Day 1 Summary

Day 1 is somewhat hard to define since we played hopscotch with timezones on our way to Italy. Therefore, I'll use the slept-in-a-bed methodology. Under that system, day one is from when we woke up in Seattle until when we went to sleep in Sorrento about 30 hours later. Here goes...

Our plan for getting halfway around the world included flights to New York, then Madrid, then Naples. The New York flight was uneventful, though flying American Airlines was a trip back in time. Sound system was broken, TVs were black and white, armrest ashtrays existed but were taped shut, etc. No seat back entertainment systems here. All in all, though, it was an easy flight.

In New York, however, we got to see the chaos in motion technique of Iberian Airlines, which seemed to be the status quo of Spanish travel. When we arrived at the gate, it appeared that all the passengers were lined up nicely to board the plane. The flight was listed as on time even while we stood patiently past the estimated time of departure. When it came time to actually board, the airline reps started calling out row numbers, but nobody could hear them 50 yards away at the back of the line. The result: everyone crowding forward into a huge mass trying to find a friend that spoke Spanish to let them know if they could board. We managed our way through the mess and onto the plane when we overheard someone else say numbers that matched our tickets. Once on the plane, all was nice and calm... Until Madrid.

As I said before, Spanish travel is chaos in motion. At customs, there were nice orderly lines to see the next agent. But there were also open gates that were to the side of the orderly roped off lines. The result: people skipping the line, people jumping in and out line, etc. At security, a similar story, but a little bit faster and a little worse. We stood in line, figured out the odd bin system, and got ready for the scanning/pat down process. Unfortunately, the security officers decided to take a break and closed a door in our faces and told us to find another line. We started over, but eventually made it through.

Once done with security, we discovered that our plane hadn't been assigned a gate and had to do some research to find the plane. Once that was done, we grabbed some snacks and mentally prepared to repeat the line craziness of before. It didn't disappoint. After the short hop to Naples, we found our shuttle bus right outside the arrivals door and got right on for a mere 10 euro and got to Sorrento an hour later. After a short stop for pizza and wine, we made to our hotel. We stopped back into town for some grocery shopping, and finished off the evening by having dinner at the hotel overlooking the bay of Naples. All in all, a successful end to a very long day.