Without a Traceroute

I arrived in Spain with no problems. Well, not quite no problems. Ryanair karma bit me in the ass for the last time I got a free checked bag. When I originally booked the flight, I hadn’t told them I wanted to check a bag. This morning, I went online and modified the reservation to include a checked bag, they said they’d be charging €15 for it. However, when I got to the airport, they said that they had no record of the change in their system and charged me an additional €25. I’m pretty sure I’m going to get double-charged.

Then, the security line was held up because the X-ray machine needed to be rebooted. It was a Windows XP-based system by L-3 Security and Detection Systems. The reason I know who made it is because they actually had the scrolling marquee screensaver announcing it. I have no idea why you would use something as complex and insecure as windows to run an X-ray machine. That’s the kind of place you should be using something like VxWorks or an embedded UNIX-based system.

My friend Danny rented a car, so he was nice enough to pick me up at the airport. We’re staying with a guy from couchsurfing. He was really nice; he showed us around the place and then took us on a driving tour to Playa de Pinedo, one of the beaches near Valencia and then drove us out to Bruño so we’d know how to get there Wednesday. The only slightly weird thing is that he gave us the keys to this apartment, and then took off until tomorrow afternoon. We had assumed that he lived here too, but the evidence suggests otherwise. The kitchen was completely empty, and there’s no clothes in the master bedroom. No idea what the real story with the apartment is (usually rented out, kept for mistress, something else?), but it’s a nice enough place. There’s good wifi, and digital TV (with English sound). Plus, Spain is about 15 degrees warmer and 70% sunnier than the Netherlands, so that’s always good.