.

We hop in a cab, and said "Maneja muy rapido" (Drive very fast), and off we go. About 10 mins into our journey, we are hit with traffic. Not normal "end of the day" traffic, but "A car burnt to embers on the side of the road, and everyone must rubberneck for a solid 10 mins before passing." Turns out the RyanAir Barcelona Airport is actually in a small town called Reus, which is about 100km away. At 1.1 euro/km, we dropped about 150 euro on this cab ride, only to discover that we were about 20 mins late to our flight. We begged, we pleaded, we mentioned that it was my birthday, but they simply said "no, the flight left". So we "changed" our ticket to the 24th, and it was decided that for the next 24 hours, we were going to be in the airport... happy birthday.

We did what we do best in airports: sleep. I was still semi-feverish at the time, and Jamie was in a weird gleeful state, coming up with fun ways to spin the situation "Well, at least we get another day in the spanish sun!" And "At least the airport is air conditioned!"

24 hours passed, we boarded our plane, and arrived at Luton Airport. Luton is about a 55 min bus ride away from central London. So once we got there, we hopped on the Jubilee line, and rode the tube all the way up to Canons Park. After a brief walk, we ended up at the lovely Omene Abode. Jamie and I said "hello, nice to meet you (/see you again), now if you don't mind, we'd like to sleep." It was 11pm. We woke up today at 3pm. We slept 15 hours. 15 hours of wonderful, blissfull, dreaming sleep. I can't say I feel 100% yet, but I can certainly say that I feel better. Jamie, on the other hand, feels slightly worse, I hope that tonights resting will cure her of that.

Unfortunately, the Jubilee line is down for the weekend for repairs. So, while we are not "stuck" here, we now must take a bus, rather than the Jubilee line back down. Oh well, such is life. At least we aren't in an airport.


David and Jamie