The Final Countdown

Europe "The Final Countdown"
The Final Countdown doo doo do doo doo doot doo do!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyggY_R3jU8

Cue up the cheesy synth pop 80's classic and crank it up to ten. Ladies and gentlemen, the day has finally arrived.  In six days Buddy and I head to the airport and hop on a flight to Madrid. 

"The Warrior" by Scandal (with Patty Smyth on vocals)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT9t5nkZn8I

Yet another 80's classic and a perfect description of what I'm going to feel like when I arrive on Friday morning.  As it turns out, Continental airlines will not fly pets on weekends because of concerns over customs.  This becomes a real problem when your plane tickets are booked for Friday with an arrival of Saturday.  Oops.  Guess we should've booked the flight for the dog before ours.  So $150 later, I'm on flight the day before my family.  I'll arrive, by myself, in Madrid the day before my translator (i.e. wife).

"Mad World" Tear for Fears (although I prefer the Gary Jules version check it out here.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYY-a0_Bb9Y&feature=fvst

The situation when I arrive will resemble a script for an improvisational comedy.  Take small town American to large European capital.  Give him tasks: 

1)Get through customs
2) rent car
3) travel to cargo facility
4) pick up pooch
5) drive to apartment he's never been to.

"Small Town"  John "Don't forget the Cougar" Mellancamp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CVLVaBECuc

 Film American as he bumbles through tasks and stumbles over Spanish language.

 Hilarity ensues.

Even once all of these things are done (provided I'm not curled up in a fetal position in a dark corner Madrid's Barajas Airport) I'm headed to an apartment with no food, either human or dog, and only the basic necessities.  No one ever said this was going to be easy.  After Kelly arrives, things will continue their hectic march.  We need to get all of the essentials for a house, furniture, food, etc. We also have to deal with two jet-lagged kids set to start their new school on Monday.

When it's all said and done, I'll survive Friday and the days, weeks and months after that.  I'm sure this blog will be better for all the stories and that's the point, isn't it?  Travel shouldn't be something that is always comfortable.  Travel is about putting yourself in new situations and growing.  It's about seeing and doing and being exposed to new and different ways of doing things.  It's about being open minded and accepting that other cultures may be better at something than Americans are.  While we live in a great country, that doesn't mean that everything we do is better. If that's the case, then why do so many of our great ideas originate in other places?

 If travel was only about floating hotels (cruise ships) and all-inclusive luxury resorts with ten-foot razor wire fences, then I'm not interested.  Travel is about picking a location and exploring.  It's walking into a pub at three in the afternoon or buying something handmade from a street seller.  When in Rome do as the Romans do, don't go to Burger King.

So on Friday my adventure begins.  I'm sure it will be anything but boring.

(As a sidenote, I don't really feel any special connection to 80's music.  Coming of age in the early 90's I find it more nostalgic than anything.  I reminds me of middle school dances, the Lighthouse in Tuscarawas County, and listening to the Hot Eight at Eight on Canton radio.)