22-23 juin
I am still alive believe it or not! Here’s a recap of the
last few, slightly miserable days. The
night of the 21st as I was in the Tel Aviv Israel airport, my flight
to Belgium, that was supposed to leave at 1am, got cancelled. I proceeded to wait in line from 10:30pm
until 1:30am to talk to a Brussels Airlines representative in order to be given
a replacement flight. The people with
this company were extremely unorganized and so they made an already miserable
process a wretched one. On top of that,
Israelis are super pushy and will push right in front of you without a second
of hesitation. I was not feeling very
aggressive at 1 in the morning, and so I just let all the pushy people get what
they wanted and then I went back up to have my turn when most people were
gone. Brussels Airlines gave me a flight
to Rome and then to Milan that left at 5:20am which was about 4 hours away at
this point. I had high hopes of getting
through security and then snatching an hour or two of sleep. But no, security at this airport is the most
insane thing I have ever seen. And of
course, I was put in every single additional inspection line since I was by
myself and not with a tour group. I
waited in line to have my check-on baggage go through the metal detector, then
I waited in line to have my check-on baggage thoroughly checked. They made me pull every single item out of my
meticulously and strategically packed suitcase.
They rubbed a little cloth over every single surface of every item and
then checked the cloth to make sure there wasn’t any whatever they were looking
for on it. Keep in mind that it is 2:30
in the morning…and I am not very coherent or logical. I think all the workers thought I was mad at
them, but really I was just half awake and pep talking myself to stay awake and
scared out of my mind to not do what security told me. Then I got personally escorted over to the
check in counter where I checked in for my flight. Then I waited in line to go through regular
security. And guess what? They wanted to wipe down everything in my
carry-on luggage with that dumb cloth and then they ran the cloth through the
machine. It’s about 3:30am now. This is a person who needs at least 8 hours
of sleep every night to be able to function…I was a zombie. It is a huge blessing that I made it to the
right gate and onto the right flight and didn’t leave my passport somewhere
because even now, I have a hard time remembering what happened since I was not
fully there. I boarded my flight as soon
as I reached the gate at 4:30am. I sat
down in my seat, put my seat belt on, and fell asleep. I woke up once to eat a roll that was on a
tray in front of me, then I fell back asleep…I woke up when people were getting
off the plane so I got off too and walked into Rome. I got in another line to have my passport
checked. Then I got in another line to
go through another security check. Then
I got in another line to board the plane to Milan. It’s about 8am now. I slept the entire hour flight to Milan. In waiting to get my luggage on the carousel,
it went around about 3 times before I realized that it was mine passing in
front of me, ha. I bought a sandwich
then got on the shuttle to go to the train station.
Because of the rerouting of my
flights, I had missed the trains for which I had tickets and so I got in the
long line to talk to the trenitalia people to see if they would refund or
exchange my tickets. I finally get to a train
attendant and he looks at my tickets and shakes his head. Great.
He informed me that there was a strike in France today and none of the
trains were operating there. He gave me
a couple options of what to do…but I didn’t really understand what he
said. And so I went and sat down and cried
for a few minutes because I was so mentally and physically exhausted.
I used my last ounce of energy to think of
what to do next. I just decided to call
it a day and try again the next day to make it to France since the strike would
hopefully be over by then. I walked to
the hostel where I had stayed in Milan a few weeks earlier, but they were full
for that night. I had visions of me
wandering the streets asking at millions of hotels and all of them being
empty. Where’s a cave and a bed of hay
when you need it. Luckily, the next
hotel I went into had a room open for that night. I told them I’d take it before I even asked
the price. My Maslow hierarchy of needs
was at the lowest level. I went into the
room, took a freezing cold shower, emailed my parents to tell them I was alive
and to notify them of my change of plans, then I fell asleep at 4pm and slept
until 7am the next morning. I got up in
the morning feeling like I hadn’t slept at all.
I imagine that I felt a bit like one does when one is hungover…my eyes
just felt glazed and my head heavy. But
I had to press on or else this miserable journey would never end. I bought some food and then got on a train
for the 3 hour ride to Ventimiglia. I
saw lots of beautiful Italian Mediterranean beaches on the way! Then I went the hour to Nice, and then the
2.5 hours to Marseilles. As soon as I
was in France, I felt like I had finally gotten home because I could finally
understand what people were saying and what the train announcer was talking
about. On the train to Marseilles, I
watched To Catch a Thief which is a Hitchcock movie with Cary Grant and Grace
Kelly that takes place in the French Riviera.
It was cool to be watching the actors in Cannes as the train was driving
through Cannes. In Marseilles, I took
the metro to my apartment and luckily found it without any problems. Then I set my alarm for the morning and
collapsed into sleep.
So
I’m pretty sure it’s a miracle that all of me and all of my stuff made it to
Marseilles. I know it’s because of my
many prayers for a rational brain and also because of all the prayers of my
family back home. I do not think I ever
want to do such a logistically complicated journey by myself ever again!
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