Missing my plane.. again.
Trip Start
Unknown
1
75
100
Trip End
Ongoing
Casablanca, Morocco
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Almost missed my flight.. again… and it wasn't my fault.. again.
See?! God truly does hate me.
Got up, shower, went online, played with my photos, update my blog.
All the fun stuff to waste time that I need to get done.
The whole time I have a bad feeling about catching my plane but chalk it up to being terrified about being stuck here.
I double and triple checked the train schedules and the trains go from Marrakech to Cassablanca every 2nd hour, and the trains go from Cassablanca to the airport every ½ hour so I am able to miss 3 trains, and still catch my plane. Ok, nothing to worry about. Even I cant screw that one up.
Heading out early I grab a bite and catch a cab to the train station and am there almost an hour early. See. Nothing to worry about!
Catching my train I sit down and have a 4 seater to myself. Sweeet. I stretch out and close my eyes to nap as I arrive at Cairo 4:30 my time and about 5 hours of sleep on the plane. Very shortly I sorta feel a tap and look up to this young guy who is asking if he can sit with me. Fine. I move my feet so they are on the seat beside me and he sits down. We are then joined by another French guy, and a Muslim woman. GREAT! NO. FREAKIN. SLEEP. Turns out he is a 4th year medical student working in the hospital in Merrikech. Turns out I ended up sitting with 2 incredibly sweet, young French men.
Hmm. What is wrong with this sentence?! I can count how many times the words "French" and “sweet” where in the same sentence…. So being kept up the entire trip, wasn’t such a bad thing after all and I made a contact in Lyons, France. Sorry Christine, not bringing this one home for you, a bit too young Im afraid. Ill keep searching for you, I promise.
I heard 2 contradicting things. One that there are so many deformed, cross eyed, etc children because of the women fasting in Ramadan. Then I heard that they don’t have to. Thibault told me that even though they are allowed to if they are pregnant, sick, traveling, most of them still refuse to eat causing serious problems for pregnant women and diabetes patients especially.
My train was supposed to get to the station at 8:00, and then I catch the next train @ 8:15. No worries. Lots of time.
As 8:00 approaches I get nervous and nearly get off on 3 different stops. Luckily there was an older man who was able to tell me where to go. Of course… the train was late. So I missed my next train. No worries.. I can miss 2 more. No problems. No panicking.
I go in to buy my next ticket and the train should be there in about 20 minutes. Sweet.
WRONG! Somehow, the trains are only going every hour. Wrong information. Lovely.
No worries, I can still make my plane. Just. Its ok. It’ll be tight, but I can do it.
So I buy my ticket and go and wait outside and turn on a movie to calm myself.
And I wait, and wait, and wait, and wait.
And I realize, the train is late. The next train comes and goes, and mine still doesn’t show.
NOW Im panicking… You’ve GOT to be kidding me?! Serious?!
COME ON!!!
I waited around for another few minutes, counting the time and my plane departure and realize that there is no way Im going to make my plane if the train doesn’t come in the next 3 minutes..
Lovely.
Grabbing my bag and counting my options I bolt. Down the stairs, through the train station and out to the taxis, I grab the first cab I can find and for a fee of 250D they will take me to the airport which will take ½ hour.
Can we say panick?!
Getting to the airport I throw my money at the cabbie, and bolt out. You have to go through security before you even go into the airport. Then trying to find the check in is fun.
There are contradicting signs EVERYWHERE!!!
It says “check in” and then an arrow pointing directly below…
Does that mean the floor I just came from that told me to come up?
To the right? To the left? Grabbing the first security man I can I ask and run through the halls to the check in.
Then.. of course, I cant find Egypt air.
After more confusion and involving more people (they are very helpful) It occurred to me it WAS IN FRENCH! Duh I couldn’t find it! Bastered.
Getting to the line, I JUST made it. I was the last one to check in.
But I was there! And I didn’t miss my plane.
I may have given myself heart failure though.
Boarding the plane I am stuck between 2 guys. No window. Great.
To make matters worse the Arabic guy on my left reminded me of a small bird. You know the ones that are constantly moving at high speeds, bouncing everwhere?! Oh yah, the more important thing.. THEY NEVER STOP MOVING! And the guy behind me seemed to think that the handle on the back of my seat was for holding onto to move his body weight.
On the plus side, take off was amazing. It was a bigger plane which means it was more fun. More speed to take off. Speeding along with only the back wheels on the ground. Your body smashed into the seat as it finally lifts off. And the whole while, Chevelle blaring through my speakers.
I dosed but between the meal, bird man, and ape man behind me, theres no way to sleep.
Dreading wandering Cairo.
