My journey started in Indianapolis Airport. There Ashley and I boarded our plane and departed for our trip to JFK in New York City. We had a brief layover in Detroit. Nothing about the trip had been hard; both of our respective parents had found out that our airline could forward our luggage to Iberia Airlines. This eliminated our need to lug baggage everywhere. The first real issue we had was finding the right terminal in JFK and everyone that had already arrived. Well we found them fairly easily, but that is where the troubles begin.
Iberia cancelled our flight. So we had to find a different way to get to Barcelona. Plus we all had to find our luggage, which some of us did not. Iberia found us a flight with TWA, but they were on a different side of the terminal. So we had to ride a bus around JFK, buses are the easiest way to get around the terminal, to get to the TWA terminal. When we got there, TWA would not let us get in line to board their plane. So we had to go back to Iberia. Once there we picked up a Iberia representative and headed back to TWA. The bus took a very long time to come, and the flight was scheduled to leave in less than thirty minutes. We finally got over to TWA and the Iberia person straightened the miscommunication out, but we had only minutes to board the plane. So we checked our luggage and recieved tickets as quickly as possible and then departed for the entryway onto the plane. Professor Shannon thought some might be left behind. Luckily none of us were. Later we find out that TWA files for bankruptcy shortly after we land.
We all made it to the plane, but the plane stayed on the runway for a long time. TWA needed to get more meals for people. We were also told by TWA not to expect our luggage to come with us. Panic, the terror of the traveller-lost luggage.
The other problem with TWA flight was the fact that it was not going directly to Barcelona. It was going to Lisbon, Portugal. So we were still as far from Barcelona as possible while still being in the Iberian Penisula. The good news was that Iberia had flights that we could catch to go from Lisbon to Madrid to Barcelona. We had to run from getting off of the plane to getting on the plane in Lisbon, plus we were running on the tarmack. We made the flight in Lisbon without much trouble, but the terminal run in Madrid was a little more exciting. We first ran to the boarding area for the flight, but were told we needed to go to the ticket area. The ticket area sent us back to boarding area, through customs, hence why my passport has a handy-dandy stamp from Lisboa! We make it back to the plane barely. This is also when we realize it is the same plane that we got off to begin with!
After much struggle with airlines we get to Barcelona, to find out that some of us got our bags to Barcelona and some of us did not. We also found Professor Whitehead waiting for us. Luckily though since she expected us a earlier. Professor Shannon had phoned the hotel to tell her that we had a change in flight plans, but the hotel neglected to tell Professor Whitehead until she thought it was odd that we had not showed up yet.
We had a brief bus tour of Barcelona while on our way to the hotel, but we were given the night to recover from our travels. We woke up the next day to tour the Gothic Quarter and visit the outside of the Sagrada Familia. We also went Mount Juic. From there we could see the entirity of Barcelona's harbor as well as the layer of smog that covered the city. By and far Barcelona was the most beautiful of the Spanish cities that we visited. Everyone in the group agreed and wished that we had not lost a day in the city to trouble with airplanes. When we returned from the day trip, I found my suitcase in my room. So I only went a couple hours without my luggage; others were not so lucky. As an evening trip with the other guys on the trip, we went to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and saw a lot of his work from the blue period and sooner. The night was a different story, we had a late night in an Irish Pub that was near our hotel. We met quite interesting people and learned some interesting things about each other.
The next day we had to get up early for our departure for Madrid. We were going by normal train. It took us most of the day to travel the distance between Barcelona and Madrid.