Going Back Home

That Feeling
You know that feeling you get when you have been away from home for a while and even though you have been on vacation and having fun, you miss home and look forward to going back there? We have been away from our home for 39 days and while that is not a long time when compared to what our soldiers spend away from home, and no one is shooting at us, it seems like a long time to us. We have become accustomed to being away from home and from loved ones, we still miss it and them but in our situation, we have grown a new home away from home here in Sevilla. We got that feeling this weekend, that "I can't wait to get back home" feeling...but it wasn't for our home in the US...it was for home here in Sevilla.

Getting Started on the Trip
Karen and I left on Thursday about midday with five other UNF students, first walking about eight blocks to the bus station, then finding out the bus doesn't leave from the bus station but from a block away. We walked to the bus stop and found the bus going to the aeropuerto already loading so we all hopped aboard. Saber was first in line among our group so paid the driver for seven tickets for 2.30€ each to expedite our boarding. It is so nice to be among a group where everyone thinks of the others and helps each other.

I had rented a seven passenger van online from Pepecar.com for our ride to the Extermadura region of Spain, about three hours north of Sevilla and our destination for the long weekend. The bus ride took about 30 minutes and dropped us at the arrivals terminal where we thought we would have to call for a ride to the rental car lot. All of the major companies like Hertz, National, Avis, Alamo, etc. had booths in the terminal but Pepe is located off site in the Outback. While Justin and Kryzol went to the info booth to ask how to call Pepe, I saw a guy holding a sign that said "Niza Car". Remembering only vaguely that our car was rented from Pepecar, a broker, and Niza was the actual company I walked up and asked the guy in my best Spanish "Pepe car?". He responded in his native tongue "Si!" and asked for my name. He couldn't find it on his clipboard until I showed it to him on the contract.

We seven boarded the shuttle van and in about five minutes were at the Niza Car office. When the guy behind the desk was completing the contract he saw the address on my driver's license and said in his best English, something that finally, after being repeated several times, sounded like "Jacksonville". He is from Rota, Spain where there is a US Navy base and his brother is married to an American he met at Rota who is now stationed at NAS Jax. The Niza clerk is going to Jax in September to visit. Small world.

This may be the reason why, without asking, we were upgraded from a seven-passenger (really five adults and two children) Opel van to a nine-passenger (really seven adults) Mercedes van. Same price though the Mercedes was listed on the web site for twice the price. Found out something about cars in Spain, they are all diesel. The fuel stations sell only diesesl. Not sure yet but I think they have found out diesel is more economically and ecologically friendly. Even though it was a Mercedes it was a rental so it was a beast. Cloth seats, six-speed stick shift, no hubcaps and a side door that required slamming multiple times to close (Karen became the one who could best coax it) and still had considerable wind noise on the highway. Here it is.

The trip up was uneventful and we arrived at our reserved hotel, a 16th Century convent converted to a hotel, the Paradores Trujillo. The youngsters went off in search of a hostal.




Every time I catch myself wishing I were young again...I remember the poor part and it goes away.
Our room was superb and very comfortable with Internet and a view out of the small window that looked like a 15th Century painting.


More about the trip later tomorrow. It's after midnight here.

Since we were so happy to be back "home" in Sevilla, we know it will really be great to get back HOME!