Things are looking up! Still no call from the internet folks but a bunch other other things are landing in our laps.
After only one way communication, where I badger, cajole, beg and plead American Airlines to help locate my lost bag, then get them to tell me when I might ever see it again, I got a note from ‘Central Baggage’ late last night. Essentially, it said ‘stop badgering us and ask Air Nostrum aka Iberia, where your bag is, even though we lost it in Miami in the middle of two legs of your journey on American to Madrid.’
I shook my head reading this. Starting to resign myself to never seeing my Crate and Barrel dishes again. Or my Louis Vuitton folio and vitamins. Jeff looked up how we should contact Iberia and it seemed we needed to go to the airport to speak to someone.
This morning we made the trek out to the terminal, after being assisted by a nice subway guy who gave us a lesson in subway zones, etc. We went up to the lost baggage window and told our story. Jeff felt I gave her too much info. But I didn’t want her to send us back to the very unhelpful American Airlines.
She, of course wanted our passports. Just like they did at IKEA to buy stuff, at Vodafone to get a SIM card, and pretty much every where except to purchase my morning coffee. I was shocked I needed an NIE # to buy a bed, but I digress.
Tap, tap, tap. Click, click, click. Head shake, mutter under breath. Then:
‘No. You will have to go back to American Airlines. To check on your bag.’
‘No’ I told her. ‘I’ve been trying to deal with them for 5 days. I’m finished with American Airlines. It’s why we live in Spain.’
She held up a finger.
‘Uno momento’ and she got up and opened a cabinet, got a key and left. We looked at each other. Not sure what was happening, but we waited.
5 minutes later, she came back with our bag. It had stickers all over it that said RUSH in bold letters. Apparently my badgering 20 people at AA over the weekend actually worked. We signed for it and took it home.
The bag was destroyed. Handles broken off. But only 3 dishes where broken. Amazing. And the rest of my stuff was still in there.
I felt like singing but we needed to do laundry and we don’t have a washer yet. So we gathered up our stuff, packed it in our trolley like everyone else here, and nearly skipping down the sidewalk, found a ‘lavanderia’.
I left Jeff there and ran across the street to purchase some soap from the Mercadona. So many choices. I chose one and got in line to purchase it. By chance I asked the lady behind me if it was good for color clothes. She grimaced. ‘No, Blanco.’ And pointed for me to go back and get another option. In that store, laundry soap for colored clothes, and those for white clothes are in two different sections.
I got some help and paid. Jeff had wondered if I’d left him for someone else, I’d been gone so long. We filled machines and then I went to dig out the coins from my beat up passport wallet. This thing has carried all the foreign currency I’ve ever used around the world.
Digging out the coins I felt something at the bottom and pulled it out. €350 were stuffed at the bottom from some trip or another. I held it out to Jeff. We both looked at it like we won the lottery.
Lady Luck is smiling on us today! Tomorrow we need to go out to ‘Shopping City’ again for some more essentials (see lavanderia) and we will spend our windfall making our lives easier. And tonight our dinner will be eaten on our dishes from home. Doesn’t get any better than that!
Viva Espana 