finally on my way to NY. i'm sure you also had escapades where every possible thing went wrong. mine however pushed me to the limit. so, i have all my suitcases packed. got my plain ticket, 1.500$ in cash, F1 student visa, ready to collect the frequent flying points when... well the first part of my trip was just fine. i flew from ljubljana to frankfurt. got off the plane and then it started. i realized i had only 40 minutes to switch to another plane that would take me to JFK.
easier said than done. by the time i finally got to the transfer unit, they told me i was too late to check in and that i need to run to the gate in case they still let me on the plain. i ran like crazy, got on the train that took me to another part of the airport only to arrive to the point where they did not let me beyond that point: "sorry. the boarding is finished." that was it right there. i've had my first nervous brakedown of the trip.
the lufthansa staff then tried to get me on the next plain to NY, which was of course fully booked. nervous brakedown number 2. i didn't have any other choice but to go to the ticket counter and buy another ticket for the flight to NY the next day (which of course ment that i would miss an entire day of my classes at the NYFA). to my surprise the airline did not offer me any compensation and i ended up paying for the hotel and everything else plus another 100€ because they needed to change my ticket. in terms of timing this has been going on all day by the end of which i was totally exhausted and just wanted to sleep.
i arrived to my room and tried to sleep so i turned on the tv set which has always helped me relax. my luck being as it was, i chose the news channel where i heard that the lufthansa airline is supposed to have a general strike the next day. nervous brakedown number 3. am i ever gonny get out of this place??? i rushed back to the airport and got checked in for the next day and asked around if anyone knew anything about the strike. of course they all denied that the strike was gonna happen. which made me even more nervous.
i got back to my room and had a couple of "painkillers" from the minibar. finally i went to sleep. the next morning i woke up, turned on the tv and heard: "lufthansa airline is on a general strike today...". nervous brakedown number 4. i rushed out of the room, payed the bill, rushed to the ariport to the first lufthanca service centre and told them my story for the 15th time. they assured me that the plain is gonna take off because the strike applied only for the internal flights and that my baggage was still at the airport. well, i thought, finally some good news.
i grabbed a little bite to eat, a bottle of water and slowly made my way to the gate since i had a couple of hours to spare. i looked around a bit, checked out the shops, didn't buy anything, but anyway. i got to the gate with less than an hour remaining before taking off. i sat down and i was just about to relax when speaker announced: "dear passengers since this flight is overbooked we are kindly asking for volunteers that would take the evening flight to NY. not all of you will be able to get on this flight..." nervous brakedown number 5. i couldn't believe it. "is this nightmare going to end at all ??!
this was beginning to seem like a very sick joke. i mean, who are we? bags of potato that anyone can just push around or paying customers??? i decided that i've had just about enough of this s.... i got up, got to the gate entrance door and decided that i'm not gonna let anyone else stop me from finally getting on this flight. the whole the terminal movie with tom hanks was playing in my head, how he was stuck at a terminal and couldn't go anywhere.
and then it finally happened. they opened the gate door and almost like wild animals everyone that was waiting rushed thru the door to the plain. i finally made it. not something i would wanna do all over again. hence the picture of me in my window seat.
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