DONCHA JUST LOVE TRAVELLING?

All the hassles? Delays? Unexpected occurrences? All the paper needed. The technology needed to handle online booking, printing off boarding passes (that´s when the ink in your PC decides to dry up and the paper jams). And so many people asking to see your ticket….which means hunting through pockets in the rucksack while trying to keep an eye on luggage. Then hauling the dammed suitcase up on to the train, bus, security belt, luggage rack….. It only weighed 20 kilos at home but add that to the rucksack which seems to be gaining weight with every hour of the journey. And of course, being a woman, the shoulder bag which is stuffed to the gunnels….shoulders aching and only hours into the trip. Happy travelling. What do others do to make this hassle-free or is this a pipe dream?
And even before leaving the house, so many last minute things to do. Yes I did decide to do two washings. Yes I did decide to wash the floors. Yes the basura (rubbish) needs to be taken out….etc…etc.
Despite all the wonders of modern technology, surely travelling used to be less hassle, no? Or maybe it´s just another sign of ´getting on´ in years. I´m ready for a shoulder massage and am only on the high speed AVE from Valencia to Madrid. No WIFI either while hurtling along at 250 kilometers per hour. It´s dark outside so no views….well they´d probably be just a blurr anyway.
Hallo Mein Deutschlehrer! Ich habe ihn gesagt dass ich wurde ein bisschen, jeden Tag auf Deutsch schreiben. That´s enough for today…

Ok so far so good…
Para que lo sepáis mis amigos… hablantes españoles…
Oliva – Gandia- Valencia-change station-Ave to Madrid (arrived 15 mins early)- bus to airport-(2degrees and cold waiting for hotel bus pickup)-Hotel Axor (excellent). Midnight and about 4 hours sleep. Hotel bus to airport- Air France to Paris.
Now here´s where it starts to go astray… Zero degrees and plane is de-iced. Arrived at Paris a bit late. No worries. Only a 25 minute fast walk to other terminal. Arrived to a huge crowd slowly going through only two lines. Getting worried about time. Asked twice to staff. It´s OK..they will wait for you was the reply. Well they lied. Got to boarding gate…..fermé…cerrado….tancat…closed….geschliest!!!!!!!
Staff directed me to customer services of Air France who were quite unperturbed that the airport staff had told lies (they are not our staff…was the retort). Another woman arrived beside me…a lovely Indian lady, also going to Bangalore. Her flight from Zurich arrived a bit late and she received the same replies as I had….No worries!! So their solution was to put us on an Oman Air flight to Muskrat..WHERE?!!! Then we were to catch another flight to Bangalore. So we were sent away to another part of airport. We asked for help but the seven people working in this sector were hopeless. One said we may need visas to go to Oman!!!! So we decided to return to Air France to say we wanted to be put in an hotel overnight and fly out at the original flight time the following day. Believe me this took a lot of searching around airport. We hadn’t eaten ..apart from un trés petit croissant served onboard and were hungry, thirsty, tired, stressed and totally pissed off (súper enfadadas) with Air France and airport staff. They refused to put us up in hotel so back to plan B….Third time through all the security checks and wondering if our luggage would find us at the final destination!
Oman Air flight staff was as flight staff should be. We got the best in-flight meals I’ve had in a long time. And Runa, my travelling companion, was great company and we had some laughs over our experiences. So we arrived at Muskrat (only saw inside of the airport) then discovered that there was a 4 hour delay for the Bangalore flight. Hope you are still following this saga… To end this part..we did get to Bangalore, our luggage did too, and we were ONLY 10 hours behind schedule. We bid each other a fond farewell with promises to meet up before I head back.
An hour´s taxi ride to Alistair and Amargit´s home in the suburbs of Bangalore and a much needed tea. An ayurvedic masseuse came to give me a thorough oiling and pummelling of aching muscles (450 rupees….6Euros)…a bargain. Later on helped their 8 year old daughter , Anou, with homework. Their other daughter Jaya has chickenpox! I have my own bedroom ensuite and slept about 10 hours.