“Our tent is our home,” my cousin kept saying over and over as the man behind the desk told her our bags were lost. He ended up telling her to buy a new tent because we may not see our luggage again. Needless to say we were both in shock. Never seeing our rucksacks again? All the memories with them, all our clothes and food for this trip, all our gear!! He said we could just buy new stuff!! Yes, these are things and things can be replaced. We weren’t upset about that. We were so nervous because we spent most of our money on this trip and had very little funds left to eat at restaurants let alone buy a tent to sleep in. Not to mention we would need mats and a sleeping bag for when the weather dropped at night. We looked at each other and knew we were both thankful to have chosen our destination along the Mediterranean Sea instead of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa! We would have frozen at the summit!! So there we were, confused and misplaced, glad we had each other, and that we were both safe.
At that moment, we made a mutual decision to camp out in the airport and not leave until our bags were returned to us. We were told multiple times to leave!!! The workers at the airport were not happy and the cops talked to us more than once. We asked what would happen if we left and went to our camping destination, Camp Barcelona, and the airport attendants said they would notify us when, and if our bags arrived. We asked how long that would be and they kept hinting that our bags were lost forever. In their minds, they wanted us to get over it and just go, leave, get out of their airport! No!! We refused every time. Luckily we had our sarongs with us because we ended up using them as blankets to lay in and take naps. Joanna was on the hard floor and I chose the wood bench. Neither were comfortable but our bodies were so tired we both ended up sleeping. Then, we were awakened by the wax floor cleaning machine and a very grumpy person guiding the device along. Again, we were asked to leave and almost were forced out.
Telling the cops we would be sitting over in another area was not a good time. We told them where they could find us when our bags arrived. Hours went by and no one came so we went and sat at the baggage department. Twenty minutes later, our bags were found and returned to us. I wonder if any of those workers still tell stories of the two crazy Americans who would not leave the airport that day. We were starting to feel like Tom Hanks in that movie Terminal when he is not allowed to leave the airport because his passport is not recognized anymore while his country was in turmoil. Using this analogy for the part about not being able to leave the airport, and the staff in this case wanting us to exit the facility. We were so thankful we stayed, brought our sarongs in our carry-ons, and learned a lot that day. I said, “I will always carry a sarong in my carry-on,” and from that day on, I did! You can probably imagine what Monday’s post will be about already! Until then, have a wonderful weekend and thank you for reading!
-Karen Hilliard
Also, if you would like to show support, I recently joined “buy me a coffee” which is a way for anyone to contribute to the creative process behind the paintings. Fuel the artist so to speak. Here is the link if you are interested and I truly appreciate the support and the fact that you are liking these blogs, as well as my art posts. I am working hard to bring you all fresh content! Here is the link to my Instagram where I try to post daily. You can also find me on Facebook at my art page Karen Hilliard Art.
Thank you again for all of your support!
The link to my Christmas Ornaments is here and below. 11 more days until Christmas!!
