Here's a recount.
Part 1 (Day 1 of 6): My last exam had finally ended. As I get back to my dorm room I see my mom waiting in the car to take me home because we have a flight the next day. I get home and spend the night packing up all of my stuff for our week long trip to the Spanish-Mediterranean Coast. The next day my grandparents and their one friend who is traveling with us arrive and we all go to the airport. Everyone in our party are on the same flight to Paris, but our family friend's flight to Spain arrives four hours after ours. Also, no one in the party has an international phone therefore there would be no way of contacting her when she finally got to Spain. So we decided that once my family got to Spain, we would go pick up the rental car, find somewhere to eat, and go back to the airport to pick her up when her flight was scheduled to arrive. However, she also made it clear that if she didn't see us, she would just take a cab to the hotel.
When we get to the airport, my grandmother and I go to the baggage claim at which she is supposed to be. She's not there, but I figure that she probably just decided to catch a cab. So my family and I take the 45 minute journey to our hotel and when we arrive she isn't there. That was kind of odd because if she took a taxi she would have been ahead of us getting to the hotel. But we didn't worry too much. Maybe she had hit traffic or it took her longer to get her bag and get through customs than we thought. So we waited in the hotel for her to arrive. Hours and hours pass and she still hasn't arrived. Everyone starts to get a little worried, but I figure that she probably just missed her connecting flight in Paris. I was right. She arrived at about midnight local time and my mom drove all the way back to the airport to pick her up and back.
Part 2 (Day 2 of 6): When the family friend missed her connection in Paris, her bag was lost. Therefore, when she arrived in Spain she could not pick it up. However it was so late when she got in that she couldn't report the missing bag. So, we talked to the hotel and they called the airport to see if the bag was there and if the bag had arrived to send it to the hotel. At about 3 we decided that we should find a restaurant on the beach and have some good Spanish food. As we are exploring, we come across a little fort/armory, so we stop and get out to take pictures. My grandmother and her friend decided not to take their purses with them, after all we would be right near the car. As we are walking back to the car I notice that the glass of the backseat window is broken so I run up to the car to see that their purses had been stolen. In their purses were their passports, jewelry, money, and all of their credit cards.
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| window broken |
Part 3 (Day 2 of 6 cont.): One of the locals calls the local police and we file a report with them. They tell us that we need to file a report with the national police. So, we go back to the hotel and the manager who has handled these types of problems before has my mom file the report with the police, while I am on the phone with all of the credit card companies and banks. The rest of the day is spent talking to dozens of people and getting everything shut off.
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| Spanish national police |
Part 4 (Day 3 of 6): We are told that we need to go to the US Consulate in Fuengirola, Spain in order to get new passports issued for the return home. The Consulate is only open from 10 am to 2 pm. By the time we finally found it, it was 1:45. So my grandparents and the family friend got out to find it while me and my mom stayed in the car to find a parking space. Everyone besides me and my mom are really bad with the language barrier and 95% of the time have no idea what the hell is going on.Therefore it was clearly a mistake for us not to go with them to the Consulate. Not only, were they rude to the people who worked at there, but they didn't understand half of what they were saying (they were all speaking English), they showed up at the time of closing, and the workers were also frustrated because they wanted to go home. This was a hot mess. When they returned back to the car, they told us that it took every cent of the remaining euros to purchase the replacement passports. Also, the Consulate in Fuengirola couldn't make the passports there, they had to send them 6 hours to Madrid, where they would be made, and then send them back to us by Thursday.
Part 5 (Day 3 cont): After leaving Fuengirola, we decided that it was necessary to go to the airport to find out what was happening with our family friend's bag and get a new rental car without a busted window. While my mom traded in the car, I went with my grandmother and the family friend to the airline desk to ask about the bag. It turns out that the bag was still in Paris. So we had to file another report telling the airline to send the bag to the hotel when it finally arrived.
Part 6 (Day 4 of 6): We had to go back to Fuengirola to get our family friend emergency cast. We serached all over the city for the one Western Union and when we finally found it, they needed her passport in order to give her the money. Afterwards, we spent the day in Old Malaga. Malaga was beautiful. In the city is the Picasso museum located in the villa that Picasso grew up in. That was amazing, it was so beautiful and the art was really cool. Also in Malaga was an alcazaba (Fort from built in the Middle Ages), a castle, and a GORGEOUS gothic cathedral.
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| The Cathedral in Malaga |
Part 7 (Day 5 of 6): Finally the vacation begins. At this point I was so frustrated that the vacation that I had been looking forward to for over a year had been completely ruined, I needed a break. So we all decided that we would go to Granada, a historic city in the heart of Andalucia, known for one of the most beautiful and unique palaces in the entire world (the Alhambra Palace). This was probably the only day that I truly enjoyed. The historic part was about the size of a small city and it had building from all different eras ranging from the 9th century to the Renaissance period. It was clearly too much for my grandparents who sat about 3/4 of the way through and waited for me and my mom who were determined to make the most of the one day of vacation that we had earned.
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| La Alhambra Palace |
Part 8 (Day 6 of 6): This was the day on which the passports were supposed to arrive. We decided that we would once again spend the day in the hotel and wait for them. At 2 we got worried because this was the time the Consulate closed. So we called and they ensured us that they were on their way. At 4, they still hadn't arrived so we called the Embassy in Madrid who confirmed that the passports had been printed and sent via courier to Marbella. At 6 the passports still hadn't arrived so we called the courier. They said that they had been received and the delivery guy was still out so they should be coming soon. At 8 they still hadn't arrived so we called the courier back. They said that they weren't able contact the guy that had them and they didn't know where he was. It was clear that the passports weren't coming. So my mom made arrangements with the airline to send me and my grandfather back on the original flights and she, my grandmother, and the family friend would return on the next plane out once they got the passports.
Talk about the trip from HELL. Spain itself was extremely nice and beautiful, but the events of the trip completely ruined it. Let's just say I am glad to be home.
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