I have been dealt a low blow. I've been looking forward to getting some Fanta naranja. It's orange Fanta made with real juice and it's awesome!
Went to the supermarket, and found diet Fanta and 45% less sugar Fanta. The guy there said that was the normal one. It's 45% less sugar because it's got aspartame!
Nooooooo!!!!!!!!
It's been a long day. I made it to Alicante. I knew this was a tourist area, but damn! Walked out of arrivals and there were about 20 people there, at least 15 holding signs. And a man with a black lab. A couple of signs were for tour buses.
Didn't see my name so I followed instructions and walked another 20 feet to the kiosk. A nice British lady was there. She said my plane was early and my driver was on his way.
My driver took my bag and we went off in a big Mercedes van, which isn't quite as big a deal because this is Europe. He was middle-aged and played an excellent 80s mix from his USB stick. It was great!
We drove past Benidorm. He said they have an excellent beach, but the Brits come in for 3 days and 3 nights and party. Said he used to live there but had to move because it never shut down.
He recommended I visit a really cool church in Altea, the town next to Calpe, so I may try that. And said I had a really nice hotel.
Got checked in, then passed out for about 4 hours. Got up with plenty of time to spare. The hotel restaurant opens at 8 pm. It was a buffet and it was okay. Got to make my own ensalada Valenciana!
It is 9:37 am. My flight leaves at 11:15 am. According to the Departures sign, I will have gate info in 33 minutes.
Nowadays, many of us use mobile boarding passes. Quick tip - don't hit the back button just before you try to get on the plane, then hold up the line because you don't remember where you saved it, and then give them the one for your next connection so it doesn't scan.
I did let people go in front of me, but that was not fun.
I am not that fond of the Madrid Airport (sorry Madrid!). When you arrive from outside the EU, you're at the "foreign" terminal. You have to walk, and walk, and walk uphill, and that's just the freaking jetway!
Then there's a loooong hall with a bunch of moving sidewalks, to get to the escalators. There's like 3 long escalators to get to the bottom floor. Then you hit the customs line.
We got here around 7:30 am so it wasn't that bad. Then a walk, and security again. They have turnstile things where you scan your boarding pass, which helps. And I didn't have to take off my shoes.
So, security, where I got swiped for explosives. I'm not sure if it's random or some weird sweat thing. Then it's another long escalator down, to the tram.
The waiting area was packed. I had to wait for the 2nd train to come through. Then it's up all those escalators to get to the main terminal.
From here it splits off, assuming you know which terminal you need. If it's more than about 2 hours until your flight leaves, then it just says HJK, which are the 3 terminals on this side.
I have 3 hours, so I looked for food. I stopped at this pastry/sandwich place and got an egg and bacon croissant. It's not what you think. The bacon was more like ham cut off the bacon bits of the pig. I took it off. The egg was more like a really chunky egg salad/deviled egg. It was pretty good! Frank - I ate eggs and they didn't make me sick.
So now I'm on the backside if the K terminal, which is quieter because the gates are on the other side.
More later.
