Prelude & Day One

Prelude:
The true story, as best as I can remember it, of Stephen and Caitlin Wittkop's travels in Spain. My darling daughter Caitlin is a language major studying Spanish, and needed to fulfill a study abroad requirement. Enter Universidad de Salamanca Cursos Internationales, a full immersion live, breathe, eat, speak the language for 10 weeks course. I had the responsibility and great pleasure to escort my darling daughter to Spain, and ultimately to Salamanca. But this is more than a mere travel log, because this was a journey of personal discovery as well. Purely selfish reasons motivate this blog, as it is my hope to relive all the wonder and emotions over again at some time in the distant future, when senility will make them seem fresh and new.

Day One, March 31 - April 1, 2010
Up really early (like 4:30 am-ish), loaded luggage into the car, and with the prayers and blessings of Caitlin's mother (my lovely bride) we were off on the first leg of the journey. The trip to Atlanta was delightful, cool but not cold, and as the sun came up it revealed a blue sky. A good day to travel. We made it to my brother's office in a timely manner, and after hugs and salutations, the three of us were headed to the airport. I had the wise foresight to bring some oatcakes, which we shared and consumed with hound dog gusto (anyone that wants the oatcake recipe let me know!). Brother Peter wasn't exactly sure where to drop us off, but the guess we made turned out to be exactly where we should be. Checked baggage, got boarding pass, and made our way to the departure gate. I don't remember the wait being long or excruciating, and within a few hours we were at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

The first leg of the trip complete, we were confronted with our first uncertainty. When we checked in at Atlanta, we were issued only boarding passes for the flight to Chicago, we didn't want to leave the secure area and have to go through security again. A friendly TSA lady directed us toward the area where our departure gate would be and assured us that the airline would issue boarding pass at the gate. Well Duh! I guess TSA personnel get used to answering stupid questions from the inexperienced traveler.

We grabbed a quick meal in the food court close to the departure gate and settled in waiting on the plane to Madrid. Caitlin got the window seat and I stood guard in the aisle seat. Long flights are drudgery, but the A600 is a darn nice plane and at least we didn't have to sit in the center seats (4 across). We arrived in Madrid just after 7am local time and I was immediately impressed by the beauty of the Madrid Airport (i-phone picture above). We made our way through customs and found the baggage claim area. It's a shame we did not find both suit cases! After retrieving the large suit case we waited and waited for the smaller one. No small suit case. Caitlin was getting very upset. The small case had all the necessities of life in it, how would she survive? After doing the paperwork for a lost suit case and after a small nervous breakdown, we were on our way towards the exit. As we passed the belt where we retrieved the large suit case, the chute that delivers baggage to the belt was once a again active and spitting out luggage, and there was the beloved small suit case. A tearful reunion in the baggage claim area! We made our way to the main terminal, got a couple bottles of water and booked a shuttle bus to take us to the hotel. The shuttle driver spoke English and was very engaging. When Caitlin asked him which city would be the better for a day trip (Seville or Bilbao), his immediate response was Seville. I commented, "But Bilbao has the Frank Gerry designed Guggenheim", his response was "that's all it's got". Madrid is a city of about 5 million people and arriving at the time of day we did, in the middle of Holy Week, one could have thought it was our own private city. There were hardly any people on the streets, little or no traffic, it was spooky!

We were delivered to our hotel, checked in and got comfy in our room. It was at this point I experienced a sudden wave of dread. I was a stranger in a strange land, didn't speak the language, knew nothing of the customs or society. What would I do if something bad happened? The dread turned to guilt, for I am guilty of complete indifference toward those that come to my country (I am speaking of the wave of Mexicans that seem to have invaded our country over the past few years), they are strangers in my land, don't speak my language, are ignorant of my customs and values, etc. This was my first epiphany of the trip. I must show a gentler hand towards these invaders, these strangers in the land of my birth. Maybe I should volunteer to teach an English class (it could happen!?!) After awhile we made a few sorties out of the hotel room, just wandering around, not knowing where we were or where to go. We found a neighborhood cafe and had a little snack, it was good food and drink, but the experience reinforced my feeling of not belonging.

On the afternoon sortie we found a Starbucks. We had to go in, just to compare it to the Starbucks Caitlin works in at home. I know, why go into a uniquely American business when in Spain? Maybe because it offered comfort, a certain familiarity. If the Spanish could embrace and accept Starbucks, then they could darn well accept my daughter and I and we were a step closer to belonging there. Dinner was at a 24hr restaurant close to the hotel. As the sun was starting to set on our first day in Spain, Caitlin just wanted to retreat to the hotel room and her laptop. She had to Facebook her friends and tell of her adventure her own way. I went for a walk and learned the neighborhood near the hotel a little better. Found a cute clothing store that I new Caitlin would find interesting, found a Starbucks only a block from the hotel. The wave of dread was gone, the new Stephen was getting excited, tomorrow was a new day in my new country. And we were going to take the high speed train to Sevilla!