Travelogue: Part the First
Nov. 25th, 2004 04:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plumtreeblossomIt was close, down to the wire at the 36th hour of attempting to get to Edinburgh, but I'm here. I am now more familiar with the Amsterdam airport than I ever wanted to be.
The flight from Boston was delayed 2 hours, but in the end it wouldn't have mattered -- nearly all flights to the UK were cancelled due to a fog as thick as < insert cliche other than pea soup > my rapidly boiling blood < /pea soup>. The overnight flight arrived about 9:00 AM in Amsterdam, with the next available connection at noon. That was fine, although I hadn't slept on the plane, nor slept since 6:00 AM Wednesday, so I was slightly wobbly by then (little did I know what I would soon know about the altered state of sleep deprivation).
This loses something in the telling (which I'll make up for when my normal head grows back), the noon flight was cancelled and I stoods in line two hours to be rebooked at 2:50. That flight was cancelled and again I spent an hour in line, this time taking the only seat on a flight to Glasgow at 6:00 PM.
Cancelled.
8:25 to Edinburgh: Cancelled.
I was physically ill with exhaustion by that point. The final flights to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen were booked not only for that night, but all day tomorrow. The next flight available would be Saturday evening. And I was leaving Monday morning.
In times of extreme stress like this I can not eat, so I was also nearly 24 hours without food in addition to the sleep dep. An elderly lady in the same stranded boat essentially forced me to eat a cookie from her bag, which is probably why I didn't pass out.
Sum total consumption, Thanksgiving Day 2004:
2 bottled waters
1 black coffee
1 jam-filled cookie
Cigarettes
There were no budget hotels/hostels with room left, with so many stranded people. I couldn't afford an upscale room at any of the bigger hotels, so the outlook was that I would be spending not one but possibly 3 nights on the airport floor.
I was not the only one, of course. In the many long lines spent standing for futile reassignment, I met a cluster of Scotish seniors (who had been strangers to each other), a 30-something woman who was a computer geek from Edinburgh, and a nice gay couple also from Edinburgh. Over the course of the day we bacame something of our own posse, running for coffee for each other, checking the sign, watching each other's bags while we went to the toilet (I still can't get used to saying that instead of rest room). Thank God for those people. Really. That is my big Thing I'm Thankful For this Thanksgiving. Had it not been for them, I would have done what I started doing at 9:00 PM, which was to demand that motherfucking KLM Airlines send me back to Boston immediately on the next motherfucking flight on ANY airline, and fuck the rest of the entire miserable and ruined trip.
My new friends saved me from my own fury and dispair, and convinced me to stay in Amsterdam for the night and see how things might turn out in the morning. Marching to the transfer counter for the 6th time in 24 hours, I gave my story in hopes of getting a hotel voucher. Not available, so the agent said, as inclimate weather is into the fault of the airline. That was enough to break me. I broke down in tears and begged to be sent back to Boston.
The agent, a rather handsome bearded Dutchman, disappeared into the back room momentarily. When he returned, he hit a few keys and said "You're on the 10:55 PM flight to Edinburgh." Understand, that flight was booked solid with a wait list of 22 people. I don't know how or why he did it. Honestly, had he demanded a blowjob for that seat, he would have gotten it. But he didn't. Kindness is one of the biggest mysteries of all to me sometimes.
I waited with my "posse," for the flight, for which they all only had standby status (I felt very self conscious for my real ticket, and made little mention of it). At 11:45 PM, while we talked jibberish from exhaustion and prayed and swore blood oaths against KLM Airlines, a plane came and took us to Edinburgh.
All of my friens made it onto the flight. A larger plane was assigned to the flight. I think the Dutch just wanted us the hell out of their airport.
Well, I'm here then. I didn't get to the hotel until 2:30 AM, and forced myself awake at 10:30 this morning though I could have slept for days. I've just been wandering around town in a hazy, directionless, semi-conscious state, and I found this internet cafe from which I write to you now. I figured I'm better get this down in quasi-words before the veil of trauma-related amniesia drops and I forget any of it ever happened.
Tomorrow, I go to the Highlands.
The flight from Boston was delayed 2 hours, but in the end it wouldn't have mattered -- nearly all flights to the UK were cancelled due to a fog as thick as < insert cliche other than pea soup > my rapidly boiling blood < /pea soup>. The overnight flight arrived about 9:00 AM in Amsterdam, with the next available connection at noon. That was fine, although I hadn't slept on the plane, nor slept since 6:00 AM Wednesday, so I was slightly wobbly by then (little did I know what I would soon know about the altered state of sleep deprivation).
This loses something in the telling (which I'll make up for when my normal head grows back), the noon flight was cancelled and I stoods in line two hours to be rebooked at 2:50. That flight was cancelled and again I spent an hour in line, this time taking the only seat on a flight to Glasgow at 6:00 PM.
Cancelled.
8:25 to Edinburgh: Cancelled.
I was physically ill with exhaustion by that point. The final flights to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen were booked not only for that night, but all day tomorrow. The next flight available would be Saturday evening. And I was leaving Monday morning.
In times of extreme stress like this I can not eat, so I was also nearly 24 hours without food in addition to the sleep dep. An elderly lady in the same stranded boat essentially forced me to eat a cookie from her bag, which is probably why I didn't pass out.
Sum total consumption, Thanksgiving Day 2004:
2 bottled waters
1 black coffee
1 jam-filled cookie
Cigarettes
There were no budget hotels/hostels with room left, with so many stranded people. I couldn't afford an upscale room at any of the bigger hotels, so the outlook was that I would be spending not one but possibly 3 nights on the airport floor.
I was not the only one, of course. In the many long lines spent standing for futile reassignment, I met a cluster of Scotish seniors (who had been strangers to each other), a 30-something woman who was a computer geek from Edinburgh, and a nice gay couple also from Edinburgh. Over the course of the day we bacame something of our own posse, running for coffee for each other, checking the sign, watching each other's bags while we went to the toilet (I still can't get used to saying that instead of rest room). Thank God for those people. Really. That is my big Thing I'm Thankful For this Thanksgiving. Had it not been for them, I would have done what I started doing at 9:00 PM, which was to demand that motherfucking KLM Airlines send me back to Boston immediately on the next motherfucking flight on ANY airline, and fuck the rest of the entire miserable and ruined trip.
My new friends saved me from my own fury and dispair, and convinced me to stay in Amsterdam for the night and see how things might turn out in the morning. Marching to the transfer counter for the 6th time in 24 hours, I gave my story in hopes of getting a hotel voucher. Not available, so the agent said, as inclimate weather is into the fault of the airline. That was enough to break me. I broke down in tears and begged to be sent back to Boston.
The agent, a rather handsome bearded Dutchman, disappeared into the back room momentarily. When he returned, he hit a few keys and said "You're on the 10:55 PM flight to Edinburgh." Understand, that flight was booked solid with a wait list of 22 people. I don't know how or why he did it. Honestly, had he demanded a blowjob for that seat, he would have gotten it. But he didn't. Kindness is one of the biggest mysteries of all to me sometimes.
I waited with my "posse," for the flight, for which they all only had standby status (I felt very self conscious for my real ticket, and made little mention of it). At 11:45 PM, while we talked jibberish from exhaustion and prayed and swore blood oaths against KLM Airlines, a plane came and took us to Edinburgh.
All of my friens made it onto the flight. A larger plane was assigned to the flight. I think the Dutch just wanted us the hell out of their airport.
Well, I'm here then. I didn't get to the hotel until 2:30 AM, and forced myself awake at 10:30 this morning though I could have slept for days. I've just been wandering around town in a hazy, directionless, semi-conscious state, and I found this internet cafe from which I write to you now. I figured I'm better get this down in quasi-words before the veil of trauma-related amniesia drops and I forget any of it ever happened.
Tomorrow, I go to the Highlands.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-26 09:14 am (UTC)-Dej
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-26 04:11 pm (UTC)*hugs* I'm glad you finally made it.
ooooooooohhh I LOVE Edinburgh!
Date: 2004-11-26 04:22 pm (UTC)love and good wishes
Beans
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-26 06:04 pm (UTC)At least you were safe and are in good space now. If you can afford the dinner, I highly suggest the Witchery restaurant (and if they have space, reservations were hard to come by when I was there last - call ahead). The food was delicious and the wine cellar something to be noted.
We will laugh about all this over a bottle of wine or two when you get back. Many hugs!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-26 07:35 pm (UTC)