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Starting from the time we jumped into a cab outside our hostal room in Sevilla at 1pm on 12/28, we spent a grand total of 41.25 hours in transit by the time we walked in the front door last night at a little after 11. It was a 7 hour bus ride from Sevilla to Lisbon, then another cab to the airport there (we didn't have the heart to brave a bus with all our luggage in tow), then we camped out in the airport in Lisbon from about 10pm to 5:50 am when our flight left for Amsterdam. We had a nice little spot, in an alcove next to some shrubs, partly hidden, and even had an outlet to recharge my iPod, which was an absolute necessity. Then a 3 hour flight to Amsterdam with barely enough time to go through passport control and immigration and get on the next plane, which was scheduled to be a 10 hour and 10 minute flight to Seattle.

I say 'scheduled' here, because that's not how it worked out. Somewhere over North-central Canada, a young man started having some severe abdominal pain, and after consultation with medical personnel on board and the Mayo clinic by phone, the decision was made for an emergency landing in beautiful Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Sure looked cold there. It was about a 2 hour delay as they took the guy from the plane and then emptied the baggage holds in search of his bags, then reloaded and refueled and de-iced and everything else.

By the time we got to Seattle, we and everyone else had missed our connecting flights. From the looks of Sea-Tac airport, everyone else from everywhere had missed their flights, too. I've never seen such chaos and confusion in an airport in my life. We were initially booked on separate flights, with me not getting in until 11 or so, but with a bit of work and coercion we both got onto a 6:30 flight. But that was delayed, and delayed, and then our bags were shipped on a different flight, and neither of us ended up getting in until about 9:30 anyway. Then we waited for our bags (which still haven't shown up!), and our friend David waited for us, quite patiently.

So, at the end of it all, we made it home safe and sound, if a bit bleary-eyed and slightly delusional from lack of sleep. Slept like the dead last night in our own wonderful bed.

Strange to look out the window and see Boise. Still haven't gotten over the fact that we're back and life has gone on and everything is still everything, but we'll get there.

Thanks for reading this. I've enjoyed writing it and hope you've enjoyed it as well.

And remember, if you want to, check back in a week or two and it'll be a more coherent and complete work, including photos and all the stuff I've forgotten about or haven't had time to write.