Day 2'ish, The Madrid Layover & Porto Portugal The Arrival

Me Tim

Day 2'ish

Technically it's Day 2, because it's now September 3rd.  I haven't slept at all until last night. (Day 2) As a matter of fact my Oura Ring and Apple Watch are all kinds of messed up with the whole sleep tracking thing. I almost slept on the plane, the seat was really comfortable. They even gave me a nice blanket and pillow too, and SLIPPERS! I didn't use the slippers though. That just felt weird to me, if I'm going to where slippers its going to be at home where no one but me can see just how ridiculous they look.

After I got off the plane, they put you on a shuttle bus to get to the main terminal. T4 for those of you that have been to Madrid.  I almost fell asleep on there, but as luck would have it, a ton of other people decided to get on the bus and make all kinds of racket.

But I was on the back of the bus, you know, with the "cool kids". So that's a bonus.

I'm now in an airport lounge, the Dali Lounge and I can't say I'm very impressed, but it beats anywhere else I could be in this ginormous airport.

Oh and a weird thing, or just weird to me. People just mill about without worrying about their bags. Do people think thieves don't come here?  Maybe not because I suppose you have a plane ticket and that seems like a lot of effort.  But still it's weird right?

I forgot to mention that I met an retired couple at Dulles airport before hoping on the plane to Madrid. We had met each other at the elevator to go to the Airport lounge wile we waited 16 million hours to board the plane. It was a quick interaction but it was a friendly one. We parted ways in the lounger, the reason I mention this is because as we were going up the elevator they asked where I was going, it's what you do in an airport. I was off my game, because normally I would have said something like, "I'm headed Saskatchewan" For no reason other than I don't know these people. BUT NO, I blurted out that I was going to Porto, and low and behold so were they.

2 or so hours or 16 million hours, but whatever, I head to my gate there they were the same couple. Which was totally cool, they were at the head of the line, so since we were clearly going to be travel buddies, at least for the next 8 hours on the plane, I walked right up to them and acted like we were old friends. Without missing a beat, they acted like they were my grandparents or least my parents and were super friendly.

We boarded the plane and holy crap they had the seats across the aisle from me.

Fast forward 8 hours later, we are get to immigration together, we walked together to find our gate, for the connecting flight. By this time we assumed we were on the same flight to Porto, and sorted fumbled around together looking for the airport lounge. We must have done 2 or 3 laps that ginormous airport, and Sharon, the wife just decided these 2 knucklehead dudes she was walking around with were totally clueless so she walked up to an airport employee, he pointed the right way. Ray, her husband and I looked at each other with what I would call that "knowing look", you know the one, "Damnit we could have done that, but we're too damn hardheaded, we know it, she knows it, but we're going to pretend that she (Sharon) didn't give up on our obvious flawed leadership, and just act like it was the most normal thing for her to do" But deep down we both thought the same thing. "If we just 5 more minutes, we would have found the lounge WITHOUT having to ask for directions"!

We had coffee together in the lounge, and now you're all caught up on Madrid. The 3 of us got on the next flight, and this time Ray and Sharon sat in the row ahead of me. Which was unexpected and cool. Although maybe they were secret agents or spy's trying to recruit me for some super secret mission. Did I mention I just just watch the latest Mission Impossible movie on Amazon Prime a few days before. That in no way was influencing my assessment of the situation. (Stop shaking your head at me)

Did I also mention they were from Harrisburg, PA? They clearly had a great "cover".

Alright I made it to Porto, after a 5 hour layover in Madrid. Which wasn't to bad. But the fun was just beginning. Then Porto airport workers union decide to go on strike. Apparently this is a normal thing and it's sort of not real news here. Unless of course you're traveling into Porto and then it's potentially like a "whole thing"

The Airline crew was like "Meh" it's all good. Get off our plane. "I'm pretty sure we experienced the whole "Seeya, wouldn't want to be ya" type of send off. We were on another shuttle bus from the plane to the terminal. There was no one on the tarmac, by no one I really mean. There was hardly anyone. It was pretty much a ghost town. The Americans on the plane were conserned. O don't think I was, I figured if we had to go get out own bags I'm sure that would actually be kind of cool. And no, none of that happened. The lack of airport workers only meant it took longer to get the luggage. Probably a good thing. Did I mention I tweaked a muscle, it's getting better. Thank you for your concern. 😉

BUT I was saying, "Oh fuck"! That is at least what I was thinking, but I played off like, "all good."

On the should ride over to the baggage claim area, we noticed there was like NO-ONE moving around the tarmac, no one directing traffic, no one driving around the zillions of golf carts on steroids, like NO ONE. Except for a few baggage handlers. I was feeling a little relieved but that didn't mean it was going to go well for us.

Also on the shuttle ride over, I was surprised to hear so many people speaking English, like Americans and what not. AND they were all coming to Porto for the same thing I was, to hike the Camino Portuguese. They were headed out of the trail on a different day than I am, but it was cool. Some of them were on the 2nd or 3rd one, 1 couple was on their 4th or 5th. Not so sure how they have some much time off to do so many of those Caminos. If you're curious depending on which route, you're looking at 2 to 4 weeks. Most people add a few days on the front and back of the Camino to acclimate and to also recuperate before heading back home. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to take this much time away.

Anyways......we get to the terminal and the baggage claim area looked like a big ass warehouse or an old manufacturing floor. It might have been because it was so dark in there, and the passengers, just didn't seem all that thrilled.

We all went to the assigned carousel to do that shameful wait for luggage. I say shameful, because we are all guilty of seeing a bag coming, you get your hopes up thinking it "looks" a little bit like yours, but you know deep down it isn't. However you still hope, because what if you're wrong and it is? And you stare at it way longer than you should, and as the piece of luggage goes past you, you stare down at it, and decide, "Nope, I knew that wasn't mine, but I'm glad I checked" LOL. Come on, you know you've done it before.

After about 10 minutes the belt baggage carousel turns on, we're all so happy because ours luggage is coming up. By this time Ray and Sharon had gone to the location in a desperate attempt to grab their bags as they come up the shoot. We had said our goodbyes, because I refuse to stand there with a zillion other people just to elbow people out of the way because I see a piece of luggage that "looks" like mine, just to get a glimpse of hope, only to realize that it isn't mine, and I've probably just bruised someone's kidney while I swooped in.

I was on the opposite side waiting, and I was next to another American from Wisconsin who was also hiking the Camino. It was cool to chat with her, she was meeting a few friends there, like I was and heading out on Friday.

20 minutes of waiting and dutifully staring at each bag as it goes by and not seeing mine.....and then it happened. The carousel stops. There are no other bags coming out, out of know where, Ray appears. He comes up to me and actually looking relieved to see me. Which isn't necessarily the reaction I get from most people. But I will take the win. Ray, said he had been looking over in my direction from the other side hoping to see me, so he would have some assurance that he didn't miss his bag, or that perhaps our planes bags didn't come up yet. But he had lost sight of me, because I had gotten  bored and curious and had been wandering around the carousel. You know, just in case I had in fact missed seeing my luggage. He came over to see if he could find me, to make sure I hadn't gotten my luggage and left. So basically it was the whole "Misery loves company" situation.

A few minutes later the carousel moved again, and 10 minutes later it stopped again. NO luggage. At this point I was cursing myself out for not packing certain things in my carryon. With or without my other bag, I was going on this adventure.

AND another few minutes later the machine of disappointment started moving again. This time my bag arrived, and I was outta there! I strolled around the airport, looking for the Bolt pickup, Bolt is the European equivalent of Uber. Although they do have Uber too, but Bolt is supposedly less expensive.

It's late, like almost 1 am and I need to get to sleep. More on Day 2, tomorrow, or maybe the next day.

In the mean time though have a look at a trolly or two.

Stay outta trouble, if you can't do that. Don't get caught.

Tim