Travel tales

I'm in the middle of a set of travel right now, as I make my way from Clove Island to the US. On a call with my cousin, her son was quizzing me about my travels, so I thought it might be fun to describe my trip so far to all of you here.

My first flight was from Clove to Volcano Island, where the international airport is. The flight takes all of 30 minutes, but you still have to deal with being there for check-in, for a police check, security, and then finally flying. The limits on luggage for this flight are pretty strict: 44 lbs checked and 12 lbs carry-on. Because I was traveling with more stuff this trip, a soon-to-be-priest agreed to check in together with me and made it so I didn't have to pay for having extra luggage. We ended up chatting in English while waiting for the flight, then said goodbye on arrival. 

I walked out to the main road to catch a taxi into town, and the aforementioned almost-priest was exiting the airport with a friend. They offered me a ride into town, which I happily agreed to. His friend was from Congo and didn't have strong English, so our conversation quickly shifted into French. I was able to hear some observations on the work of the Cath.Ch and their humanitarian work in the islands. They dropped me off where I could catch a taxi to my hotel. 

A couple of days later it was time for the international flight off the islands. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time, finding that they had yet again changed the flow of passengers. I joined the long line stretching outside of the airport into the sun, waiting to go in. Things were moving slowly, but I'm used to slow in the islands, so thought nothing of it.

But then the lady in front of me said, "Oh, you're flying to Nairobi? All of us are flying to Addis Ababa. You should go past us to check in!" So I did.

But between entering the airport and the police check outside of the check-in area, the police decided that check-in was closed for my flight. They told me in no uncertain terms that I could not pass through to the check-in area, that they could not help me, and they took my luggage cart away from me and pushed it off to the side so I wouldn't continue bothering them.

I could see through to check-in, to see that there were still passengers being checked in for my flight. I looked around, what to do? There's no office in the airport, I'd have to go outside to find someone. All the people with the airline are on the other side of those disagreeable policemen who won't let me go check in. It's not my fault! I was here, but waiting in line! Nobody said that passengers on my flight could skip the line.

Thankfully, in that moment, I looked over to see a man wearing a vest with my airline's name on it. "Please, can you help me? The police say check-in is closed, but I've been waiting all this time..." 

He looked at me, "Check-in isn't closed! I'm in charge of this flight! Go check in." So I went back to the police, "that man with the airline says I can check in." The police wouldn't budge, so I went back to the airline worker. He came to help me with the disagreeable police, and finally the policeman grudgingly gestured toward the door. I was the second from last in line for check-in.

By the time I was checking in, I could see my flight starting to board on the other side of security, but I still had to go through immigration and security. I got to the front of the lines and, upon making it through security, immediately joined the end of the line of passengers to board the plane. As I was walking from the airport to the plane I glanced down at my boarding passes (passes? plural?) and realized the seat on my boarding pass wasn't the one I'd reserved when I booked the flight. It was a business class seat. Also, I had a second boarding pass taking me to Johannesburg! What?? Then I looked at the name. Well, my name's not Matthew, so those weren't my boarding passes.

I ended up hanging out with the flight attendant for business class while waiting for them to sort out the passenger manifest. It turns out their machine printed Matthew's boarding pass twice and everyone was in a hurry so didn't notice the discrepancy.

At long last I got my seat, flew to Nairobi, did immigration and collected luggage, and am ready to do it all again in a few hours as I fly to the US by way of Europe. 

So tell, me how do you feel about travel?