Patient readers!  I am pleased to tell you, one and all, that Lindsay and I have officially landed in Europe and found our way, safe and sound, to our first set of accommodations, the InOut Hostel on the outskirts of Barcelona!

We left at 6:15pm on Tuesday from JFK and landed at Londonś Heathrow airport at 6:25am
local time.  We both dozed a little, probably about 2 hours of sleep a piece. We spent 3 hours struggling to stay awake and alert, watching the flight information boards for our gate to be posted. With 20 minutes left, the gate was finally posted and, of course, it was on the far end of the terminal where we were.  After 2 hours and 30 mins of waiting around, we spent the next 10 run/walking to make our flight.  By ignoring the breakfast service, I was able to sneak in about another hour of sleep, and woke up just in time for our plane to fly over the snow capped Pyrenees mountains and into the sunshine reflected off of the Mediterranean Sea.  It was an amazing view and  I was struck by the beauty of the city by the sea, surrounded by these tall, dark mountain tops.

Lindsay and I struggled a little after getting on the ground.  We managed to get turned around in the airport and accidentally exited into the wrong terminal, which meant we had to beg security (in broken Spanish) to let us back through the security line in order to pick up our luggage from our original terminal.  Luckily for us, he took pity and let us through with a little chuckling at our expense.  Then, once we had our bags, we had to figure out how to navigate the 4 separate subway connections that would take us to our hotel, all based on a letter/number/color system, mostly underground, with sporadic signage.  Needless to say, at this point we had been up for over 24 hours straight and had been travelling for at least 14, and we were getting a bit cranky.  We finally found our way to the proper train station, only to realize that we had to WALK to the top of the picturesque hilltop where our hostel is located.

The hostel is pretty much what we expected.  We have one whole bunk bed to ourselves, which luckily faces the far wall of the room and has a bit of privacy to it.  There are lockers built into the end of the beds, which we have locked our backpacks into.

We wandered down into town for dinner and had an amazing first round of beer and tapas.  I am sure there will be more posts about food to come, but rest assured, this first foray into Spanish food was a success.  We had the most wonderful, creamy, fresh and tasty calamari that I have ever tasted, and these amazing croquettes stuffed with a creamy fish filling, like gourmet fish sticks.  There was a potato dish too, and for 14 Euro, Lindsay and I feasted.

Anyway, we made a deal to stay awake until at least 9pm, in an effort to combat jet lag, and luckily for my poor drooping eye lids, 9pm is only 20 minutes away.  That leaves just enough time to wander through the common room of the hostel and see who else has arrived!

Lindsay and I find we are constantly pinching ourselves and saying in incredulous voices, ¨We are in EUROPE.¨  It hasnt gotten old yet!