Woke up earlier than I usually would in BA, that time differential when travelling east takes a little bit of getting use to. With that said, I hit bet at approximately 9pm the night before and appart from bits and pieces of ceiling staring and the incessant opening and closing of gates by ´pissed idiots´....(of which I would have loved to have been one)... I slept through until 5am, which was alright. Had myself a bit of a light breakfast and then spent the next hour or so walking up from San Telmo to the obelisk, just wanted to grab a few photos in the morning light. Not such an eventful morning but I achieved my goal of taking the iconic shot of Buenos Aires, and then made it back to the hostel for the kick-off of the final round game in group F, Brazil v Portugal. This was equally as uninspiring as my morning walk and ended up fizzing out to a nil my all draw, which is a result I think satisfied both teams considering the positions in the group. In any case, once 12 noon came around a devotee of Ricardo met me at the front door and whisked me away to Ezeiza airport into order to catch the 15:00 flight to Barcelona.
Now, I´ve flown Aerolineas a grand total of one time before my BA to Barca flight. Several times from both the captain and crew we the lucky paying patrons had it subconsciously drilled into our heads that they pride themselves on punctuality and service. Thus far, Aerolineas had been delayed for one reason or another on several occasions, so too, the flight to Barcelona ended up being delayed approximately an hour. Not really so bad (for them), and even better that Aerolineas decided to personally make it up to me by deciding to upgrade me to business class for the journey, oh yeah, I wasn't going to complain with that! The only issue, they said, was that the seat I was allocated didn't recline, "no problems I added, it'll be fine with me"...famous last words! If you're going to make any sort of decision then really, you should know what you're getting yourself into. Learn the facts, understanding the ruling and apply the law to the facts, that´s what I should know, that´s not what I practice however. Once I was seated in 6B, at the pointy end of the plane, I quickly realised exactly where my error of judgment was, and it definitely wasn't with the company that I had in 6A, because she was one very cute Argentinian, if perhaps a little below my 'age class'...can't believe that I have
age classes now, (although she would have been a few years too old for Jet!!). In any case, taking my seat I realised right at the moment that I sat down that if this baby wasn't going to recline then I'd more than likely be staying awake for the next 12hrs to Barcelona. My assessment of impending insomnia was of course warranted.
As Aerolineas made it's away out over the Rio Mar de la Plata and into the clouds above Uruguay, nearly all the punters into business class had their seats set into the recline position, except for Miss 6A and yours truly in 6B. The seating was dreadful and I knew that unless I came up with some type of novel stroke of genious that I'd be looking out over into the blackness of both the South and North Atlantic in the hours to come.....and so you guessed it, that's what I did. To get an idea of what´s that like, sit bolt upright in your backyard for eight hours in the middle of the night, fun and games that the whole family can play!
With the sun splitting through the tiny gaps of the window shutters, come early morning my eyes were red, my head was hazy and I was ready to pay anything to anyone to get me into a bed, unfortunately it would only involve sleep at this point, I couldn´t guarantee any more than that. By the time we were on the approach glide path into Barcelona I was dreading the additional flight to Madrrid and the additional hassle that I was going to have to put myself through in order to get there. 'Surprisingly' the 'ethereal eternal smart ass being' decided to mess with baggage control and we were required to wait nearly two hours until our bags appeared on the magic carousel of fortune, which in turn prompted a mad rush to make the Vueling flight to Madrid. The additional time that I budgets between Aerolineas being inevitably late and the departure time for the flight to Madrid was wittled away by staring at a carousel for two hours with the words ´Aerolineas flight AR 1160 - arrived´ displayed handsomely above it. Oh yeah, we had arrived, the plane could have already split and been touching down in Berlin by the time our baggage had made its way around the chook lotto wheel.
Picking up my bags and moving as quickly as possible through customs, I was out and back into another line, lining up for the Madrid shuttle. In no time I was back up at 35,000 feet leaping Catalunyan puddles to Madrid. Now all I needed was a coffee and a lay down - I know, weird, but it works for me, throw your petty little judgments and assessments of my style somewhere else....
