My European Journey

The day was finally here!! I had been looking forward to this trip all my life it seemed. I was finally going to Europe! I could now cross this off my bucket list! The months of starving myself saving had finally paid off.

My flight from Montego Bay to Miami was on time, thank God, because I only had an hour and a half to connect from Miami to Portugal. My route was: Montego Bay to Miami to Portugal to Barcelona.

I was nervous and excited! I barely got two hours of sleep the night before. I am very terrified of flying and this would be my first time flying so far. I kept wondering how I was going to survive this long flight. I contemplated taking a sleeping pill, but got scared that something bad would happen on the flight and they would not be able to rouse me. So I scratched that plan and decided to get drunk instead. My paranoia won and I decided against that plan as well. 

I don't know if it was nerves or excitement, but I could not fall asleep on the flight from Miami to Portugal. I took out my Kindle in an attempt to read to pass the time and found out the overhead lights were not working, so I tried to turn on the TV and found out that also was not working. To make matters worse, It seemed everyone else on the flight spoke another language other than English, so I could not even attempt to make conversation with my neighbours. I must have tried to fall asleep a million times, to no avail.

At dinner the flight attendants brought out wine. This made me very happy! Normally when I drink red wine, I get very sleepy, so I decided to have a few glasses... three hours passed and I still could not sleep. It seemed the universe was conspiring against me, but hey, I was on my way to Europe, nothing was going to get me down. 

I checked the time, we still had a loong way to go, so I closed my eyes for what seemed like ten years and  when I checked the time again. Only half hour had passed! Unbelievable!

We finally touched down in Portugal and I felt like a zombie. I was tired and cranky and starving. It seemed like I had eaten dinner days ago, instead of just a couple hours. We had a three over layover in Lisbon, so I decided to get some food. It was about 9am, so they only had breakfast items and I had noo idea what to order because I was unfamiliar with the items on the menu. I ordered coffee to get something warm in my stomach ( I am not a coffee drinker at all) and some sort of sweet pastry because my blood sugar level was down.

Breakfast in Lisbon

After an hour and a half flight, we touched down at Barcelona El Prat airport! I quickly forgot about my hunger and the fact that I had not slept in over ten hours. It was a beautiful and sunny day and I could not wait to start my adventure! 

I giddily skipped to baggage claim to get my luggage. They were still unloading our luggage so we had to wait for about half hour...I watched as everyone collected their luggage and made their way towards the exit...there was no sign of my luggage...I started to panic but continued my search. After another half hour of scanning the carousel, I finally accepted defeat...the airline had lost my luggage...I went over to the helpdesk and explained that I could not find my luggage. They told me it had been left in Portugal and instructed me to complete a form and they would try and deliver it by the end of the day...I had a 6am flight to Italy the next day and I did not pack anything in my carry on...This trip was not off to a good start...

I was on the brink of tears. Only the sight of my boyfriend waiting for me outside prevented me from bursting into tears. For the next few minutes, I was the happiest girl alive...

My next post will give a detailed review of my trip to Italy and I promise you won't have to wait too long for it...