WE"RE BACK!

We did it everyone! We made it back. Now, I know what you're thinking..."Levi, Natasha...what the heck? What happened to Italy pictures and Spain stories?" Before you work yourself into a fit, calm down and take a deep breath. We couldn't find a good computer in Spain so we are updating the blog now that we are in the states. So, here are the stories!

We got to Barcelona and quickly discovered it was going to be more of a challenge than previously anticipated. Our hotel was waaaaaay out in the Spanish equivalent of the middle of nowhere and our commute just to get into the city was 45 min by train. That didn't stop us, though, and we made our way around Barcelona to see the Sagrada Familia (great big church), Park Guell (great big park), and the Monument a Colom (great big statue of Christopher Columbus).

Our travels have shown us that the world is a pretty big place, but we also discovered that it is small at the same time. I (Levi) discovered that one of my old classmates from high school was living in Spain while we were traveling. On a whim, I Facebooked her and asked if she was anywhere near Barcelona. Next thing I know, we are planning dinner with her and her family and we got to meet their two little girls (who were AMESOME) and her husband who was equally as awesome. We caught up on life and she filled Natasha in on what I was like as an awkward middle schooler. It was really cool to have such a random encounter while on the trip.

Then came the trip home. If I learned anything on this trip, it is this...NEVER SPEND THE NIGHT IN AN AIRPORT TERMINAL! Our flight left very early Monday morning and I thought, in all my wisdom, that staying the night in the airport wouldn't be a big deal. So we got to Barcelona's airport at  7PM on Sunday evening. We were then informed we could not check out bags until 4 the next morning. Looking like homeless people with our bags and our luggage cart, we looked for places to nest for the night.

Well, airports are not very comfortable places to find rest and after getting bustled around by security guards, we were finally able to check our bags at 4 in the morning. By the time we get off the ground in Spain, we had been awake for a full 24 hrs. We then had 2 1/2 hour plane ride to Frankfurt, the 10 hour long hall to Charlotte NC, then a connecting flight to Chicago and finally our stop in Springfield. Amazingly, everything went better than expected. We got to Frankfurt on time, passed through security which took awhile and was very thorough, and started our flight over the Atlantic Ocean. We had TV's in our seats, so we passed the time easily. Customs was a breeze in Charlotte and, even though we had been awake now for almost 45 hours, we were still feeling good. We had gotten a little sleep here and there and we would be home soon! We got into Chicago early and we were ready for our last flight.

Chicago O'Hare Airport ruined everything.

As soon as we stepped out of our gate, our next plane came up as delayed by an hour. This meant that instead of waiting an hour for our flight home, we were now waiting for two. Now two hours might not seem like much, but for two very tired people who haven't gotten any rest in almost 48 hours, two extra hours was deflating. Now, instead of getting into Springfield at 10 we would be getting in at 11. We were both exhausted and since we hadn't had a good experience in O'Hare ever, it didn't make it any better. I started to loose consciousness, Natasha started to get a headache and now all we wanted to do was get home.

Well, despite all of O'Hare's evil efforts, we finally got off the ground and back home. We both had never felt anything so wonderful as our own bed and pillows when we got to our apartment and are now recuperating from a very long two days of travel. We both go back to work tomorrow and start preparing for our next adventure :)

Thanks to everyone who was praying for and supporting us while we were gone. We could not have done it without you!