First stop: Madrid

Hola! Unfortunately that's as far as my Spanish vocabulary goes, which doesntget you very far when you require actual information. I know this because I spent about half an hour asking for directions- let me tell you that no natter how wonderful someone's gesticulations can be, they can stillremain to be so frustratingly confusing.

Myjourney here has not been pleasant. Never mind the long long long plane rides. I'd much rather have to be on a plane than wait for the plane. This opinion is not without foundation- try getting to Frankfurt airport at 5.15 am only to later find out that the 7:45 am flight is delayed until 12:20pm... Which would've also been okay had the flight not been delayed AGAIN for another 2 hours! But I'm not completely ungrateful- in fact I was lucky thy this flight
was not cancelled due to it being snowy and cloudy.

despite all this I was still rendered a little
sppechless by how nice and pretty
Spain is. The picture and preexisting preconception of Spain definetelydonotcoincide. It's
a very alive city. Anyway I
had better be off to bed. Something tells me that when Monica and Anne arrive I won't be getting much sleep at all!

Adios!

Leaving....

... in a little more than 12 hours! Eek!!!

Goodbye Sydney. Hello Europe!!!