planes, aves and taxis

a more modern update on the "planes, trains and automobiles" my mother and i used to get from zurich to zaragoza. honestly, spain's fast train (ave) from madrid to zaragoza had to have been goin upwards of 200mph. pretty cool. and it was one of the smoothest voyages i have been on in my life. i slept the entire way, well i guess that really doesn't speak to how smooth it is considering i also have no trouble sleepin through take-offs and landings on prop planes to/from peoria. well, we'll use a rico-ism from his last trip there. it was so smooth that it didn't even knock over the bottle of wine sittin on our table. talk about smooth.

anyway, we arrived at our pre-arranged lodging tuesday around 10am, were kindly greeted at the door by espe and luisito (susana and luis' kids), and then promptly set out to view what has changed from this city over the past 15years since we lived there. to be honest, i was there 2 years ago on my last excursion, so not really that much has changed in two years. but it was kath's first time back in 12 years, so she noticed a LOT of stuff had changed.

i guess now would be the appropriate time to mention the most drastic change over the last two years. you sitting down? well, you're reading a blog, so i hope you're not standing. the world famous, plaza espana mcdonalds CLOSED! yea, i know what you're saying. "why is THAT mickey d's world famous?" well here's your answer, cause it was the first place i ever had a big mac. every child should remember this momentous occasion for their entire lifetime. and unfortunately, i can never again go back to that same place and enjoy a juicy double stack with pickles, relish, and special sauce. *big tear* i kinda emotional right now, i don't know if i can continue this writing... wait a second, keep waiting, wait for it... so we went to gino's for lunch and had a pizza. ok, i'm better now.

pretty much this stop was a relaxing "see your friends" stop as we've already been to the 3-4 touristy things in that city (those things happen when you live there for 3 years). but it was good to catch up with susana and luis (and their two aforementioned children), ricardo and teresa (and their children, who are actually my age, paula and bea), marcos (and his gf patri) and a couple of old friends from one of my previous excursions back to aragon. unfortunately, besides marcos and paula, i didn't get to catch up

with any former juan de lanuza classmates or anyone from my apt bldg :(

sorry to be boring now, but this is the last entry in a 5 week project and i'm gettin ready to pack up all my junk for DTW. but first i gotta make a stop-over in london for a quick night. listen to this, so my flight out tuesday morn is really early, so i needed to get into london the day before. but the only reasonably priced flight i could find gets me in at 9pm, not early enough to meet up with any friends there, but just early enough that i can traverse the city (i arrive at gatwick and leave outta heathrow; which is almost a 2 hr ordeal once i wait for trains and whatnot cause they're on opposite ends of the rather large sprawling city) before gettin 4hrs of sleep. well, hey, what else did i have to do on the flight besides sleep. i'll catch up on it then.

well, this is my last entry from abroad as i'll be returning to the states shortly. don't worry, i don't start workin yet so i've packed a lot of stateside traveling into much of the next month. who knows, maybe you're one of the persons i've scheduled to see - if you're lucky.