what a week. (pt 1)

So much has happened. This is gonna be a long post, so I will form it in bulletts so that you can pick the parts that most interest you to read. It will be like a choose-your-own-adventure novel, except I had to do all the things before you picked and chose.

1. SAFARI: So we went on this 2 hour drive into South Africa which had some amazing vistas of snowcapped mountains and genuine African terrain. I think one of my favorite parts of tour is the constantly changing landscapes. Earth is pretty sweet (as if we didn't already realize that from BBC's PLANET EARTH! Or being from Milwaukee...most impressive landscape of ALL). We approached our destination via a 30-min ride on a dirt road literally in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, if "The Middle of Nowhere" were to be an actual place, it would be that road we drove down. I contemplated stuffing my valuables in my socks in case it was really a tourist trap and we were being left in the desert to starve. But it turns out that the Safari/Resort place we wound up was surprisingly nice! We each shared little cabins and got meals and then went out in a truck that evening and the following morning to gaze at the aminals. Here are some reactions:
- Contrary to popular belief, Africa is really cold. I don't know why those Sally Strothers commercials always show the children half-naked, because in actuality African nights are comparable to Wisconsin winters. Well, nothing is comparable to WI winters. Anywho...it was freezing and we all looked like marshmallows layering all our sweatshirts on top of each other.
- While exploring our resort, we came upon a fenced in area...where 2 cheetahs were just chillin. Apparently they had been fully domesticated and were kept like cats. Giant, fangy cats. Pretty sweet!
- On safari we saw: Springbuck, Wildabeast (you killed Mufassa!), Water Buffalo (glad my 4th grade campaign to save the endangered water buffalo was such a success!), lions, cheetahs, rhinos, zebras, many other deer-like things, giraffes. It turns out it wasn't a safari but was a "game park" meaning the animals were actually contained in enormous fences which did take out the excitement and surprise of safari. But it was cool to see the animals and now I have an excuse to go back to Africa and go on a real safari.

2. THE FLIGHT FROM HELL.
We've all had bad travel experiences. But I think I win. Learn from our mistake, if you ever want to fly to Spain, DO NOT TAKE IBERIA. Take British Airways. Or drive. I know there is an ocean in the way but TRUST ME, figuring out how to cross that is a modest feat compared to figuring out how to make sense of Iberia employees. So after a 2 hour flight from Cape Town to Jo'berg, our flight was supposed to take off at 9:30 for Madrid (yay red-eye. on a flight with no entertainment or legroom. off to a good start, Iberia). We sit on the plane until about midnight getting various updates from the pilot, at which point we are informed that the engine is damaged without repair and we all have to deplane b/c the flight is cancelled. Oy. So all 400-ish of us rush back through customs (i may be one of the only people to be stamped out of a country and back in in the same day) and get our bags. Which take almost an hour to appear. Iberia claims they will put us up in a hotel, but navigating that is (again) more complicated than driving across the Atlantic. Steve was the FIRST person at the counter and it still took them well over an hour to get us a single voucher for all twelve of us.
ANYWHO...all 80ish of us out-of-towners arrive at our hotel finally around 3am. Luckily they do pay for meals and the room is fine, but in the process our group lost 2 bags (how do you lose a bag when you havent even flown anywhere!?), a connecting flight to Italy, and a good deal of sanity.
Sorry, there is still more. The next day a bus leaves the hotel at 4pm for the airport. The plan is that we are supposed to all get onto the NEXT day's Iberia flight to Madrid, but obviously when we get there they realize that they don't have space for 2 flights on 1 plane. I can't even go into the details of Iberia's repeated stupidity, but the moral is that we waited in line for over 4 hours to get checked in, realizing that no one at Iberia had even been alerted that we would be coming. Our flight wizard (I wrote "travel agent" first but remembered that she hates being called that) back in the states says that our flight was coded as having taken off successfully, so it's a disaster trying to accommodate everyone. PLUS trying to make our connection to Pisa work takes Dan almost the entire afternoon. Because even though we now were only going to be in Italy for a single night (less than 24 hours) and all of us wanted to just fly to Munich and spent an extra day there, our hosts in Italy DEMAND that we instead find a way to make it there. People love the Kroks so much it is maddening and confusing!
It was fun, though, while we were in line this little boy started talking to me in Spanish and I was really excited how well I could keep up with him. I havent really spoken since freshman fall (and that was Spanish 30, where you really do nothing) but it felt so good to be semi-fluent in a language. I'm so jealous of Linds and co. and how good their spanish must be now. Sad that I was useful for only a few hours before we wound up in Pisa and then Munich...where I offer no skills. Also, when I finally get to the check-in desk, all these spanish families decide that they are done waiting and just step to the counter and hand them their passports, rightfully angering the other spanish families. I literally wind up in the middle of this brawl where 4 different men are screaming at each other ("QUE COJONES!" is a key catchphrase). Spanish men get quite heated. It's a frightening sight for my polite, midwestern self.

i still havent brought my faithful readers up to present time but i need to do something else for a bit. sorry for the lag in posting, we've been without internet for awhile. also, the kroks "discovered" my blog and have continually mentioned it awkwardly, making me consider discontinuing it. apparently conveying my feelings and experiences to my friends and family back home is not an acceptable activity. but then again, i don't really care. so i blog on. i shouldnt have to police myself and my thoughts, especially for my 11 best friends. the whole reason i wrote this in blog form as opposed to email is that i didn't want to have to chose who were they people i was staying in touch with this summer, so i will continue. i guess if my thoughts on tour are so interesting that people who are already on it want to read about it too, they can be my guest.

coming home in 2 weeks and 3 days!
visiting NYC in 4 weeks and 6 days (it's official, i got my ticket yesterday. and for $105, mind you).
~Barry