Thursday, January 21, 2010

January 30, 2010: Frustration and Victory




Saturday, January 30, 2010 (Dieter). Can you say “frustrated”? We began with a hot breakfast of fried potatoes, eggs, and cheese. Took a taxi to London Stansted for our 12:45 flight, got caught in a traffic cue (car accident, thankfully no one was hurt) and came to the airport to discover that our flight had just left ☹. With grand anticipation, we waited in a line for the next flight to Rome, what seemed like an eternity (4 hours) for changing our boarding cards. But missed the next flight due by a few minutes. We were 4 of four-hundred people who had also missed their flights due to the traffic cue and all waiting to get new boarding cards. I took a chance, paid my 5 GBPs to get 1 hour of internet access to try boarding Ryan Air online – but to no avail – by the time all the fees had been added, we were close in price of what could be offered at the ticket counter (an additional 100GBP/person – ouch). Next strategy, to fly to Pisa with the hopes of taking a train to Rome – challenge – only two more tickets available for the next flight (plus a 3 hour train from Pisa to Rome). I guess the decision to fly to Rome first thing Sunday morning is our only hope. We use the time in the airport updating our last blogs and getting prepared for our tour in Rome. We make the best of things by making a picnic on the floor of the airport with ice-cream and fresh milk from Spars (grocery store in the airport), playing Dutch Blitz and DSI games, listening to stories of other travelers, and sleeping in different positions on the airport seats. My anger management skills are test to the max and thank God, I rise to the occasion for the first time - victory! Sandra helps me to make lemonade from lemons.

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