The Big Holiday - A "Long" Haul

Singapore - Supertree Grove

Well, I’m back in Sahl Hasheesh, the sun is shining, the atmosphere is relaxed, and I’m wondering what possessed me to go back to work.

Getting back turned out to be quite a journey. I should have been suspicious when things went wrong from the very start.

On the way to NZ, one of the wheels tore off my suitcase meaning that I had to drag it about rather than wheeling it, so I wanted as little carrying and as little hassle as possible. I asked at Auckland check-in if they could check my bags all the way through to Hurghada, but as it was, the booking system froze as I arrived at the counter. Looking back, this was A Sign.

Eventually, after the woman serving me filled in the time with various questions about whether I had visas (I didn’t need any?) and whether I had onward flights (but I’ve just asked you to book my luggage all the way through?), the guy at the next desk had to see to my check in because the system at my counter wasn’t working. He could book me in only as far as Singapore.

Even though it was early in the morning, I was fortunately alert enough to notice that two separate flights were going to Brisbane at the same time and I went to the correct gate. The flight turned out to be delayed, but I wasn’t too bothered. Then, as we were about to land, the ground now almost close enough to touch as I looked out the window, the plane suddenly accelerated and rose up fast into the sky as if in panic. They’d had to abort the landing due to bad weather.

I was glad that the pilot wasn’t a risk taker. If I’d have been the pilot, I’d have probably chanced it and gone ahead, skidded, and killed hundreds of people. Just as well I never became a pilot.

Anyway, we were delayed, but landed safely in the end. I had a five hour wait at Brisbane, so the delay wasn’t too much of a hassle. The next part of my journey was on business class, so I could take advantage of the lounge. In fact, my trip as far as Zurich (via Singapore) was all in business, and all of this bit went smoothly. Perhaps The Sign is that I should always travel business; as soon as I went economy, things went wrong.

So, I arrived in Zurich pretty happy with how things had gone. At Singapore, they’d checked my luggage in all the way through, so I was worry-free in that respect. I’d sampled the business lounge at Singapore and eaten some pretty good food.

Zurich to Hurghada was all economy and this is when everything went horribly wrong. I’d chosen to fly to Hurghada via Vienna rather than waiting two days in Zurich until there was a direct flight. However, the Zurich flight was delayed (the theme of my journey).We eventually took off and on arrival in Vienna, I ran to the gate for my next flight. As I arrived, the woman was just saying on the phone that she was waiting for Frau Steinkamp (that’s me!). I panted out in German that I was she, and she stopped the conversation to let the person on the other end know, but it was too late; the plane was just leaving.

The next flight to Hurghada was via Istanbul, so I had to wait in Vienna airport for 10 hours for a flight to Istanbul. I’d probably already been travelling for 24 hours. They gave me a 12 EUR compensation voucher to spend in selected outlets for food, which didn’t quite cover my needs, to be honest. At least they didn’t tell me off for booking a flight with such a short connection time.

Vienna airport was pretty good with places to charge your tablets etc free of charge and limitless free wifi, so actually I passed the time fairly easily. When I finally checked in for my new flight, I was warned that the flight was delayed, but they were sure I’d still make the connection as there was plenty of time. I was also informed that I had a standby ticket, but, again, they were sure that a seat would be available.

However, the 20 minute delay turned into a 2 hour delay and, yes, that’s right, I missed my next connection. Actually, I rudely leapt off the plane and charged into the airport to try to get to the gate and then was confused because my flight wasn’t showing on the screen and I couldn’t see anyone around to ask. I didn’t know which direction to go in or what to do. I kept on staring at the board willing for my flight to appear; I had 30 minutes before the plane left, so at least I should be able to get on, even if my luggage couldn’t.

Finally, a member of airport staff walked past and he informed me that it was an hour later than I thought it was and that the flight wasn’t showing because it had gone a long time ago. I’d never planned to be in Istanbul and never considered that it would be in a different time zone from Vienna.

My next challenge was to rebook my flight yet again. The guy pointed me to the Turkish Airlines help desk, they told me to go to the Night Desk. I needed to contact Esmat to tell him not to pick me up from the airport that evening, but I was informed that there was no wifi in the airport. Help! I walked away and became unsure as to whether they’d said to go upstairs and then through passport control or vice versa. I asked someone and they told me to go to the end of the corridor. The end of the corridor was in darkness and I was sure this wasn’t right.

I looked at my ticket and I realised that she’d written Denied Desk, not the Night Desk. I asked someone else and they informed me that I needed to go by the visa, through passport control, and then... it was all more than I could remember and I was already confused as to whether I had to buy a visa or whether passport control was by the visa desk.

Fortunately, passport control, by the visa desk, was empty, so I went up and was turned away because I didn’t have a visa. The visa desk would take only US dollars or EUR, neither of which I had. There were machines that would take cards, and I sweated a bit as I hadn’t listed Turkey as one of the countries I was visiting and worried that my card would be refused, but fortunately it worked.

By this time, planeloads of tourists had entered the airport and there was a huge queue to get through passport control. I had to ask someone where the stairs were and, I’ll cut the story a bit, I eventually found the Denied Desk.

There seemed to be a bit of a fuss and discussion as I explained my situation; I heard the words “standby” and they seemed a bit puzzled as to how it took me so long to get to their desk. I wandered over to the free laptops and tried to contact Esmat but for some reason the system wouldn’t recognise my facebook login or my email login and, again, there was no wifi available. Eventually I discovered that a cafe on the other side of the building had wifi, so I went over and begged them to be able to use it. I feared that I was already too late to be of any use to Esmat, but I had to try and communicate. The Denied Desk told me that afterwards I should go to B15. I asked if they meant gate B15 and they said no, B15 just up the way.

I found the correct B15, they gave me a boarding card and then said I had to go to the hotel downstairs next to Starbucks. I couldn’t grasp the name of the hotel and I said I needed them to pay for it, but they just insisted I went to the hotel next to Starbucks. It turned out to be the Hotel Desk, which is the desk where the airline books hotels for people who have missed connections; they waited for whole groups before allocating hotels to us. What a palava! I didn’t know that the whole process could be so complicated; that was a total of four separate counters I had to visit to get it all organised.

Anyway, cutting the story short again, I ended up in a hotel in the middle of nowhere bordering on the railway and motorway; my next flight was the same time, next day (around 10pm). The airline paid for the hotel, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There was free wifi, so at least I was able to contact Esmat for a pickup the following night instead. However, I imagined he wasn’t too pleased with me since a pick up at 2am in the morning can’t be one of his favourite jobs; I’d now already not shown up the night before.

I could say more (customs, lost passport), but let’s just say that I finally made it home, but two days later than planned and I’ve missed out on two days here in lovely Sahl Hasheesh. But at least I am safe and sound and that’s the main thing.