24 November: Madrid to Johannesburg

Okay, so this is my final Spain-Portugal-Morocco-2008-Trip-in-retrospect post. I just felt like I had to finish off by warning you all to never, ever have an 8 hour stop over in an airport ... unless perhaps that airport is in Singapore and they have free internet stations and whatnot. Madrid airport is easily walked about a bajillion times in 8 hours. And we did. Till we were exhausted. Till I never wanted to see another duty-free shop again. That little backgammon set came in super handy!

But, I did make a duty-free splurge purchase :) (who doesn't?). Instead of the usual perfume (since I'd bought myself a new bottle in January), I got myself some stunning Swarovski crystal earrings (I think they're the Bella Pierced Earrings on their site). They cost about as much as the perfume would've ;)

Oh, and I just remembered about our amusing flight from Marrakech to Madrid. All the announcements were in French (for the Moroccans) and Spanish (obviously). We didn't have a clue what was potting! And my lamp didn't fit into the overhead compartment so I figured they'd take it from me and return it after we'd landed ... you know, as they do. Oh no, they just looked at me and said "well where am I supposed to put it?". They let us keep it on the spare seat for the entire flight. Boy did I laugh because even Kulula won't let you have your handbag on your lap during take-off and landing ... let alone a giant metal & glass lamp!

Luckily it did fit in the overhead compartment of our far bigger plane back to Joburg. And Oh. My. Word. Was I amazed at the improvements to Ort's International Arrivals area. They actually had customs people ... and we sped thru there faster than they could get our luggage out. My most pleasant arrival-home airport experience to date.