New York-Düsseldorf-Madrid

New York-Düsseldorf: 6.5 hours
Düsseldorf-Madrid: 3.5 hours
My rear end: very tired of sitting

Funny thing happened at the Düsseldorf airport. I was aware of the no liquid rule flying out of New York but I guess after filling up my Sigg bottle so many times on the plane (the flight attendants got a little tired of me) I forgot that the rule was also enforced in the E.U. So I am transferring in the Düsseldorf airport and frantically trying to make my next flight (the airlines gave me exactly a half hour layover), and the security checker asks to open my bag and pulls out my huge Sigg bottle. She tells me I either have to drink it all or she throws it away. So I stand there and chug half a bottle of water like my life depends on it. This gets the attention of ALL the security guards as they are half laughing at me, half impressed I can drink that fast. I hear some comments in German and pick up one word: vodka. I translated what they were saying to mean either "Wow, I'd like to see her chug vodka" or "Wow, if only that were vodka in there".

I made my flight and all was well. Then I had another adventure upon arriving in Madrid. I am leaving the metro station to find my hostel and am dragging my HUGE rolling suitcase up the stairs out of the metro, step by step. All of the sudden it catches on something and goes sliding back down the stairs with a huge "whoosh". Fortunately no one was there to get knocked down but a man helped me carry it up and gave me some words of advice "Next time take the elevator".

Above picture: Drinking tinto de verano with the Polish guy (forgot his name), Erin from Australia, Andy and Andy (both from Austria).