Home sweet home!

We made it. phew.

Our day of traveling was once again quite eventful.  We left the airport hotel at 8:15am, our flight departed at 12:40pm, and yet we only had 30 minutes to sit down before our flight borded...

We knew we needed to get one of the earlier vans from the hotel to the airport.  Everyone else on our flight was also at the hotel and would be leaving around the same time, and since our bikes take up the entire back of the van there would be no room for their luggage, so everyone was antsy about getting their luggage to the airport.  Luckily, we were able to get all three of our bikes onto a big van after waiting only a few minutes and quickly got to the airport.  We dragged/wheeled our bikes to the US Air check-in, got our boarding passes, and then had to go to another booth to pay for our bikes ($100).  This ended up taking about 45 minutes (crying woman in front of us in line).  Then, we had to haul our bikes back across the airport to the oversize baggage check.  McKayla had to literally climb onto the conveyor belt, underneath the black flaps, and shove our boxes through at an angle-- picture coming soon.  At that point I was so relieved to be free of that box!!  Only, then they told us we'd have to pick up the boxes in Philadelphia and recheck them after going through customs, awesome. 

We waited in line for security (surprising lax in Madrid) and then waited in line again to get to our terminal.  At this point one of the woman working for US Air tracked us down and said to us, "your bike boxes are so huge that they can't fit in our x-ray scanning machines, we have to take them to our industrial shipping center to get screened, so they won't be arriving on the flight today, we'll have to ship them to your homes."  Sweet.  Although it means more handling of our deteriorating bike boxes, we payed $100 to make those bikes their problem and it seemed more of a relief to not have to deal with them in Philadelphia and get them delievered to our doorstep.  We'll see how the boxes look when they turn up tonight...

Throughout this whole process we would continually bump into our fellow flight  friends that we made at the hotel the day before.  It was nice to have caring people looking after us and making sure we were getting ourselves and our bikes safely to the States.  We spent our last Euros at the duty free shop, and when we finally got to our departure gate we sat down with a sigh of relief.  Two minutes later we hear, "Passajera Amie Corso, por favor viene a puerta A4! Passajera Amie Corso a A4."  UH OH.  Bravely, Amie marched up to the check-in desk while McKayla and I (Erin) couldn't help but think of all the terrible destruction that must have already happened to her bike.  Turns out they just needed to give Amie her baggage claim receipt because in the midst of all the bike mayhem they forgot to give it to her, phew.

Because of the change in flight, Amie's mom got us seats all together which was nice because 1) we smelled bad and 2) we avoided having to make small talk with people sitting next to us.  The 9 hour flight went by quickly because we all had personal tvs, which meant we could occupy our minds with endless English movies and tv shows, what a treat!  We made our connection in Philly and arrived in Portland early, after 17 hours of traveling.  It felt so good to take a shower, put on clean, comfy pjs, and sleep in my own bed (sorry Amie -- she still has two more weeks of adventures before she gets back to her home in Bend).

Chicas Cajas.

　
Thursday, November 18th.
The Day.

Travel Weary...
So our ferry ride went quite smoothly. We landed on time, the bus driver let us take our bikes on the bus into town, we biked the streets like old pros, and we were settled into our hostel in time to catch free dinner at 8:30! Everything went EXACTLY according to our plan for the first time in about 10 weeks..... Turns out it was the only time.

Tuesday morning we awoke, had hostel breakfast, and kicked on our A-game. Tuesday promised to be our most taxing, logistical challenge in our long voyage home, and we were ready to take the bull by the horns.

Step 1: Acquire cardboard bike boxes for bike transport.

Lucky for us, there were several bike shops just blocks from our hostel. They opened at 9:30, which in Spain apparently means 10. Our search was initially fruitless; however we made an Irish bike-rental-shop-friend who called his friend to bring us boxes later in the day. Resigning ourselves to waiting until 3pm to start our travels, we headed for a cafe. Erin, however, on the way, spotted another bike rental sign, and though they initially told us they had nothing, the manager stopped us on the way out, and before we knew it, we were lugging 3 MASSIVE cardboard contraptions through Barcelona's alleyways. The boxes we got are about a foot longer and a foot taller than the boxes we used traveling to Europe, meaning we were quite the spectacle. I (amie) actually felt pretty cool though, because hauling a giant box around at least meant I was doing something more unique than the average tourist.

Step 2: Get bikes to train station.

Kabul (our hostel in Barcelona) has been quite good for us, and were willing to store our boxes while we rode our bikes to the train station. This went quite smoothly, and we were prepared to carry out our inital plan of leaving one person with our bikes, while the other two used the metro to bring the boxes to the station, where we would then pack up the bikes for the train ride to Madrid. Luckily, before we undertook this endeavor, remembering how chaotic and contradictory Spanish travel has been for us, we decided to make SURE that we could actually bring boxed bikes on the train. Before we left for Mallorca, we were informed (at this same station) that bikes could come on fast trains in boxes, or on slower regional trains without boxes (but that would require more navigating and longer travel time to get to Madrid). Turns out, your bike has to be folded to come on the train. OR you can get a night train, buy a full cabin with four beds, put two bikes in that cabin, pay for a second cabin, do a rain dance, and buy a puppy.... but only on wednesdays or odd days in july. So anyway, you get the picture, misinformation and beauracracy. We prepared to hop regional train to regional train, but it turns out.... NO regional train goes to Madrid before Thursday... Which is a little odd, considering Madrid is the biggest city in the country, and the capital. Oh well.

Step 3: Recalculate.

We were a little flustered. The info man had essentially told us that it was "impossible" for us to get to Madrid by Thursday for our flight. I asked, "as a Spaniard, not a train info man, what do you recommend we do?" He thought the bus would be a better bet. Turns out the REAL bus station is totally on the other side of downtown. We prepared to ride, but on the way, hating our cumbersome bikes more than we've ever hated them before, we thought mailing them home might actually be our best option. We stopped by Los Correos halfway through our cross-town trek, and learned there that it is also "impossible" to mail a package that large. A little panicked, we rode to our last resort, the Barcelona bus station. We got lucky! We bought three tickets for the 1 am night bus that night, and three tickets for our bikes. We enjoyed the rest of the day before dealing with our box situation.

Step 4: BOXES.

We went to Kabul, and finally left them in peace in the wake of three massive planes of cardboard. Walked to the metro and on the way, the fruit man on La Rambla yelled, "Chicas cajas!!!! Chicas cajas!!!!" Translation: box girls. Metro success. We folded our boxes and dealt with a couple strange looks (nothing new, let's be real). and before we knew it, we were boxing up our bikes in the bus station at 10 pm.

Step 5: Actually get the boxes onto the bus.

Tip for travelers: In Spain, departments that you would assume communicate, don't. In other words, just because the ticket lady guarantees our bikes can go on the bus, the bus drivers often have different opinions. So at 1 am when the bus was loading, we ended up frantically rearranging the entire cargo area to make room for our 3 massive boxes. We endured stares and glares, and I found myself arguing in Spanish with the bus driver. "Si, se caben ahora," he said, "pero si no se caben en Zaragoza, vamos a dejar las cajas alla." In other words, the bus was to make one stop in Zaragoza on the way, and the driver was claiming that if the new passengers' "maletas" couldn't fit, he would take our bikes out and leave them in Zaragoza. It was 1 am so we took the risk.... We figured, if the bikes were left in Zaragoza, we could probably just be left in Zaragoza too... no prob.

Step 6: survive totally full night bus ride with no bathroom.

check

Step 7: Improvise.

We didn't have a definitive plan of action for when we arrived at the bus station.... luggage consignment? nearby hotel? hobo? BUT, in a fortuitous turn of fate, we found ourselves waking up to.... airport scenery. "Wait.... are we at the airport? Like... can we get off here?" muttered Erin through her retainer and earplugs. Some people were getting off, so I ran up to the front, and asked the bus driver (apparently he changed at some point that night because it wasn't my grumpy friend anymore, thank god) if this was indeed the airport and if we could leave. 4 minutes later we were standing in terminal 4 with our cargo.

Step 8: Get to terminal 1, ditch the bikes.

We took a tram, got looks. We dragged our humongous accomplises down the stairs, down the hall, across the street, and across the parking lot in the rain to consignment, paid them 15 euros, forced the boxes through the tiny security scan, and GOT AWAY FROM THEM.

Step 9: Madrid! As a normal tourist.

Madrid is a great city. Feels a bit more like an American city, large white buildings and wider paved streets. It's clean and friendly, too. We took the metro into town, ran our usual McDonalds routine of Wifi-hotel-booking-friend-communication-morning-coffee-free-bathroom. We ended up spending the afternoon exploring the city and shopping with McKayla's Hamilton friend, Thea. She took us to Placa Mayor and brought us to a local cafe that specialized in "chocolate con churro" - basically a melted candy bar that you get to dip fried dough in and cover in powdered sugar. Hell yeah. That evening we met up with our Bowdoin friend Antonio, who is studying in Madrid. Between Thea and Antonio we learned a lot about the city, and Antonio FINALLY took me somewhere homosexual, Madrid's famous Chueca district. We had a great night, and it was a PERFECT way to finish our trip... or so we thought...

Step 10: The final leg.

"Today's the day!" Erin said, again, this morning (she's said this everyday this past week as everyday has been a big travel day), "for real this time." Metro, consignment, no problems. We even figured out how to do bikes in boxes on trolleys, and I, at least, was feeling like a champ when we slid up to the U.S. Airways check-in.
Cancelled. Ouch. So we threw a tantrum. Ok, not quite, but we did get a lil' scrappy with a few of those U.S. Airways employees. Again, all we heard, was "impossible." United SOOOO had extra seats available, the lady even offered to sell them to us, but beauracracy won the day again, and U.S. Airways wouldn't transfer our ticket, and would not refund it unless we were already in the U.S. (rain dance... seriously). All they could offer us was the same flight tomorrow and a hotel room for tonight. Obviously, we're pretty upset because we want to see all of you as soon as possible, but honestly, I was mostly upset because once again we were saddled with our three gargantuan, deteriorating boxes. sigh.

Step 11: Mission hotel.

Despite our efforts to make the U.S. airways take our boxes, we had to figure out what to do with them on our own (we did not want to lug them back to consignment). Waiting outside for our hotel shuttle, on which we fully intended to be allowed our boxes, we met two crazy old Spanish ladies who had also been bumped to tomorrow's flight and were entertainingly pissed off. Lucky for us, they were fired up enough that they were actually the ones who picked the inevitable fight with the driver over our boxes. After a rapid Spanish argument that I watched like a tennis match, and a phone call or two, we found ourselves stuffing our boxes vertically into the back of this van... taking up the ENTIRE space. Chyeahhhhh, we're getting good at assertion. Now we are safe and comfy in our fancy four-star hotel. Long story short, Erin and Amie ended up in a two-bed double... and McKayla will be sleeping in a three-bed room, all to herself. Spain.... We even made a bunch of grandparent-from-north-carolina-friends during our free buffet lunch!

So we'll see you tomorrow Hattons and Dunfeys! Assuming, that is, we aren't murdered by our van driver in the morning as we once again attempt to travel with things that are bigger than Europe itself.

New pictures from Mallorca

View our pictures from Mallorca here: http://picasaweb.google.com/111756067304857775012/Mallorca

Wait, when was our last blog post?....Oh yea, that day Erin raised her seat a little

Hello friends and family!
This is Amie reporting from a super classy hotel breakfast buffet in Palma! Here's a recap of our last couple days on the road:

Erin caught us up to our arrival in Cala Millor, where we landed a fantastic, spacious, four-person apartment with kitchen and tv for only 45 euro a night! (cheaper than a lot of hostels when split three ways....). As some of you may know, my little brother Anthony took a trip to Mallorca this summer to rock climb for 5 weeks. In his travels, he met a group he calls the "cave people" who live most of the year in coastal caves near a popular climbing spot. Our plan was to follow Anthony's rather convoluted directions and find them by biking to Porto Cristo, finding the bus stop, taking an 11 euro cab, and hiking in a mile or so with a food offering. (Apparently these cave people are legit people, and the area includes many tourists and other females, which we doubled checked with Anthony before undertaking this endeavor.... safety first). Anyway, Erin had graciously taken notes during my skype-call to anthony, recording the necessary information. Unfortunately, determined to keep the paper as safe as possible, Erin managed to misplace the document among ALL our gear, which we realized that mornig. Unphased, we ventured to Porto Cristo anyway. The weather was spectacular, as it has been this entire week. It was only a 10 km ride, and as we pulled into town, the first thing we discovered was the local "Eroski" supermarket chain. Considering that Anthony took "days" to find the supermarket, we were heartened that perhaps the cave people wouldn't actually be that hard to find either. One piece of information that we could remember, was that the cave people live in caves. Therefore, we saw a sign called "Cuevas del Drach" and we followed it. We ended at an 11 euro tourist trap for elderly couples in loafers and heels. So we gave up. We went to the beach, had some oranges, and rode back north via a coastal route. We stopped for a quick insanity workout and ended up back in our hotel, fridge stocked, around 2 pm. At this point, you guys could probably fill in what happened for the rest of the evening. Dinner was delicious sammies and veggies.

The next day was our LAST DAY OF BIKE TOURING (hopeully). This is an especially awesome day for me, since I feel like I've been huffing car fumes for four straight months. Sangria is the national drink of Spain, meaning we were culturally obligated to drink it here. This morning, we still had about a liter of Sangria in our minifridge. It only cost me about a euro, but in the spirit of European thrift, we decided it could not be wasted. We shared a celebratory toast, classily passing our carboard container around. The rest ended up in our bottles to be enjoyed along the way ;) The ride was a perfect way to end our touring days. Perfect pavement, rolling hills, sunny skies, and a breeze (headwind, ew, but I was in the back as usual, so I can't complain). Our destination today was Cala Santanyi, where Mallorca's famous natural rock arch supposedly lives (seriously, google Santanyi Mallorca Arch and/or Chris Sharma, a person is like an ant on that thing). From there, the plan was to bus to Palma, instead of riding an ugly 60 km, but the buses only ran from Santanyi at 1:15 or 6 pm, meaning we BOLTED to the beach and back, and since the arch was not conveniently jutting from the water right at the sand's edge, we turned around and hauled it back up to town. Another fail, but lucky for us, we live in the 21st century, we have google, and we also caught our bus. Last night we found our hotel like the pros we've become (after carrying our bikes up 20 flights of stairs, won't miss these cumbersome beasts....), we had some crappy dinner out, and retired to our usual hotel-room pastimes.

Which brings us to this beautiful morning. Finally, another breakfast compris...which we've all decided will be one of our favorite trip memories. We're all sitting around, drinking our 32nd hot beverage. Today, and probably the next couple days are going to be travel-filled logistical challenges. Here's a quick game plan, just in case our current ETA of 7:45 (PORTLAND, McKayla would like to remind her parents) on Thursday night goes awry:
Today - survive a seasick 8-hour ferry-ride from Palma to Barcelona
Tuesday - find bike boxes (<--- this is the clutch in our plan), somehow get three boxes and three loaded bikes to the barcelona train station, box up the bikes and half of our gear right there, catch a train to Madrid, figure out what we're doing with our boxes, and find a place to sleep.
Wednesday - buy shoes
Thursday - Get ourselves and our luggage to the airport, FLY HOME!
We may or may not be able to blog again, but just wish us the luck we need in the meantime, and don't worry, Erin's a logistical mastermind and already has about 20 alternate plans in the making.
We love and miss you all SO MUCH!!!!!!

Port de Pollenca to Cala Millor 58km

Friday, November 12th

"yeah, this apartment living is nice.. we should have figured this out earlier" -Amie

We decided to return to our beach vacation stutus. Well we didn't know actually know that was what we were getting ourselves into. The island of Mallorca is a tourist destination, but in November many hotels and shops are closed, leaving the island with an overdone, hokey tourist feel, mixed with a semi-ghosttown-like feel. With that said, all the hostels here are closed and it's difficult to find hotels (because the few that are open are booked). Yesterday we looked on booking.com for a hotel on the east coast of Mallorca so we can visit the famous caves and cliffs. We found another apartment for 3 people with a kitchen for 45 euro a night, this one is super nice! We even have a balcony overlooking a pool and the beach. The mediteranean water is so clear and the temperature isn't too cold, McKayla and I (Erin) just took a walk along the beach (the sand is soft here). The ride to Cala Millor was gorgeous today, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We followed the coast at first and then cruised along backroads with a few hills here and there to keep us entertained. Our plan for tomorrow is to bike to Porto Cristo and explore the caves on foot.