Unexpected Detour

Ok folks this blog starts stressful and ends well. 
So lets just get straight into it.

Picking up from our last blog we (Mahina and I) were sitting at the Krakow airport waiting to board our flight any minute after a beautiful couple of days in Poland. 

Soon, we worked out that we were not going to board our plane and in fact our plane had not even left London 2.5 hours ago. There were no staff at the terminal and no announcements made, only the TV panels changed to indicate that there was a delay sufficient enough that food vouchers would be provided (no audio announcement of this either), at this point, very late in the evening, the majority of the airport shops were shut and the remaining ones didn't have what I would identify as "food".
Then one staff member appeared and started handing out food vouchers and word of mouth spread that that is what was happening so people started forming ques to get their vouchers.

Mid way through handing out food vouchers they decided that the plane that had not left London was never going to arrive and that they would cancel the flight. 
At this point the air carrier's policy changed - they no longer had to provide food vouchers. So the lady with the vouchers put them away. Only some of the passengers had got the vouchers and they then scurried away to get food. 

By this point our 9 pm boarding time was now 11 pm, and sitting around waiting for anything useful from the airport staff shortly turned into 12-1 am due to lining up and being processed through customs again. We went through customs again as we needed to have our flights rescheduled back out at the customer services area that was manned by two useless people that couldn't say anything useful in any direction. 

Above: You can see on our faces how impressed all the passengers were about the whole situation at well past midnight.. All hungry and thirsty and thoroughly pissed off.

This is where my blood starts to boil and I would like to mention that the air carrier was RYAN AIR and I wish them nothing but bankruptcy and hope that they step on a lego or some other such inconvenience (I Mahina second this statement) 

I can not describe to you the following occurrences except to say I was prepared to go to a Polish jail and was provided the opportunity to do so by 3 big customs officials. 
3 am was when we finally got served. They told us the next available flights to London would not be for 2-3 days (Around the same time Mahina had to be on the plane to Australia) . They were already redirecting people through Germany etc. and even they were all booked up before we got to the service desk. 

I had a hire car parked in parking back in the UK that I was paying for that would continue to cost money and we were going to miss out on our planned trip the Cambridge and Dover.

Note from Mahina: So while all this was going down I completely trusted my friend and left her to fight all the battles. I stood in line with our luggage and she was off! I have known Mercedes for a very very long time, so I knew when it came to things like this with legal authority and a persons rights, there is nobody I would ever trust more than Missy at this moment. So tbh I felt calm, a little distressed but mainly calm (if I was not with Missy though, this would not have been the case).

I was busy documenting everything, looking after peoples bags. Then went to rest my ankle and a group agreed to look after our luggage. I returned only to find one guy (around the same age as us) moving Mercedes luggage so I told him off and he replied back with a smart comment. Around this time Missy returns to find me in a foul mood with headphones on and after she asked me what was wrong and heard what had happened, that was it, she told them off. Few moments later those same guys then buggered off to the Pub in the airport and left there luggage in line for someone else to look after. But by this stage we were near the front of the line, otherwise we would've moved his luggage out. 

Missy had also had not eaten, the airport customer service team or Ryan Air team had not walked around and even offered anybody bottles of water, or anything to drink. So if there is one thing I know, you don't mess with an angry Spaniard that is hungry and on top of that thirsty! We had no bottles of water packed in our bags or food. My poor friend was on the verge of tears due to how badly we were being treated... so I decided to chip in after she was nearly arrested. And like 2 peas in a pod, we were off!  

There was no way I was going to let Mahina miss that plane home, so I had to get creative. 
An idea struck! Madrid! - they had not thought to funnel the redirections through Madrid so there were still flights available to London from Madrid in the timeframe that we needed. 

As you all know I have family there, so that would save us some money on accommodation that Ryan Air was suppose to provide but refused (I hope their toilet paper tears vertically!). Also if I am going to be so inconvenienced i'm going to make a holiday of it! So i will ask to redirect through Madrid with a day to look around and will get the night time flight (which had better take off!).  

This my friends is where this blog gets good again. 
By 4am in the morning we were in our hotel in Krakow very ready to sleep!! 

Our flight to Madrid wasn't until the afternoon that day which served us well as we need to sleep in and relax a bit. We ended up starting up a lobby party with some of the other disgruntled inconvenienced passengers that were waiting for their rerouted flights etc. 

Below: I also took this opportunity to raid the hotels' first Aid kit and wrap Mahina's ankle from all her encounters with old mate gravity.

So we arrived in Madrid. Lets take it from here. 

My wonderful Auntie picked us up from the airport in the evening and took us home. We were hungry and managed to have a late night cook-up before we went to bed for yet another night of much needed sleep. 

Note from Mahina: OMGOSH I AM IN MADRIDDDDDDDD!!!! I still can't believe I got the opportunity to step foot in Spain! Everything happens for a reason, even though I was really devastated I didn't get to see Dover or Cambridge (I had watched many documentaries in preparation for it). From the moment I landed this place felt like home and Missy's aunty felt like my own. I'm so grateful to my friend and her family for looking after me, giving me clothes and even underwear since we had next to nothing on us. 

This is where we can now start to laugh about the whole thing again! 
Because we had not planned to be abroad as long as it was looking like we were going to be. We need to start to wash our clothes in the shower an hope that they would dry by morning. So this is what we did in our Polish hotel but unfortunately not all out clothes were dry so we had to bundle them all in wet. so at who knows what hour of the night I had to ask my Tia (aunty in Spanish) if we could put on a load of washing then we had to stay up long enough to hang it out to dry. for the second night in a row we went to bed hoping that enough items of clothing were going to be dry enough to wear. 

So the joke was that what if the clothes would not be dry enough in time? What would we do tomorrow. 

Well when you put heads together with my Tia we always end up with some funny solutions. 

The Plan B ended up being... We will wear our bed sheet like togas and get on the bus that runs from her front door to the entrance of Primark (a very cheap clothing store) where we would obtain replacement clothes. 

The idea of us two weird travelers that do not look Spanish traversing the middle of Madrid butt naked in our bed sheets and nothing else was the comedic relief that we needed after the trauma inflicted on us by Ryan Air (I hope they start pooping in a public bathroom and then realise too late there's no Toilet Paper).

Note from Mahina: I was laughing at this and thinking to myself ahhh yep they are definitely Mercedes family haha! 

So in order to make the most of the the time that we had in Spain we were up at a reasonably early time and caught the bus into the the center of Madrid. 
The plan was to have breakfast which was to introduce Mahina to the real chocolate and Churros. The problem was as soon as we got off the bus the first thing we spotted was Primark. 

That was it all plans were canceled (my eyes lit up like a fat kid looking at a doughnut)  the Harry Potter Tour I had told Mahina not to buy her souvenirs there as they are too expensive (best advice ever) but that we would get them from Primark. 

Here we were faced with a mega Primark so it was shopping for us. The problem is that we had the rest of the day ahead of us and anything that she bought now we would have to carry all day. 

So she did her best to leave some of the Harry Potter Merchandise in the store for other people and we were finally on our way!



Above: Me keeping occupied while carrying some for her shopping!

Once were were done shopping Mahina needed her coffee fix

Then it was my turn to do what I needed to do... and that was to visit the area of Madrid where it was made known to me by my creative Tia that there is a treasure trove of materials, ribbons, zippers, hooks, clips etc.

I found my favorite ribbon shop and set about getting 1 meter lengths of what ever caught my eye. 

Left: The zone that all the creative shops are in.

Above: Mahina in my ribbon shop... I am not sure what that look on her face says... " damn that's a lot of ribbons!"

By this point in our adventures to say that we were extremely tired would be an understatement, so the following sequence of events may be out of order but here it goes. 

I remember walking to the very center of Marid where they have the statue of the bear eating from the strawberry tree (it is on the coat of arms for Madrid) ... I think we did this on the way to the ribbon shop. Then by this point I think it was rightfully lunch time and having missed out on breakfast we were certainly ready for food. 


So we walked through this over-priced market meant for tourists and rich people to drop their money. But Mahina couldn't take it any more and had to eat something! She bought 1 olive... I don't know what it cost here but I remember thinking I would rather go hungry!

I wanted to get out of the center a bit and away from the touristy places before finding a place to sit down and eat, so as a result I think we also wondered through the 'Plaza de espana' (Plaza of Spain) heading toward the royal palace and Tia's home. 

Above: The illegal street vendors that were displaying in the plaza. When the police come they will grab the strings on the corners of their sheets and run.

Halfway there I think I remember Mahina threatening a strike from exhaustion and hunger so we found a place that was cheap enough but not too touristy so we sat down to do our best at trying all the traditionally Spanish food. 

I personally love the fried "padron" peppers but I had to make sure that she tried as much traditional Spanish food as she could eat so there was tortilla and paella as well. 

Note from Mahina: The fooood oh man. One thing that Missy told me from the moment we landed was get ready for the food because Spanish people do not make bad food. And once again she was correct. The Paella, those fried pepper things, Missy ordered some Spanish ham for me (sorry mum and family, I keep hearing delicious things about it from my work mates so I had to try), the croquettes and everything else. Even just the fact I was drinking Sangria in Madrid was overload for me! I get super excited and grateful at even the smallest of things so just this one meal alone was enough for me to think to myself 'I am so blessed in this life with everything around me.' I still to this day miss this meal I had and the whole vibe of the place. Madrid you have won my heart. 

After this it was a walk to the royal palace to have a look and see if Mahina could get in. Thanks to Mahina's urge to deprive the rest of Primark Madrid of anything Harry Potter (haha woohoo) I made the journey back to my aunties house to drop off the purchases and was going to meet Mahina back at the palace later. 

Back to me: So before I explored the Palace and Cathedral I walked with Missy back to the shops and we decided to have a girls afternoon and get our hair done!  

(Mercedes: oh yeah I forgot about this!)

Missy went a bit lighter with layers and after much convincing I got my hair done as well. I was really scared though because I have very thick, coarse, curly, Polynesian hair. Whenever I go to a salon back home in Australia they constantly talk about how thick my hair is and others don't even know what to do with it all. So I stay away. However Missy says "This is Madrid! Look around you, you fit right in here! They have the same hair as you and trust me they are used to it!" After the others in the Salon all agreed with her I felt at ease and was excited! 

Missy then told me after it that some of them thought I was rude because they were talking to me in Spanish but I was not replying until she had to tell them I was not Spanish. So we got our hair done, with fresh cut, colour and blow out. I was off to walk back to the palace alone and Missy went to drop off my goods to Aunty's home.  

When I arrived though I had missed the time cut-off for entrance and wasn't allowed in. So I just explored, took photos, vlogged and just took in the whole atmosphere. The guy playing some kind of instrument (accordion), the gypsy in the corner outside of the church begging for money, the students, the couples... it was magical to me. 

When I got back to the palace it seems as though there were about to close so I had to wait for Mahina at the exit until they kicked her out/ she reappeared. 

With sleep in in the morning and the days adventures the last thing left to do was head back to Tia's apartment and relax before the rest of the family arrived for a last minute organised catch-up party while we were in town. 

All in all it was a pleasant detour if we don't consider the reasons why we ended up there. 
I can not stress enough how happy it makes me when I read in the news that Ryan Air has lost $20 million and is in financial turmoil. Good! Karma! 

Mahina: Sorry this is a long blog but I just want to quickly chip in again. Before Aunty dropped us off to the airport at 6am in the morning she hunted down a Churros place for me! By 7am I was sitting drinking an espresso (still the best coffee I have ever had) and eating fresh Churros and chocolate (all the weight I had lost in the UK I put back on in one day in Madrid lol). The sun was not yet up, the guys were hot and all speaking Spanish, I was loving it lol. 

Oh and we had dinner with Missy's cousin and two aunties! I felt at home, I tried pipas for the first time, the dinner was so yummy and the atmosphere was warm. These are some of my best memories and what I would have wanted from Spain. 

Thankyou so much to the MalaxEtxebarria family, you have imprinted on my heart and even though it was probably nothing to you, it is a special memory for me. Muchas Gracias. 

Well that is the clinchers that I had left you all hanging for last blog I hope it did not disappoint, but I also would advise never to book with Ryan Air... unless you like this sort of drama!!

Ok well I think that is it for this blog and for Mahina's trip to the good old UK. By the time we got back to the UK it was time to get her on the plane back home, and hope that she didn't have any other flight cancellations. Well if she did, she can fight that battle alone! I'll be buggered if I could do it twice in a lifetime let alone twice in such a short period of time. 

Thanks for reading and I am sorry that it has take so long to publish... the trauma was still too real and even now I am glad to be done with this blog. 

The next series of blogs though are definitely well underway as we are off on a massive adventure to India, Australia and then Thailand. In fact I am writing these finishing touches from India where we are days away from a pretty awesome Punjabi wedding. 

P.S: 
Nah just kidding! There's more! Looking for photos for this blog I saw that at some point in our beyond-tired wanderings around Madrid some things were purposefully blanked from my memory... We somehow ended up herding ourselves across the city to see the Madrid Bull Ring - Another institution that I hope crumbles and falls.... and be damned with culture and sport blah blah blah! Bull fighting needs to go the way of female genital mutilation... HISTORY... 

Here in India where I am finishing this blog, cows are sacred and holy and then to look back and think what the Spanish do is barbaric! The same animal, two different cultures!

Ok now you can go! See you in the next blog and thanks for reading!
From Mahina, Ciao! (I need to learn Spanish..)