Welp

Welp. I thought my trip was going as smoothly as possible. I had a great breakfast with BC, had a nice drive to IND, got through security quickly and easily, got to see Charlie as he was flying back to CLT, boarded our plane, got a seat all to myself, had no problems getting into DCA, turned off airplane mode on my "cellphone" and then BAM: "Flight 5182 has been canceled" pops up on my phone.

I thought, "Surely there has been a mistake." There was no mistake.

I quickly did what any millennial would do and I contact American Airlines customer service. And by "contacted" I mean I DMed them on Twitter. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Call them? Haha that's hilarious.

When I didn't hear back from them on Twitter(yes I know how asinine that sounds) within a reasonable amount of time, I called. And by "reasonable amount of time" I mean about 4 minutes. I mean, come on. Companies need to respond within 4 minutes of DM from a regular customer such as myself right? Right. I didn't think so either.

Anyway, they rebooked me on a flight out Monday morning. That wasn't going to cut it for me. I checked with the gate agent inside and they couldn't legitimately get me in to CAE tonight. They could get me to Charlotte but it was going to be way late. So a hotel at DCA was going to be my best bet up until they found a flight out of Dulles (on United) tonight at 10pm going into CAE. Now, who's flying from DC to Columbia on a Sunday night? Me and about 19 of my fellow United customers fearful that we'll be the next people dragged off a plane, that's who.

So, one $12 dinner voucher and one taxi cab voucher later plus 45 minutes I arrived at Dulles. I've had a service called Priority Pass for quite a while through one of my credit cards(yes Dave Ramsey, I still have a few) but I've never used it before. It basically allows me access ten times per year to airline lounges. Tonight I stopped in the Turkish Airways lounge and boy have I been missing out. This place was very peaceful, had free food and drink, and was a nice spot to kill about 3 hours. The humorous part was that I stopped in the Air France lounge first, and they politely asked me to come back in 10 or 15 minutes. I guess the French still don't like me. See some of my posts from 2009 for more info on that.

Anyway, I'm glad I ended up in Turkey. I enjoyed it. And even though I chose not to use the pray rooms, of which there were three, I'll go back when I'm in DCA.

Terredise

And so another trip to Indiana wraps up.  I'm doing what I've done about 100 times(according to Kristin) and that's sitting in the Indianapolis airport.  I've talked extensively about how much I love this airport(http://roseoverexposed.blogspot.com/2016/02/indy-redux.html) and this city.  This time, I'll talk about Terre Haute or "Terredise"‌ as I was taught yesterday.

Don't get me wrong.  There's not a whole lot going on in Terre Haute, IN.  It's a small town that reminds me of the SoBro(South Broad Ripple) area of Indianapolis.  Lots of residential areas with some small and quirky restaurant/bars strewn about.  Indiana State University seems to be a huge part of Terre Haute.

Let me pause here for a moment and let you know that I just saw Charlie Wentzky in the Indianapolis airport.  So officially I have seen two major celebrities the last two times I've been here:

Amos Lee

Charlie Wentzky

Back to Terre Haute:

It was great meeting Sherard, Greg, Vickie, Ace, Coach Lansing, Marcus, TP, James, Dennis, Angie, Stacey, Nicole, Kristi, Tanya, Troy, Luke, Janet, Evan and probably some more that I'm leaving out.  All of the above work with the ISU Athletic Department at some level(some at the top) and they were ALL extremely welcoming and warm to me.

One of the highlights of the trip was talking with Greg about some seriously challenging topics around leadership, people, philosophies and more.   I really enjoyed talking with him.  He helped me see that I have a lot of growing to do in the area of being welcoming and not hiding behind technology, but rather to get out from behind the desk and build deeper and better relationships with coaches and kids.  I thank him for challenging me in a loving way.

Brett was a gracious host as always and I'm so happy to see how well things are going for him up here.  

A couple of cool things to me in the pictures:

I love how close to downtown DC Reagan National is.  I got some great views of the monuments and of Watergate(I think that's what that is) 

The Indy airport is the most beautiful I've ever seen even though the "I" in Indy is missing currently 

Brett stops regularly at Dunkin for coffee and the folks know what he wants so well that they make it for him as he enters and, no lie, handed it to him when he went to the cash register to order 

I sat in the arena where Larry Bird buried jumpers for three years. 

The Clabber Girl museum offered a look into the past of Indiana and the Hulman family

No trip to Indiana wouldn't be complete without a Mellencamp siting 

Larry Legend

Great to see Larry Bird hanging out in Terre Haute today. I'm guessing he knocked this jumper down

“Cellphones” Are the New Headphones

What is the universal sign for, "Hey, don't talk to me?" Correct. Earbuds in the ear. Pop those suckers in and no one will try to talk with you unless they are incredibly inept at reading social cues.

Yes. That is the first time I have ever used the word "inept."

I'd like to add a new universal sign to the "Leave Me Alone" cue list. And it's not really that new I presume, but it's the lovely cellphone. And I suppose they aren't really cellphones anymore are they? I feel like I've discussed this with someone, or maybe here, but what should we really call these devices we carry around with us everywhere we go?(and I do mean everywhere) I'll come back to that thread shortly.

But nothing says, "Listen, I get it. You're on a plane sitting incredibly and uncomfortably close to me, a stranger. However I really don't want to talk" like burying your head in your "cellphone." Why am I writing this? Because it just happened.

Hey, listen, no judgement here. I respect a person's right to do whatever they want to do(within reason), but I am one that enjoys talking with people. Especially people I don't get to run into on a daily basis. So as much as I enjoy writing this post(truly I do enjoy writing) that no one will read(also true), I would much rather be talking with the lady next to me.

But it's cool.

Now seriously, what do we call "cellphones?" We need a better name. Think of one whilst I'm in the air.

What City...

....has the second most monuments and memorials behind Washington DC? King's Landing is not correct. (Fun fact: I wouldn't have known what King's Landing was until about 3 weeks ago when I started binge watching Game of Thrones)

The answer is Indianapolis. Avid readers of this blog, of which there are 3, know my love affair with Indianapolis. I'm thankful to be going back even though I'll just be passing through on my way to Terre Haute to watch my boy Brett's team play on Saturday.

It'll be good to see another part of Indiana this time around.

Wheels up tomorrow from CAE. It's been a while since I've flown out of the metro. One of my favorite parts of CAE? Yep. The bathrooms. They're gorgeous. And for once, I'm not joking.

Another One in the Books

It's been a 24 hour day officially and I'm thankful yet again to have been able to go on another trip overseas.

CLT was lit up beautifully tonight in my opinion.

Now, it's time for some sleep

High Steppin'

Not exorbitant numbers by any means, but 98,510 total and 16,418 average steps per day for 6 days is pretty solid if I must say so myself. It appears I just did.

Also, I had no idea how to spell exorbitant. Thanks for the assist Apple.

Not So Fast

For the second time in about a week I have arrived at the Barcelona Airport. This time I didn't even have to fly. We pushed back from the "stand" as British Airways calls it to take off for London. However, there is a passenger on board not feeling well apparently so we had to return to the stand so said passenger can deplane. However, curiously I have been typing this post for a few minutes now and no one has left the plane. It may be just some more airline smoke and mirrors. Smoke probably isn't the best word to use on a plane. I just got some funny looks when I typed that. That's not true at all.

Good thing I had a five hour layover in London.

I Wanna Go Fast

There are two customary ways to help yourself wake up in Spain.  The first is pretty universal:  a nice, warm cup of coffee in some form.  In Spain there are lots of choices from cappuccinos to cafe cortados to espressos and more.  These usually do a great job of waking a human up. 

The other is to take a cab with the driver I had this morning from the hotel to the airport.  Listen, I do enjoy going fast, and maybe this guy knew that because it seemed that he couldn't hit the gas hard enough in the city streets to get us down the road.  I've been in the back of a BMW 3 series as a former race car driver took us around the test track before at high speeds, and this experience this morning did slightly approach the BMW test track experience.  Don't get me wrong, I had fun. I just didn't expect to be pick up by Mario Andretti. 

I know, I know.  Mario is Italian. And yes.  Yes I had to google that.  

Arcano

Not that the other meals we had in Barcelona weren't real, but the meal we had last night in Arcano was real.  The service was great, the food was fresh and extremely high quality, and the experience we had there from entrance to exit was a 10.  And not that waiters and waitresses were cold (but they kinda were most places we went), the wait staff at Arcano treated us like extraordinarily well from right when we entered the restaurant.  In my opinion, they could have mailed it in because we were the only group in the restaurant for quite a while.  However, they were very warm and kind, and they created a wonderful atmosphere for us to enjoy a fine meal on my last night in Barcelona. 

I highly recommend Arcano if you are ever in Barcelona.  

And yes.  That is tiramisu in a white "bucket" made to look like a plant.  That's the kind of attention to detail these guys have at Arcano.   

Montserrat

Montserrat is a monastery about 75 minutes outside of Barcelona, and it is totally worth the trip out there. There are several ways to get there. We chose to go with Julia Travel which was a very professional tour and guide. However we found that we wanted more time to explore all that Montserrat has to offer however with the tour, we had less time to explore. The inside of the Basilica is one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen. I fought the urge to disobey the "no photo" signs but was able to keep my phone in my pocket and enjoy the beauty and aura of Montserrat. I highly recommend getting here.

I'm Ready Hank

Hank, you supply the paddles and I'll supply the ping pong balls. See you and Sally on la playa en Barcelona!

Perros

I'm blown away at how well behaved the dogs are here. Dog owners here routinely have their dogs off leash and leave their perros(dogs) outside of businesses while they go inside to either pick something up or, as I saw yesterday, sit down and enjoy a meal. These dogs are more well behaved than most human kids I've seen

Dionisos

Great Greek food in Barcelona? Yep. Check out Dionisos. This lamb was absolutely incredible.

With a good tip you'll receive a little something special at the end of the meal. Go for the Menu of the Day options here and at other Barcelona restaurants. Contrary to popular belief, tapas and paella did not originate in Barcelona even though there are more signs advertising both than Starbucks locations in the US. Oh. And yes. There are tons of Starbucks here too.

Bearded Baby

I was told that this baby on the side of the bus here in Barcelona would be my baby should I ever have a baby. I'll let you be the judge.

1 For 2

So, I'm 1 for 2 in riding the subway in Barcelona and actually ending up where I'm supposed to.  We took the subway today from Estacion Saints back to the Rambla and we made it!  

If you remember, and I'm absolutely positive you don't, I took the train to the airport back in 2009 and missed my stop in a major way.  Read about it on this blog somewhere in the 2009 posts near the end of my first European extravaganza.  Or by going here:  http://roseoverexposed.blogspot.com.es/2009/07/trip-of-firsts.html?m=0

For those of you keeping score at home, I typed the penultimate sentence to the previous paragraph and felt guilty about sending you a wild goose chase.   There I went on The aforementioned goose chase which turned out to be more on the tame side than wild and the pasted the link in this entry. 

Also for those of you keeping score at home, I email this little nifty updates in to my blog.  Just another reason I love Google.  

I Know

I know I get fascinated by, potentially, the most mundane things. However, Barcelona is a very clean city and I see these plastic bins everywhere. They really don't stick out like sore thumbs, but they do seem to contribute to the overall cleanliness of the city. Pictured lastly is a guy blowing leaves. Just out of frame to the right is his street sweeper. We've seen those all day and guys/gals like this just hop out, blow leaves, pick up trash, etc.

The third picture is a picture of the sidewalk on one of the streets we took yesterday. This was a non-touristy(it's a word, just don't look it up) street. These are individual tiles and extremely heavy-duty in nature. That's something else I've noticed this time around in Barcelona: They use really high-quality materials to make everything here. For a design like this in the states, I can't help but think that we would pour the concrete and then press that bad boy into this shape.

Jamon

I now think twice before eating ham.

Nothing More Glorious

There's nothing more glorious than watching The Simpsons in Spanish

Cleanest Parking Garage Ever

For a city that has a seemingly low number of trash cans, Barcelona is incredibly clean. It's very common to see street sweepers around the city and a Disney amount of city workers cleaning up trash. Yes. I just used Disney as an adjective. Pictured below is the nicest and cleanest parking garage I've ever seen.

This is the first time I've been inside of Sagrada Familia and wow. It's incredible. I've never seen anything quite like it. It is stated in the museum that it will be completed by 2026 but look for it around 2040 to be completed.