The Long Trip Home.
Air Ports travel have changed.
In 2007, what has happened to air travel, makes the idea of the slow train and boat a little more attractive again. Unfortunately planes are still the faster way to go....so uncomfortable, exhausting, humiliating, and frustrating hours spent wondering what on earth good this new cockamamie rule and producer of longer line-ups is going to do... seems to be just part of the deal. Better just get over it. Buck up... unpack that bag, show your zip lock bag...and TAKE OFF THOSE SHOES.
The trip home from Spain was like a cold shower slapping me to my senses so that I would not be unrealistic and sentimental about leaving Seville. SNAP OUT OF IT GIRL - YOU GOTTA WORK ON MONDAY. GET REAL.
My intention was to spend my last day, dancing, sunning, and taking pictures...and generally savouring the last hours of what had become my Seville home. Unfortunately a traveling nightmare was ahead of me.
Or not ...apparently life's reality depends on how you look at it (the glossy wall adds along the moving sidewalk between terminals in the Heathrow airport reminded me of this, as I pushed the ridiculously heavy cart of bags between terminals with at that point having already waited all night in the Barcelona airport.)
Annoying wisdoms.
More annoying wisdoms.
Ok, ok already.
My tickets were from Seville to Barcelona to London to Toronto to Vancouver. Get the picture already? - Don't ask why...the possibility of error and screw up was enormous and well....I SCORED!!!! It was like a comedy of errors from start to finish.
The Trek back home began at 9 pm Saturday night with fond good-byes to Luna our new friend.....and a taxi to the Seville airport.
Waiting for a taxi outside our apartment.
Off to a flight to Barcelona where I would wait till morning early morning with my friend and Flamenco colleague's luggage and precious guitar, as his flight which left later in the day, was too close to the next flight for him to check baggage in and out.
Finding the cart with the good wheels.
Why I did not book a ticket straight from Seville to London, and turn the whole thing into a Fashion research trip is still a mystery to me, and I will try again next time to think straight.
So...I sat there, at midnight on a pile of bags...and thought, well girl...here you are in the middle of the Barcelona airport...known worldwide for it's pick-pockets and con-artists....with a huge pile of heavy bags , and an expensive Flamenco guitar...(I had to stay up all night guarding them till the ticket booth opened at 5:20 am.) Then get the bags all back in London...hump them across 3 terminals.....to check them in hopefully, in the most security paranoid airport currently in the world.
Oh goody.
Let's see, I thought ... how I can make this more fun....I can write, sort pictures
for my half written bogs...e-mail and connect with friends in Canada...drink wine.
3 am in the barcelona cafeteria.
And...I started making friends...Yolanda..a woman from Barcelona at 1:30 am
helped me figure out how to buy wireless internet access on my laptop because
I have such trouble reading forms, (it's almost impossible for me in English,
let alone Spanish. She also told me how to stay safe in the airport...not to trust
anybody who approaches.
Yolanda helping me buy wireless internet.
Then there was Rachael from the states, studying in Florence...who needed to
borrow my internet.
Rachael borrowing my new internet access.
And a lovely girl from Portugal.
Some how I made it through that night.
I ended up about fourth in the huge line up at 5 am to check in for the
London flight.
A new friend from Massachusettes.
Get to he counter...NO TICKET BOOKED. I can't believe it. I had to go to
another part of the terminal (pushing heavy cart with all the bags and a
knap-sack and guitar on my back) buy a ticket fast...then get back to the
end of the now VERY LONG line-up...barely get one of the last tickets.
Going back to the end of the line.
THEN RUN FOR THE GATE (which was not very close) and JUST make it.
I arrive London. I am calm because I have something like six hours.
Make my way to baggage claim, stack and balance weight all on one cart
(because actually I'm fairly short and it's hard work). I didn't find out this until later, but apparently there are porters for this kind of situation...DAH - makes COMPLETE sense now....no matter HOW much they would cost...and I have found out that in fact -it's not so expensive - that's why these services actually EXIST!
Joining the race for the bags.
So...the long trek to terminal 3.
A directional dyslexics nightmare.
Have a collision in the underground passage between terminals, with another cart piled high...and two of my nails ripp off at the nail bed and I am bleeding.
Get to terminal 3...line up...They won't let me check in Juan's guitar...So I have to carry it as well as my heavy knapsack. Remember...
Precious Cargo.
By now I have not slept all night, and the night before we had left Jesus and Luna's at 2 am or so...I am at this point feeling nauseas because I haven't had a chance to stop and eat since the cafeteria in the barcelona airport at around 3 am.
Get through the AMAZING securities checks...of which there are three separate ones that day. (must have been some sort of incident again in Iran.) IT WAS SOOOOOOOOO crowded on terminal 3. Thousands of people everywhere...all the line ups including bathrooms were long.
Line ups for everything were long.
After finally getting through security, and having my knap-sack up packed and searched THREE times - I'm not kidding...I'm standing in line and realize my PERIOD HAS STARTED and I have nothing with me to stop the flow...oh great I feel comfortable now...
I get to the place where they post the gates...
Heathrow gates at noon.
I find I have somehow been releived of my pouch with boardind pass, and some english pounds and stuff...for my Toronto/Vancouver flight. IT IS MISSING. Holy shit.
I try to find someone to tell me what to do now.
I am told to go to the supervisor deck at security...(this means by the way a half hour trek back through a different route...
Everyone is confused.
Find out it has not been turned in...have to go find an Air Canaada agent...far away
again...get another one issued.
Finally find Air Canada and get that done...and some bandaids for my bleeding fingers...and procede to the area that posts where the gates are.
The guitar strap on Juan's guitar case is faulty...and keeps unexpectedly unhooking....and my own knap-sack is sooooooo heavy that my balance is thrown every time it happens as I am trudging along in the crowds. I AM NOT HAPPY.
When I get to the board where hey post the gates, where they conveniently have the resturants right there by the table...I gratefully get a plate of spaghetti and some wine and eat.
When Juan arrives, it is time to check in. Which we do...and off to Toronto...
On the plane to Toronto, my legs and ankles swell up like one of those old ladies you see stuffed into their shoes (never happended to me before-even when I was pregnant!) I felt like someone had blown up my legs with a bicycle pump!
When we landed in Toroto, we had to get the bags, go through customs, and go to the next terminal (of course) and get on the next flight. MY legs were KILLING me....it was awfull! We JUST made it again.
Luckily when I got my seat on the plane from TO to VAN...I was at the emergency exit...and there was just enough room in front of my seat. That as soon as the lights were turned off...I snuck down onto the floor...and slept with my legs elevated on my knapsack..covered myself with my jacket..(told the guy sitting next to me not to tell)
and I was hidden from the flight attendants in the dark.
So I was able to sleep for about 3 hours and my legs reduced in size enough that they stopped being painful. IT WAS SOOOOOOO WEIRD!!!!!!!
Anyway....I got a GREAT sleep last night...everything looks kind of normal again.
I'M HOME !!!!
I will get into practicing my new dances (which ought to be only be about six months work or so...give or take a few months.)
I'm hitting the gym today...as well as anything I can book Spa/like....
And am starting a fat/free...fresh vegetable whole grain blessed diet...and am back getting into shape. WHEW!....
In 2007, what has happened to air travel, makes the idea of the slow train and boat a little more attractive again. Unfortunately planes are still the faster way to go....so uncomfortable, exhausting, humiliating, and frustrating hours spent wondering what on earth good this new cockamamie rule and producer of longer line-ups is going to do... seems to be just part of the deal. Better just get over it. Buck up... unpack that bag, show your zip lock bag...and TAKE OFF THOSE SHOES.
The trip home from Spain was like a cold shower slapping me to my senses so that I would not be unrealistic and sentimental about leaving Seville. SNAP OUT OF IT GIRL - YOU GOTTA WORK ON MONDAY. GET REAL.
My intention was to spend my last day, dancing, sunning, and taking pictures...and generally savouring the last hours of what had become my Seville home. Unfortunately a traveling nightmare was ahead of me.
Or not ...apparently life's reality depends on how you look at it (the glossy wall adds along the moving sidewalk between terminals in the Heathrow airport reminded me of this, as I pushed the ridiculously heavy cart of bags between terminals with at that point having already waited all night in the Barcelona airport.)
Annoying wisdoms.
More annoying wisdoms.
Ok, ok already.
My tickets were from Seville to Barcelona to London to Toronto to Vancouver. Get the picture already? - Don't ask why...the possibility of error and screw up was enormous and well....I SCORED!!!! It was like a comedy of errors from start to finish.
The Trek back home began at 9 pm Saturday night with fond good-byes to Luna our new friend.....and a taxi to the Seville airport.
Waiting for a taxi outside our apartment.
Off to a flight to Barcelona where I would wait till morning early morning with my friend and Flamenco colleague's luggage and precious guitar, as his flight which left later in the day, was too close to the next flight for him to check baggage in and out.
Finding the cart with the good wheels.
Why I did not book a ticket straight from Seville to London, and turn the whole thing into a Fashion research trip is still a mystery to me, and I will try again next time to think straight.
So...I sat there, at midnight on a pile of bags...and thought, well girl...here you are in the middle of the Barcelona airport...known worldwide for it's pick-pockets and con-artists....with a huge pile of heavy bags , and an expensive Flamenco guitar...(I had to stay up all night guarding them till the ticket booth opened at 5:20 am.) Then get the bags all back in London...hump them across 3 terminals.....to check them in hopefully, in the most security paranoid airport currently in the world.
Oh goody.
Let's see, I thought ... how I can make this more fun....I can write, sort pictures
for my half written bogs...e-mail and connect with friends in Canada...drink wine.
3 am in the barcelona cafeteria.
And...I started making friends...Yolanda..a woman from Barcelona at 1:30 am
helped me figure out how to buy wireless internet access on my laptop because
I have such trouble reading forms, (it's almost impossible for me in English,
let alone Spanish. She also told me how to stay safe in the airport...not to trust
anybody who approaches.
Yolanda helping me buy wireless internet.
Then there was Rachael from the states, studying in Florence...who needed to
borrow my internet.
Rachael borrowing my new internet access.
And a lovely girl from Portugal.
Some how I made it through that night.
I ended up about fourth in the huge line up at 5 am to check in for the
London flight.
A new friend from Massachusettes.
Get to he counter...NO TICKET BOOKED. I can't believe it. I had to go to
another part of the terminal (pushing heavy cart with all the bags and a
knap-sack and guitar on my back) buy a ticket fast...then get back to the
end of the now VERY LONG line-up...barely get one of the last tickets.
Going back to the end of the line.
THEN RUN FOR THE GATE (which was not very close) and JUST make it.
I arrive London. I am calm because I have something like six hours.
Make my way to baggage claim, stack and balance weight all on one cart
(because actually I'm fairly short and it's hard work). I didn't find out this until later, but apparently there are porters for this kind of situation...DAH - makes COMPLETE sense now....no matter HOW much they would cost...and I have found out that in fact -it's not so expensive - that's why these services actually EXIST!
Joining the race for the bags.
So...the long trek to terminal 3.
A directional dyslexics nightmare.
Have a collision in the underground passage between terminals, with another cart piled high...and two of my nails ripp off at the nail bed and I am bleeding.
Get to terminal 3...line up...They won't let me check in Juan's guitar...So I have to carry it as well as my heavy knapsack. Remember...
Precious Cargo.
By now I have not slept all night, and the night before we had left Jesus and Luna's at 2 am or so...I am at this point feeling nauseas because I haven't had a chance to stop and eat since the cafeteria in the barcelona airport at around 3 am.
Get through the AMAZING securities checks...of which there are three separate ones that day. (must have been some sort of incident again in Iran.) IT WAS SOOOOOOOOO crowded on terminal 3. Thousands of people everywhere...all the line ups including bathrooms were long.
Line ups for everything were long.
After finally getting through security, and having my knap-sack up packed and searched THREE times - I'm not kidding...I'm standing in line and realize my PERIOD HAS STARTED and I have nothing with me to stop the flow...oh great I feel comfortable now...
I get to the place where they post the gates...
Heathrow gates at noon.
I find I have somehow been releived of my pouch with boardind pass, and some english pounds and stuff...for my Toronto/Vancouver flight. IT IS MISSING. Holy shit.
I try to find someone to tell me what to do now.
I am told to go to the supervisor deck at security...(this means by the way a half hour trek back through a different route...
Everyone is confused.
Find out it has not been turned in...have to go find an Air Canaada agent...far away
again...get another one issued.
Finally find Air Canada and get that done...and some bandaids for my bleeding fingers...and procede to the area that posts where the gates are.
The guitar strap on Juan's guitar case is faulty...and keeps unexpectedly unhooking....and my own knap-sack is sooooooo heavy that my balance is thrown every time it happens as I am trudging along in the crowds. I AM NOT HAPPY.
When I get to the board where hey post the gates, where they conveniently have the resturants right there by the table...I gratefully get a plate of spaghetti and some wine and eat.
When Juan arrives, it is time to check in. Which we do...and off to Toronto...
On the plane to Toronto, my legs and ankles swell up like one of those old ladies you see stuffed into their shoes (never happended to me before-even when I was pregnant!) I felt like someone had blown up my legs with a bicycle pump!
When we landed in Toroto, we had to get the bags, go through customs, and go to the next terminal (of course) and get on the next flight. MY legs were KILLING me....it was awfull! We JUST made it again.
Luckily when I got my seat on the plane from TO to VAN...I was at the emergency exit...and there was just enough room in front of my seat. That as soon as the lights were turned off...I snuck down onto the floor...and slept with my legs elevated on my knapsack..covered myself with my jacket..(told the guy sitting next to me not to tell)
and I was hidden from the flight attendants in the dark.
So I was able to sleep for about 3 hours and my legs reduced in size enough that they stopped being painful. IT WAS SOOOOOOO WEIRD!!!!!!!
Anyway....I got a GREAT sleep last night...everything looks kind of normal again.
I'M HOME !!!!
I will get into practicing my new dances (which ought to be only be about six months work or so...give or take a few months.)
I'm hitting the gym today...as well as anything I can book Spa/like....
And am starting a fat/free...fresh vegetable whole grain blessed diet...and am back getting into shape. WHEW!....
posted by Edie at 5:07 PM
0 comments
