Corinne CrawfordI managed to eat a soft crepe the next day before having John, the taxi driver, take me to the airport midday to catch my 4pm flight with a long stop over in Madrid. When I entered the airport two hours in advance I almost panicked because I saw the check in line that was as long a line as I have seen. Eyeballing the amount of people in the line, I was thinking that it might be possible that I would miss my flight. I had to check my bag because by the time I had gotten to Paros, I had bought a few additional pieces of clothes and I was finding that stuffing my bag and backpack getting more and more difficult so I had bought a slightly larger suitcase in Paros and abandoned my smaller version. I actually really liked that suitcase so it was hard to let it go but I knew it would make things easier for me to put more things in my suitcase and less in my backpack. I suppose I could have tried to get rid of things rather than buying a bigger suitcase, but I really didn’t think that having less things was going to work for me. It works for some people but it was not going to work for me. So anyway, I had to check my suitcase. I waited in the line for over an hour but I finally made it to the desk, checked my bag and still made it to the gate with about 15 minutes before they started boarding. I arrived in Madrid for my long layover and had a little over 3 hours to wait. The airport was surprisingly busy at that hour and there wasn’t an obvious place to post up to try to do some work and then find a place to grab a bite to eat. My ticket this time did not include the lounge but I kept seeing signs about different VIP lounges so I looked it up and you could get a one time pass to the VIP lounge which included free food and drink, comfy chairs and better Wi-Fi with work stations for under $40.00. I figured by the time I bought some food and drink over the course of 3 hours, I might have spent about that much so I purchased the pass from my phone and spent the next several hours in the lounge eating, drinking and working in a very comfortable environment. For long layovers, I will definitely consider this option again. I finally got on my next flight, a short jump over to Lisbon from Madrid and after landing, I made my way to the baggage claim. I never anticipated that my bag would not be there because of the long layover in Madrid thinking that it was plenty of time for my bags to have made the switch from one plane to the other. But after waiting and watching everyone else grab their bags until there were only a few random bags making the circle, none of which were mine, I made my way to the lost baggage claim area and found it jam packed with people even at this late hour. You basically had to muscle your way in to ask one of the agents that were just milling around. I had an Airtag and I thought it was showing me that my bag was actually in Lisbon so I told the agent this when I was able to grab one and he said to go back to the luggage belt and he would see if someone could meet me there to try to locate it. After waiting there for a bit, I realized no one was coming and looked at my phone again. It had updated and now showed me that my bag was actually still in Madrid. What I was looking at before was actually the location of me and my phone. I felt a little stupid so I went back to the claim area and this time had to take a number to wait for an agent to be available. It actually didn’t take as long as I thought it would and I filed my claim and they told me that my bag should be coming in the next day and they would deliver it to me to my hotel but could not say when. I was glad I had at least my backpack with my electronics but I didn’t have my toiletries or a change of clothes and was hoping that I would indeed see my bags tomorrow. I made my way out to grab a taxi because the buses were no longer running due to the late hour, now after midnight.
To my surprise, the line to get a taxi was enormous. At least they had a system with an organized line but if I had to guess, I would say there was well over 100 people in front of me. It was moving faster than I anticipated but I still waited for at least 30 minutes before it was my turn. I then finally made it to the hotel where the night guard gave me my temporary room key and instructed me to return to the desk prior to noon the next day to properly check in. My room was much nicer than I thought for the price. It was actually more like a studio apartment with a kitchenette and small sofa in addition to the bed and bathroom. However, unlike most Airbnb’s I have been to, it did not come with coffee or anything so I was still going to be on my own for that. I did find out however the next day that they had an “honor” store in the basement where you could get coffee, soda, beer, wine and snacks at any time for a very reasonable price and I took advantage of that on several occasions. You just had to fill out a slip with what you took and put that in a little box and then pay for it when you checked out. I didn’t do much the next day as I was quite tired from getting in so late and I didn’t have my bags. I just went out to find a simple late breakfast and hoped that my bag would arrive soon. I did see from my AirTag that my bag had finally made it to Lisbon and now all I had to do was wait. After a while with no info, I went down to the receptionist and asked if they would call the number on my claim form to inquire now that I saw it was actually in Lisbon. The receptionist informed me that they were not at all optimistic and that they actually thought that they did not do deliveries during the weekends and today was Saturday. Oh no. She called nonetheless and she actually did get in touch with someone who told her that they would indeed deliver today but they still were not sure when. It turned out it took an additional 5 hours but I watched the progress from the AirTag and as soon as I got my bag, I took a shower and went out to find some dinner.
