Europe with Rachel: Day One, in which chaos ensues.

We are off! After a lovely ride to the ferry from Sheila we are waiting for the 10 ferry to Vancouver. Last time we were both here was on the way to a concert in Vancouver- it’s funny how knowing we’re going far this time makes it so much more exciting!

We’ve just purchased a Yerba Mate for a whopping $5.50 from a vending machine. Worth it though for the bit of  sustenance in my body. And the caffeine.

I am excited :))) and nervous.

The minute we go travelling we turn into social media influencers- I start my blog again,
take tons of photos, and update friends and family constantly via text. Rachel is going to try a
travel vlog to document further, inspired by my mom’s recent vlogs from her and Nana’s trip
to Scotland. They are also taking one second of video a day to cut all together at the end- first
one is me toasting with the Yerba Mate.

Here I am blogging to my faithful followers- of which there are less than five. Influencer-dom 
will be mine yet!! 😎😼

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Oh my god.

So, big update time.

We've been travelling now for about 30 hours, exhausted, delirious, still alive.

I had a whole bunch of good blog content I had typed up on my phone as we were on our
nine hour flight from Vancouver to London, BUT that is now probably lost due to factors
you shall soon hear about…The Lost Post included golden comedy moments such as
Rachel Doesn't Know French, We're Really Tired, and We Thought This Flight Was Five
Hours But It’s Nine.

This comedy post was lost because, halfway through the flight, my phone started lagging
 so I turned it off- only to find that I couldn't turn it on again. No matter what I did…
I thought probably we could figure it out at the London Gatwick airport during our 8 hour
layover, so I didn't panic.

Unfortunately we could not figure it out. After a good 5 hours of button pressing, buying
new cables, software downloading, research and forum help, I determined my iPhone
was stuck in a DFU loop- otherwise known as, the phone was unresponsive to anything
and could not be fixed by buying $70 iPhone system recovery software online. Which I did,
unfortunately, and it didn’t work, so I will be asking for a refund…

So my phone is essentially a brick. I did have a good cry about this sitting on the stone
floor at Gatwick, feeling miserable and sorry for myself. But I calmed down and realized
basically the only data lost would be photos, so as long as the world can live without
random photos of Rachel being a goof, I should be ok. If a little bummed out. The
phone is still under warranty though so there's that.

Suffice to say the next phone I get will not be an iPhone.

Overall it's not a bad month to not a have a phone- Rachel has one with roaming
for emergencies, and I couldn't have used my Canadian number in Europe anyway,
so no one will be texting me. I also have paper copies of any tickets I may have
needed my phone for too, cause that's the Hocking gene in me. I will really miss
listening to my music though. Now I just gotta share with the R-boi. And- I'll lose
my streak on Duolingo!! :(

So, not great. But there's more.

Because we were at Gatwick for so long, they couldn't check our luggage for our
next flight when we arrived. A friendly clerk told us we could go through customs
with our cheked bags and check them in in an hour, and gave us free security fast
passes to get to the gates faster after that. BUT, turns out he was mistaken, and there
was no GatwickConnects desk past customs. Which makes sense if you think about
it, but we were all very confused (him included). So we were stuck with our checked 
bags for 5 hours in the before-check-in arrivals area of Gatwick. It was during this 
time when we camped out on a clear section of the stone floor and I had my phone-fixing 
escapades. After much stress and anxiousness on all fronts, as well as some calming 
food and rest, we checked our bags. Plus side though: the fast passes we were 
given cut our security time down from maybe an hour to about 5 minutes!! Biggest win of the day.

4 hours later after a 2 hour flight delay due to them needing to switch planes entirely,
we are now just descending into Madrid. Our hotel is one metro stop away and I feel
like a half human full of delirium. So tired. Sooooo tired.

We're exhausted, but at least the air travel portion of our journey is done!! Metros
and busses are a lot less tiring.

Just arrived at the hotel for the night- it's lovely and has a bed and it's so nice to be
out of airports.

This whole thing has been such a whirlwind that I can't believe we're actually in Spain…
The hotel clerk was nice but I didn't realize just how much Spanish I had forgotten!

Your Sleeeeeepy and Crazy-Ass Friend,

Eva

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Rachel's editorial:

What a day, what a day. Eva covered most of the day's events in their saga. The only
note I have to add is that in the London airport I accidently purchased chocolate coconut
milk and it was shockingly delicious.

I am tired and ready for tomorrow to be better.