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STRANDED: Malpensa!
Dec. 20th, 2003 05:16 pmOne delayed flight is annoying but a continuous series can be exceedingly frustrating! As luck would have it, I had the pleasure of experiencing three in a row, with one lasting as long as nearly six hours!! Funnily enough though, I arrived @ my final destination (Muscat) not only on time, but with all my baggage. Those Italians weren't so bad after all ...
It all began several days ago. About two weeks ago actually. It was that time of year
again - exams! I had four in four days. Not such a pretty sight considering the last
one was a bladder-challenging 4 hour straight shooter. Amazingly enough I got through
in one piece and partied it up till my first Air Canada journey.
As expected it was delayed but this time the weather played its part too. Toronto was
vaguely boring and that's when I first noticed Teniel and her wonderfully old
neighbor passenger. The journey to Milan was filled with a series of 15 minute power
naps and regular chugs of water.
Enter Negar! Shiv, a stranger (forgotten her name), and I were standing @ the transit
counter in Milan when out of nowhere came a frantic looking passenger. I think she
wanted to know how to get out of the airport and I thought I guided her correctly but
as I was to later find out, that did not happen. Oh well, in the meanwhile I had the
pleasure of experiencing downtown Milan.
Milan is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Very traditional and not a
single skyscraper in sight. Rather welcoming after several months of Montreal's hustle
and bustle. At times it felt as though I was walking through Galileo's Italy, amidst
Renaissance architecture and silky Italian dialogues. Pity the return flight only
stops for a coupla hours ... (though considering Al-Italia's track record that
guarantees me a longer stay!)
Anyways got back to the airport in what I thought was ample time to settle down and
then eventually board the flight. Now no offence to les italianos but "prev" in italian conveniently translates out to "exp" in english. In that very column was written "22:05" on those TV Departure screens. I was a tad confused. Soon enough I realized from Shiv, our fellow crew member from Montreal that the flight was indeed delayed due to good ole "technical difficulties."
Oh boy, we were in for the long haul on this one!! It was still 4:20pm! Anyways, after a lengthy discussion Shiv suddenly remembered that we had to collect our food vouchers. On the way we *bumped* into the "frantic passenger" and her gang of friends. That's when my fun began and as I quickly realized, none of us knew each other individually hardly a few hours earlier. We were all university students studying in some corner of the vast N.American continent, separated by thousands of miles, but connected by a conglomerate of oases in the Middle East! How neat was that.
I thought it was freaky when Ali and I realized we had two friends in common, one of whom I had hung out with hardly 30 hours before seeing each other!! What a crazy, small world!!
Anyways, everybody found something in common with the other and bloody hell, I can't think of a better way to spend some delayed flight hours in an airport! Funny, cuz every single one of us thought we'd be stuck in Malpensa for the original "10" hours alone but as luck would have it...
By now you be bored so to cut a reasonably long story short ... the flight got further delayed to 22:45. Everybody was on the verge of kicking the Air Italia's workforce ass but luckily sanity prevailed. Ali had a few tears embedded onto his trolley and the trip home was filled with sleep.
Fuckin' kangaroos ... THE END!
-----
Next entry: Last week's dinner @ Cris
Next next entry: First week in Oman!
It all began several days ago. About two weeks ago actually. It was that time of year
again - exams! I had four in four days. Not such a pretty sight considering the last
one was a bladder-challenging 4 hour straight shooter. Amazingly enough I got through
in one piece and partied it up till my first Air Canada journey.
As expected it was delayed but this time the weather played its part too. Toronto was
vaguely boring and that's when I first noticed Teniel and her wonderfully old
neighbor passenger. The journey to Milan was filled with a series of 15 minute power
naps and regular chugs of water.
Enter Negar! Shiv, a stranger (forgotten her name), and I were standing @ the transit
counter in Milan when out of nowhere came a frantic looking passenger. I think she
wanted to know how to get out of the airport and I thought I guided her correctly but
as I was to later find out, that did not happen. Oh well, in the meanwhile I had the
pleasure of experiencing downtown Milan.
Milan is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Very traditional and not a
single skyscraper in sight. Rather welcoming after several months of Montreal's hustle
and bustle. At times it felt as though I was walking through Galileo's Italy, amidst
Renaissance architecture and silky Italian dialogues. Pity the return flight only
stops for a coupla hours ... (though considering Al-Italia's track record that
guarantees me a longer stay!)
Anyways got back to the airport in what I thought was ample time to settle down and
then eventually board the flight. Now no offence to les italianos but "prev" in italian conveniently translates out to "exp" in english. In that very column was written "22:05" on those TV Departure screens. I was a tad confused. Soon enough I realized from Shiv, our fellow crew member from Montreal that the flight was indeed delayed due to good ole "technical difficulties."
Oh boy, we were in for the long haul on this one!! It was still 4:20pm! Anyways, after a lengthy discussion Shiv suddenly remembered that we had to collect our food vouchers. On the way we *bumped* into the "frantic passenger" and her gang of friends. That's when my fun began and as I quickly realized, none of us knew each other individually hardly a few hours earlier. We were all university students studying in some corner of the vast N.American continent, separated by thousands of miles, but connected by a conglomerate of oases in the Middle East! How neat was that.
I thought it was freaky when Ali and I realized we had two friends in common, one of whom I had hung out with hardly 30 hours before seeing each other!! What a crazy, small world!!
Anyways, everybody found something in common with the other and bloody hell, I can't think of a better way to spend some delayed flight hours in an airport! Funny, cuz every single one of us thought we'd be stuck in Malpensa for the original "10" hours alone but as luck would have it...
By now you be bored so to cut a reasonably long story short ... the flight got further delayed to 22:45. Everybody was on the verge of kicking the Air Italia's workforce ass but luckily sanity prevailed. Ali had a few tears embedded onto his trolley and the trip home was filled with sleep.
Fuckin' kangaroos ... THE END!
-----
Next entry: Last week's dinner @ Cris
Next next entry: First week in Oman!
