It’s July 11th… I haven’t been writing crazy stories about my travels for a long time. Now that I think about it, it’s probably because I didn’t have major bad lucks happening to me in a while. I think the last one I recall was in August 2008, when my plane leaving from Sicily to go to Paris, where I was connecting to go to Valencia to play Club Barraca, had to do an emergency landing in Turin since we lost one engine, and I got stuck in Turin that night and could not make it to my gig.
After that, I don’t remember, but what happened to me in the last 24 hours is really worth writing about!
First, I leave Montreal on an earlier flight to Paris than the one I usually take. It’s an afternoon flight, that basically lands just when you start falling asleep. At half past midnight Montreal time (6:30am in Paris) I land, I’m sleepy, and I have 3 hours layover ahead of me. I’m tired, I’m hungry, I have two flights ahead of me, I’m already dreaming of my bed in Ibiza… Yeah…. Right.
The flight for Barcelona leaves from Paris with a 45 minutes delay, because there is an Air Traffic Control strike in Spain. Fun. And I had only 1 hour layover in Barcelona to connect…. Fun.
A while ago, on the screen saver of my iPhone I wrote myself a reminder with the word “breathe”. Well, on my flight, I forgot to look at it!
I land in Barcelona and I start getting up before the plane stops in order to get to the door faster, and of course the flight attendants yelled at me. I finally get to the door, and a man is talking on the phone, not in a hurry at all, and when I ask him to let me go in front of him he starts yelling at me in Spanish, I didn’t understand much of what he said, but he wasn’t saying nice things to me. I get out of the plane and I start running, and when I get to the gate for my Ibiza flight, the flight is delayed. Really??!!
I get in Ibiza 1 hour late, the driver had left, I called all the 3 numbers on my itinerary, no one answers. Fun. I sit down and I start wondering what to do. I finally get a call back from someone, saying they are sending the driver back. All that took 45 minutes of sitting and waiting in Ibiza airport. I finally get to my hotel at 4pm, when I was supposed to be there around half 1… I have been sleepless and traveling for 18 hours, only to get from Montreal to Ibiza. Japan is closer than that!
I manage sleep for about 3 hours. Go to dinner. Have a fun night with friends and have a really good time at the club! At least!! Cool crowd, I played good solid techno, I enjoyed myself very much! After the set, 3 more hours of sleep. I wake up extremely tired, but just the thought of going on vacation in Sicily later today makes me forget all about it. I go to the airport, fearing that there may be more delays on flights today. I stress a little but really try not to, telling myself that with a layover of almost 3 hours in Barcelona I really should be ok… Well, the flight from Ibiza to Barcelona had a 2 hours delay!! And of course, the stupid moron at the check in counter did not let me carry my bag on the plane because it had 3 kilos too many. Wow, really?! So that meant that on top of arriving in Barcelona extremely late, I had to wait for my luggage before proceeding to the check in of my next flight! My flight for Catania was going to be leaving from the old terminal, T2. And, of course, we were going to land in T1. And of course, I wasn’t checked in my next flight yet, and the incoming flight from Ibiza had nothing to do with the next one, so I couldn’t ask the airline to hold my next flight.
When I boarded that extremely late flight in Ibiza I was freaking out, I was furious!! I was looking at all the people who were slowly searching for luggage space above their heads, slowly sitting down in their seats, and I wanted to kill them all (not really)!!! I was SO annoyed!! I couldn’t stand anything or anyone!
I remember a month ago when I was flying from Barcelona to Rome, I was sitting beside a guy who made me laugh. I kind of understood at some point that he seemed extremely annoyed at the flight attendant. So I gave him a smile full of compassion. And he said to me “I could kill right now”, and I said “I know what you mean”, and then he said “I saw your face and I knew you would understand, because I wouldn’t say these things to a stranger”. It’s after that sentence that I understood that the guy was also traveling a lot, and by talking a little more he told me he was the lead singer of the band Wilco.
So, I was saying, I was extremely annoyed… Two french guys sat beside me, that was my first gift from the sky, but in disguise… I was annoyed at the entire planet so when they politely smiled at me I could have told them to go to hell, but with all the little energy left inside of me, I politely smiled back… And then, when the flight left, I started thinking about a game plan, I had to think, think, think, and think fast, and I had a genius idea!!
I started asking the two french guys for their help. In the beginning, they didn’t seem too sure, but in the end I convinced them, and they helped me out! It’s a CRAZY story! I started explaining to them how my checked-in luggage looked like, and asked them grab it for me and bring it to me at T2 while I would go ahead to check myself in my flight. So, explaining how my black carry-on bag looked like, just like the rest of the world’s carry-ons, was kind of funny! But still, I managed…. I told them that as soon as we’d land, I’d run to a taxi, pass in front of everyone yelling I have a flight leaving in 10 minutes at T2, get to T2, check-in my flight and get on my knees to beg them to wait for my “friends” who are arriving any minute with my bag!! And that as soon as they’d grab my bag, they would have to do the same to come and bring it to me!
I even asked the flight attendant to let me sit in front of the plane, so I could run out as soon as we’d land!
When we land, guess what? The plane doesn’t stop at a door, but in the middle of the field! And we have to get to the terminal with a bus! Unbelievable! Can you imagine how stressed I was? I certainly was not looking at my iPhone screen saver at that moment… And I was really starting to wonder why all this was happening to me, and if really it was best for me to lose my flight in order to avoid something horrible that could happen to me. I know, I’ve watched too many movies, but really at some point you wonder why life is doing EVERYTHING in order for you not to be able to catch your flight!! When we finally got to the terminal by bus, I started running, running, running, running, running!!! I trusted complete strangers to find my bag, pick it up, and take another taxi to come reach me at T2. I took the taxi from T1 to T2. The taxi’s minimum cost for a ride from the airport, even for a 5 mins ride, is 20 EURO. Then their taxi = another 20 EURO. Great! But 40 EURO is better than losing your flight, not get to destination, and buy another flight for the next day right?
It’s 3:10pm, the flight leaves at 3:20, the guys have just arrived at T2 with my bag. I give them 20 EURO say thank you and start running again!! I still have to go through security, etc. I ran, ran, ran, ran, ran, yelled at people that I was coming behind them, “move!! I have a flight to catch leaving in 2 minutes!!” I was yelling in the whole airport. People were almost scared of me. I even managed running through security without being checked really, when I told the lady my flight was leaving in a minute she just let me go, no one looked at my laptop that wasn’t even pulled out of my bag, nor the liquids in my luggage! I really could have lied and I could have gone away with it, and through security without a problem. You really gotta be in Spain for that… They aren’t stressed those guys! I pass security and I am still far, far, far away from my gate. I start thinking that after all this, now that I’ve made it to T2, managed checking in when the flight was closing, that the flight would just leave in my face. I am running running running, with all my bags, it was heavy, I’m thinking any moment that I’m about to fall on the floor…. and then I started thinking, ok, think of what you would do if you had to run for your life, or for the life of someone you love, and I kept running, I was panting panting panting, running running running…. When I finally arrived at my door I couldn’t even talk. My mouth was dry, I needed water!! The flight attendants were laughing at me, not stressed at all. I was the last passenger to come in, but for some reason the flight left after 15 minutes after I got there. So, really….!!!! They gave me water when I boarded the flight as I was really incapable of breathing so much that my entire mouth was dry, and as soon as I drank my glass of water, I asked the flight attendants: “is this plane going to crash? because I really wasn’t supposed to make it, I wasn’t wasn’t wasn’t supposed…. and now, I’m scared!”.
They looked at me, speachless.
And that, is the end of my story. I am writing from the plane. I can’t wait to land in Catania. We should land in 15 minutes. I can already see my land from here. I can see Etna, my volcano. There is turbulence, it’s uncomfortable. Of course until I touch the ground, I have a fear… This was too crazy, and in all the possible ways life has tried to make me miss this flight.
When I make it to the ground, as soon as I touch the beautiful land where I was born, I think I’m going to get on my knees and kiss it.
This vacation is going to be more than deserved.
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Now it’s July 22nd… It was fantastic!!! 🙂