Divamensch
I took a trip to Bilbao, Spain in August 2026. It was hosted and organized by my friends Karen and Bruce. The trip was centered on the eclipse. A brief prelude…
Karen lives in New York City and Bruce lives way upstate near Jamestown. Remember there was an eclipse in the spring of 2024 and people were going to the Path of Totality? Bruce lives the Path of Totality so Karen went up to his place and saw it in his back yard. They loved the experience and looked up when it would happen again - - they saw that Bilbao would be in the Path of Totality for an eclipse in August 2026 so they invited a group of their best friends and family to join them for the experience. It was a little cloudy for the 2024 eclipse so they were hoping for a clearer sky this time (spoiler alert: it was perfect).
The group was:
1. My best friend Karen. We met in college, we've been friends for almost forty years. 2. Bruce, Karen's partner. They've been together
for twenty years so he's been a friend of mine
for that long.
3. Bruce’s daughter Mallery. I met her briefly at Bruce’s house 4. Mike. Karen met Mike through their mutual friend Dale, he and
sometime between 10 and 15 years ago. She’s the one person Dale had gone to college together back in the 80s. Mike has been
on this trip who I had spent the least amount of time with. to many beach house vacations with me, Karen, Bruce, and
She lives near Bruce, upstate. others over the years. He lives in West Reading, PA.
5. Liz. She and Karen worked together in the 90s. I met her on a visit to 6. Tom, Liz’s husband. I met him the same day I met Liz (at
New York in the late 90s. Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, to be precise). They started
off as friends of Karen’s but over the years I feel like we’ve
established our own direct connection.
7. Francesca. A friend of Karen's through yoga. I met her on the 8. AJ, Francesca’s husband. I think I might have only met AJ twice
same beach vacation at which I met Donna. before this trip. He’s from the Twin Cities and lived in
Madison so we have that Midwestern connection.
9. Donna. Another yoga friend of Karen’s. She and I met on a beach vacation 10. Me!
years ago. She lived in Atlanta for a few years and recently moved
back to New York, to my old neighborhood (Inwood).
Thankfully there were enough bedrooms for us each to have a separate bedroom. The couples, or course, slept together.
We all left New York on Fri Aug 7 and arrived in Bilbao on Sat Aug 8 or Sun Aug 9. Donna and I traveled together from start to finish on both ends. The trip there was more drama than either of us needed and we were grateful to have a friend to keep us together.
FRI AUG 7
1:30pm
Donna and I met on the A train. She got in the second-to-last car at 207, I looked out for her and got on at 175. We got off at 34th Street/Penn Station and took a New Jersey Transit train to Newark. The Air Train was kaput so we took a shuttle bus from the NJT dropoff to the airport. We took so many shuttle buses on the trip in, it’s hard to remember.
4:15pm
We boarded our flight.
4:50pm
The cabin door was closed and we were cleared for our 5pm takeoff.
5:15pm
Our pilot announced that we had to give our spot to a VIP and we should be leaving in about ten minutes. In retrospect it seems odd that he would tell us the real reason - - he could easily have said something evasive like “we’re going to have an unexpected delay,” it seemed very *White Lotus* that he would tell us that a VIP was to blame.
5:45pm
It started to rain. Hard. Donna knew that the storm would be traveling east (the direction of our flight) and if we didn’t take off soon it would be a problem.
7pm
They announced that the rain was so bad, the airport was shut down, incoming and outgoing.
7:10pm
I started watching *Song Sung Blue.* Not a great movie but I had no idea how long we’d be on the plane, so why not use my time effectively.
7:30pm-ish
I went up to Premium Economy and visited Donna. At this point the pilot was announcing every twenty minutes that we’d hopefully be leaving in ten minutes so our hopes were up.
9pm
The pilot announced that our flight had been canceled. It turns out there’s an American regulation that if a plane sits on the tarmac for four hours, the flight is canceled. The pilot said we were waiting for an opportunity to pull up to our gate.
9:45pm
We pulled up to our gate and got off the plane. The agent at our gate said we’d receive a text within the hour with our new flight plan.
10pm
Donna and I got hot breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks. We were starving and they hit the spot.
10:30pm
We got the text from Air France. We were booked on a flight leaving JFK at 2am. I’ll remind you that we were at Newark, not exactly around the corner.
10:40pm
We went down to baggage claim to pick up Donna’s bag.
11:15pm
Naturally Donna’s bag was one of the last ones to come down the belt.
11:20pm
We got in a cab to go to JFK. We could have done public transit but we were over it. The driver drove very fast and Donna said there were no shock absorbers in the cab, making it excessively bumpy and uncomfortable. Also there was no AC so the windows were open. I took off my glasses, closed my eyes, and felt the intense wind against my face, trying to put myself Elsewhere.
SAT AUG 8
12:15am
We arrived at JFK. The cab cost $250. We’re allegedly being reimbursed by Air France but I’ll believe that when the money is in my account.
We went to the ticket counter to check Donna’s bag again. Our agent was a cute young guy with a kind face but don’t be fooled. He doesn’t care one bit about you, your canceled flight, or your grandmother.
DONNA: Do I have a premium economy seat on this new flight?
HIM: You would need to pay extra for that.
DONNA: I already paid extra for that, I’m not paying for it a second time. Do I have a premium economy seat on this new flight.
HIM: [randomly taps keys on his keyboard, looks lackadaisically at his screen] I’ll need to check with my manager.
He walked away. Donna said to me, “I’m warning you, I’m about to have a meltdown.” I wisely made no reply to that remark.
He came back.
HIM: There aren’t any premium economy seats available on your flight.
DONNA: [emits something between a heavy sigh and a growl]
ME: Would you be able to upgrade her to a business class or first class seat?
HIM: [does the random keyboard tapping thing again] No, the only seats that are available are regular economy.
DONNA: How do I get a refund for my premium economy seat. Which I only used on a flight that never left the runway.
HIM: You can go to the Air France website and request a refund.
DONNA: “Request a refund,” I like how you say that.
We stood there for maybe thirty seconds.
HIM: Is there anything else I can do for you?
DONNA: I guess not.
ME: Thank you.
12:30am
We went down to our gate. There were a man and a woman working the desk and they were continually making announcements, really and truly every thirty seconds. The woman tapped the microphone three times before she spoke, every freaking time. Donna went to the bathroom at one point. There was a speaker in the bathroom that took the audio from the desk and delivered it directly to your brain. At one point the woman at the desk tapped on the microphone in an especially loud and grating way and Donna, probably unaware she was even speaking, shouted out, “WHAT is WITH that WOMAN?!?!” The other women in the bathroom looked at her, alarmed. There was about five seconds of silence and then they all laughed.
2am-ish
We boarded our flight. Donna told me that she’s almost never able to sleep on a plane so she was seriously worried to be in regular economy, in a middle seat, on a long flight.
I watched the rest of *Song Sung Blue.* Not bad. I was impressed with Kate Hudson’s Wisconsin accent. I took a little nap and woke up maybe around 4am, just in time for the dinner service. I think I was one of a handful of people who were awake.
The flight attendant was a pretty young French woman. She said something I couldn’t hear or understand so I said, “I’d like an apple juice.” She said something again. I said I’d like an apple juice. She said the thing a third time. My ears were plugged up from the pressure on the flight (typical for me), her accent was thick, and my brain was sliding out of my ears. I’m afraid that the poor woman had to say her three words about eight times. Finally I understood her saying, “CHICKEN OR PASTA.” I had the pasta. With a side order of embarrassment.
I took another little nap and woke up in time for the breakfast service - - yogurt, a roll, orange juice, I don’t remember what else. It was uninspired but adequate. I ended up wearing much of the orange juice and yogurt (due not to turbulence but the brain slide issue that I mentioned) but I chose not to care.
3:10pm-ish
We landed in Paris. I waited for Donna. It seemed like I waited for a long time. Eventually I started to worry that she was so fed up with the experience that she had never boarded the flight! at JFK I could totally see her walking out of the airport and taking a cab back to Inwood. Thankfully I was wrong, she DID get on the plane. Whew.
The next few hours were a blur. We had a five-hour layover in Paris, our flight for Bilbao was scheduled to leave at 8:20pm. We went through immigration and arrived at our departure lounge, which was exceptionally comfortable and pleasant. It was a life raft to have something pleasant in the midst of such a trying day. We got coffee from Starbucks, would you believe. We would have preferred something more local but that was the only choice for coffee.
Remember how Donna said she was sure she wouldn’t sleep at all on that flight? She told me in Bilbao that she was disappointed they never served any food. She had slept through both dinner and breakfast!
We sat down and took it all in. There was a very sweet mother, father, and toddler near us, we enjoyed watching the little girl, she could not have been cuter. We had a delightful conversation with a random guy sitting near us. I don’t remember how we started talking with him but he was going from New York to Mallorca. He said he was from France but had lived in New York for many years. Donna asked him if he felt like an American and he had the most fascinating response - - he said didn’t feel like an American, he felt like a New Yorker. I should mention he was very handsome.
Our flight to Bilbao was delayed only about forty minutes. It took off at 9:15pm and landed around 11:15pm. Thankfully we didn’t have to go through immigration again and Donna’s bag didn’t take too long to appear. We amused ourselves watching that adorable little girl again.
Our group of ten had set up a WhatsApp text group. Liz and Tom had arrived in Spain the day before, they had no issues. Francesca and AJ got out of New York MINUTES before the storm hit. We were supposed to meet up with them in Paris, all four of us were supposed to be on the same flight to Bilbao. They made theirs but ours was obviously much later. We texted with them and they generously agreed to pick us up at the airport (they had rented a car).
Karen, Bruce, and Mallery’s flight from New York was also rescheduled. Their new plan was to spend the night in Brussels (their layover city as planned, but not with the overnight) and fly to Bilbao on Saturday afternoon. Mike’s flight from DC also was rescheduled for a Brussels overnight so the four of them hung out in Brussels during the day. Mike’s flight to Bilbao arrived Sunday evening.
11:30pm
AJ and Francesca picked us up. We gave them the highlights (lowlights?) of our trip.
SUN AUG 9
12:10am-ish
We arrived at the house, which was in a cute town called Orozco, outside of Bilbao. Liz and Tom were asleep. Donna and I had our pick of the singleton rooms. Donna chose a pseudo kids room with two twin beds and two double beds. I was drawn to a room with two twin beds and a dollhouse.
The dollhouse was right next to the bed I slept in - - people were eager to hear about the dolls visiting me (terrorizing me, really) in my sleep but I wasn’t aware of any of that. Especially not the first night, I was dead tired.
