Airports and other stuff

Hello again bloggers.

I'd never flight before october of the last year. But after that date, when my new live at England (and later Madrid, and then England again) started, I catched a few of them. At october everything was new and exciting to me, but it's becoming usual to me to go to the airport and do all the small things you have to.

Then my airport adventures started. Apart from some little problems with the metal detectors I didn't have any other. But last week I had my first airport day, quite an experience. I arrived at Barajas Airport at 7:15AM, time enough to do everything and even have time to rest and have a cigarrete. When I reached the desk the clerk asked me to show my id, wich I did. Then she told me it was over the date, meaning it worth the same as WC paper. The problem is you can't flight without it. I didn't have my passport with me, I had left it at home. She spent some time checking with a policeman if I could use my driving license. Finally he said it wasn't possible. But I had spent 15 minutes with it. She told me to go to the police station at the airport to ask for an emergency passport and so I did.

I asked the policeman at the door how to obtain it, and he told me (he was quite rude, because he was chatting with another policeman and I interrupted him, needing a passport it's not that important, you know) the office opened at 8:15. I realized it was the same for me to go home to pick my passport. So I started running with all my luggage. I catched the tube and arrived home with enough time, I was being lucky. I picked my passport at home and went to the underground again. But this time the train was late and slow. I arrived at the airport just 15 minutes before the plane was leaving but they didn't allow me to get in.

They told me to change my ticket for the next one, wich was at 9:25, but I was left on "lista de espera", meaning I could only travel if somebody didn't show. I waited and waited and feeling lucky because there were 3 seats empty still and we were 3 guys waiting for them. But the .*&'~$£ appear at the last minute so I couldn't pick that one. Next one at 12:45 she told me. That meant an almost 3 hours wait on an airport. It's amazing how slow the time passes when you have nothing to do but waiting impatiently. At 12:25 I asked how the thing was going, and the clerk told me it was going fine but I had to go to another terminal wich was on the other side of the airport.

But finally I could get into the plane, lucky me. Thirteen passangers were missing and we take off late. I forgot to say I couldn't speak with anybody at my office, so they didn't know what was going on with me. But I could speak with the taxi driver who was going to wait for me at the airport telling him to wait for me to call him before going to heathrow.

There I was at last at Heathrow. I managed to call the taxi driver, my office and everything seemed to go fine. But time passed and the taxi didn't appear. I called him and he told me he was at a traffic jam on the N25. A lorry had crashed and exploded it's gas tank and the motorway was a mess. He was 2 hours late but finally arrived and we went to Shenley Wood at Milton Keynes.

Final trip time: 13 hours!!!!!

Well, that was quite an adventure I think, and my first airport experience. I had some small others but I have to work, so I'll left them for next ocasion.

By the way, I'm staying at a luxury hotel at London. My bed is as big as five times the one I have at Madrid. I can sleep on any position I would want, crossed, diagonal, ... and it will be space enough still for 3 more people. The room is enormous and nice. I'll take a photo and post it next time with some other stories.

Farewell.

Manoel.