Airport!

I got up at 6:45 AM, got ready and woke Rahul up at 7:30, he got up and went to take a shower, it was about 8:00ish at this point. I was like, let me go and check my email quickly and check the terminal. Well, I got to the computer and it said 9:15, I was like wait a second, why does the clock say 9:15 and the reception desk said 9:15 as well. Under the clock, there was a sign that said, Daylight Savings Time Spring Forward. Well, we missed that sign since it was so easy to see! (the least they could've done was put a note in the room or something!) It was 9:15 and our flight left in 2 hours. I got Rahul and told him, we checked out, walked to the train station, bought our tickets. It takes about 40 minutes by train. Even if we wanted to go by taxi, we only had 5 euros left! We had just enough to buy tickets to the airport with a euro to spare. We had to switch trains twice to get to the airport terminal train. Well, we didn’t know what stop to get off at T1,2,3 or T4. So we took our chance and got off at T1,2,3; of course, it was the wrong Terminal. It was 10 at this point and the next train was getting there in 7 min. We waited for the train and finally got to T4. We got off the train, took an elevator to the check-in area. Well, the Madrid airport is HUGE! We finally found the AA ticket counter and there was nobody there. The lady at the counter said, they weren’t checking anyone in at this point b/c it was 1 hour before departure. I was like, great....luckily the ticket purchase service area was right next to it. (if you missed your flight from a previous connection or needed to purchase another ticket) Rahul spoke to the guy over there saying that we had an 11 flight to Miami and needed to get our boarding passes. Well, he was really nice and printed them out for us, checked our passports, etc. He said good luck; you’ll need to run to the security area. We go flying across the hall, down another hall and down a flight of escalators to get to the security area. We get there; there are 5 people in front, but they have 10 security stations with at least 15 people waiting to go through each one. So we wait and of course, I get held up in security. I had nothing on me, but apparently my shoes were the problem. Finally, we got out of security and it was 10:45, I was thinking, there is no way in hell we’re going to make it. We run to the terminal, well, you have to go down 3 flights of escalators (we were taking the stairs at this point since people just stand on the escalators) and then we get down and there’s a shuttle train you have to take to get to the gates! Great, it said "U" – 22 min. which was our gate and the longest time to get there. As soon as we got there the train came and Rahul was not in sight. He was still running down the stairs, I'm like hurry up! We get on and off the train and are looking around for "U", so we go up a flight of stairs and come to Passport Control. There were at least 30 people in front of us. I told Rahul there is no way we’re making this if we wait in line, let’s to go to the front and ask them. We go to the front and there’s a lady with her child. We’re explaining our situation that we have a flight at 11 and we need to get through, and she doesn’t understand a word of English...luckily there's a guy 3rd in line and says, you can cut in front of me, so the the person in front of him let us in front as well. We get through passport control in 2 seconds; we’re running now to find our gate. We have to go up another 2 flights of stairs to get to the “U” gate area. We stop and ask security guard where U58 is b/c it only said U 1-51, he pointed us in the same direction, so we took our chances. We’re running to the gate, finally get there and its last call and 11:00. They look at our passports, ask us some questions about our luggage and we sit in our seats at 11:05 and depart at 11:10. Exhausted! Get to Miami, wait there for 7 hours, and get home at 1 in the morning. Home at last, it’s such a great feeling!!