Well that has got to have been one of the longest journeys I’ve ever taken.
We left Brisbane at 955am on Thursday and arrived 40 hours later in San Sebastián, flying with Etihad. I have no idea how come we had to go this way but oh boy. The first leg was from Brisbane to Melbourne, then a 3 hr layover which we spent in the Virgin lounge. The second leg, from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi, took 14 hrs. I watched several movies on this leg, including “American Underdog” - it was ok but the funniest part was the bit where they were in a bar with country music playing, and the line being sung was “all she’s got to do is give me that wink” - but in the broad US country accent, ‘wink’ sounded like ‘wank’ and gave the song a whole new meaning!
I don’t mind Etihad airlines - the planes have this funky lighting system which allegedly helps with jet lag (basically the lights are a soft blue, soft yellow, soft green…) and I think maybe it works. Either that or the diazepam I took to help sleep…
We transitted through Abu Dhabi, my first time at that airport, and I could not believe how packed it was at that time of night. Or early morning. It was madness. We decided to use Russell’s Virgin Gold card and go to the lounge, and even that was completely bonkers and full. Finally found a bar stool to sit on, had a coffee and a shower and started to feel human again.
Our flight left around 3am and was another 7 hrs until we arrived in Madrid. This was the bit I was most concerned about - not just clearing customs, but clearing covid customs, because Spain does not recognise the Australian international covid vaccination certificate. As a result you have to fill in a special form 72hrs prior to arrival in Spain, and then you could be tested when you get there. Because I developed a raging cold a couple of days ago, and the symptoms got infinitely worse on the plane, I was concerned. I needn’t have worried - we just presented the QR code and then were waved through.
Our final leg was barely an hour, to San Sebastián. I had been concerned all along (with due cause of course, having had my luggage not arrive before), about our luggage arriving - so I put my AirTags in the bags so I could track them. It worked a treat! We could see that our bags made it to every place we transitted through. Russell’s bags arrived up the conveyor belt and I thought “excellent”, they’re here. But mine didn’t arrive. The airtag said though that they were with me - they were not - but eventually the AirTag said they were moving, and sure enough, they arrived.
We got a taxi (that was another palaver, people in Spain don’t queue) to the Hotel Ibis. Its nice enough, and we have 2 nights here. We had to quickly repack my bag which we are shipping to Santiago. It was damn heavy (14.7kg) and I had to carry it 2 km into town on my back. That felt like 20km by the time we got to the Correos office! We then managed to ship the bag with no hassles to Santiago.
Searched for some dinner but forgot that Spaniards don’t eat dinner before 9pm and we were so very tired! So spot the gringo hey. Enjoyed some croquettes and then it was time to return to the hotel…slept very well indeed!
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