This morning Terri woke me up around 8:30 (as requested) and we headed out to the La Boqueria market to pick up some fresh goods. It was really neat…I seemed to me that there were a lot of locals and was less touristy than other places. After wandering through the market a bit, Terri worked up the nerve to start getting some food. I didn’t have enough cash on me (I only had a 50 which seems to be annoying for most vendors, so Terri offered to pay today if the rest of us will pick up stuff later).
After wandering through the market for about a half and hour, we ended up going home with fresh fruit and veggies (lemons, cherries, grapes, tomatoes, and an avocado), fresh bread, olives, cheese, and some fresh cured meat that the guy shaved for us straight off of the shank. He basically grabbed the hoof of this pig and started cutting away.
I eventually bought the one thing I could afford, a fresh-cut fruit box, and Terri got herself a fresh guava juice (which was amazing). Feeling good about our purchases, we then walked back to the apartment.
Jeanene and Stuart were coming in today, so we wanted to do something relaxing and less touristy, so after getting some coffee (where I finally broke my 50), Terri, Rose and I did some shopping in our neighborhood. We went to Top Shop, which is a place I’ve always wanted to go to in London, and a bunch of other small boutiques. Lots of shoe stores. J I bought a glass ring that I’m really happy with. It’s cute! Green with some red swirls. Around 2:00, we started to head back to the apartment to wait for the arrival of our last two friends.
Around 2:30, Jeanene showed up. We were a bit unsure of how this was all going to go, because there was some back and forth on whether Stuart was going to wait for Jeanene at the airport, but since Stuart’s flight was delayed a bit, the timing was a little off. Since Jeanene showed up alone, we figured that they missed each other at the airport and Stuart would eventually figure it out and head to the apartment on his own.
Around 4:30 we started getting nervous. Rose checked her phone and found that Stuart had just called to let us know that he had given up on finding Jeanene (good thing as she was with us) and was going to come to the apartment. I crashed out on the couch and the girls went downstairs and outside to wait for Stuart.
5:30. I wake up and head downstairs. We’re a little confused on where Stuart is since it only takes about 30 minutes to get to where we’re at from the airport. We decide to go to a nearby bar to have a drink and wait.
6:30. Drinks are over and we’re getting a little nervous. Terri and I walk around a bit and do a little window shopping.
7:30. Terri and I head back to the apartment. Still no Stuart. Nerves are high at this point. We try distracting ourselves by looking at our pictures for the day. Rose and Matthew head out to walk around a bit and see if they see Stuart.
8:30. Terri has now started to reach serious freak-out mode. We start talking about the steps we can take to try to find him…American consulate, police, hospitals, etc. We start looking up phone numbers and talking about going back to the airport to see if he’s still there.
9:30. Rose and Matthew are back and we’re actively making lists and determining to call. Around 10, Rose makes a call to the consulate to see if they have any recommendations. The guy on the phone is not a lot of help (nice…totally reasurring) and when she gets off the phone we’re not really sure how to proceed.
10:30. Rose and Matthew decide to go to the closest police station to see if they can help. We figure if anything has happened to him (as it’s been 6 hours since we last heard from him) that they’d have his name in the computer. Jeanene, Terri, and I wait nervously back at the apartment with all of the worst case scenarios going through our heads.
11:00ish…Rose calls. Stuart has FINALLY called her. (side note: this is the thing that made ME the most nervous since we have a way that we can be easily contacted. Since he never called Rose, we thought the worst. If he was lost, we figured he’d call!) Apparently, Stuart wrote our street name down wrong (Pallers instead of Tallers) and lo and behold, there actually IS a Pallers. So he was there, trying to figure out how to find us. After about 3 hours, he realized that he was probably at the wrong address, so he tried calling Rose but had some problems with the local phones. He eventually found a guy to lend him his cell phone and got ahold of his sister.
Oy. I’m so happy he’s ok, but what a mess!! We’ve been in the apartment for (basically) 8 hours waiting for him to show up getting more and more stressed out. It could have been so much worse, so we’re very lucky. And now we’re all finally here!!
Rose, Matthew, Jeanene, and Stuart went out for a few drinks and tapas tonight, but I’m just beat. Terri’s having some acid reflux issues so she stayed in as well. I’m going to bed and hopefully getting at least 7 hours of sleep tonight (it’s 12:40 right now) so I can get caught up and be ready to party it up tomorrow.
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