Location: Sants Estacio
Listening to: “New York” over the McDonald's PA
It was a terrible, horrible, rotten, no good, very bad morning. I just wrote the parents an email, I think I'll just copy a few pieces of it here.
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Good Morning (Awful Afternoon, actually),
When I went to the airport this morning, I brought my guitar. I'd looked at their carriage policies, and I should have been able to carry it on with a €30 oversize fee. They wouldn't let me get on the plane without buying a second seat (plus an extra charge to book the seats next to each other) both going and returning unless I wanted to pay €20 each way and have them throw it in with the checked baggage - the €30 fee only applies on their larger planes, but if that's posted somewhere it's in very fine print. All in all, it would have cost me over €300 in airfare beyond what I'd already paid, plus the train fare to and from Cordoba (not much, maybe €20). I decided not to go and told them to cancel my return flight. They wouldn't. I spoke to the manager, who said that somewhere in the fine print I accepted when I bought the ticket they have a clause saying you can't cancel a return flight after confirming the first one (which I had done by coming to the airport). I got really upset about it and the attendant I'd originally been working with started crying, but there was essentially nothing I could do but pay or leave. I left.
Now I'm in Sants Estacio, the main train and bus hub for Barcelona. I just bought a high-speed train ticket to Cordoba, which will actually be faster than flying after adding in the time I would have spent between Málaga and Cordoba. The tickets were €150 each way, but you get a huge discount if you use the same station round trip for some reason so it was a €211 for both ways. It's really expensive, but I already reserved the hostels and cancelled my classes for this week and it's a solid €100 cheaper than flying would have been.
When I went to the airport this morning, I brought my guitar. I'd looked at their carriage policies, and I should have been able to carry it on with a €30 oversize fee. They wouldn't let me get on the plane without buying a second seat (plus an extra charge to book the seats next to each other) both going and returning unless I wanted to pay €20 each way and have them throw it in with the checked baggage - the €30 fee only applies on their larger planes, but if that's posted somewhere it's in very fine print. All in all, it would have cost me over €300 in airfare beyond what I'd already paid, plus the train fare to and from Cordoba (not much, maybe €20). I decided not to go and told them to cancel my return flight. They wouldn't. I spoke to the manager, who said that somewhere in the fine print I accepted when I bought the ticket they have a clause saying you can't cancel a return flight after confirming the first one (which I had done by coming to the airport). I got really upset about it and the attendant I'd originally been working with started crying, but there was essentially nothing I could do but pay or leave. I left.
Now I'm in Sants Estacio, the main train and bus hub for Barcelona. I just bought a high-speed train ticket to Cordoba, which will actually be faster than flying after adding in the time I would have spent between Málaga and Cordoba. The tickets were €150 each way, but you get a huge discount if you use the same station round trip for some reason so it was a €211 for both ways. It's really expensive, but I already reserved the hostels and cancelled my classes for this week and it's a solid €100 cheaper than flying would have been.
--
I realized yet again today that things never turn out the way I plan them, and maybe that's the lesson I'm supposed to learn over here. Last night a few friends and I went and had a picnic at this open-air cinema - really cheap, really fun time, great way to spend my last night with them, but going home was a complete disaster because the metro closed right as the movie ended. Again, I planned it, so it was my fault, and the Germans don't have any problem letting you know exactly how they feel about the situation. I was laid back enough to handle it, but I failed to consider their work schedules for this morning – more ignorant than inconsiderate, I think, but still negligent. I know it's something we all do, but I seem to do a lot of it when I plan things on my own. I'm glad Emily only let me co-plan a little bit of the next two weeks, but not to worry. Today I christened my backpack Murphy, so from this point on I can just blame him when something goes wrong.
Hasta la vista.
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