arba kaip Paplaitis per jūras ir marias muilą nešė
As you must already know I am safe again in Los Angeles and will be soon enjoying a nice walk on Santa Monica beach, but before that let me tell you how did I get here this time...
I was teaching a jazz dance workshop with Mindaugas in Cracow, Poland last weekend and had amazing time there at Swing Era Festival (worth a separate blog entry for sure). I had my ticket booked from Warszawa on 4th of April so I was hesitating to go home in between. When I finally decided to go together with Mindaugas on the 2nd of April, we had a very late dinner and almost missed our flight. But wait! The flight got canceled and we both had to return to the hotel and have another goodbye dinner.
Mindaugas left Cracow on early morning of the 3rd of April and I have moved to the other hotel for one more night. I was ready for a long journey...
April 4, 04:00 am - The alarm comes on.
04:40 am - I'm in the taxi, going to the trains station in Cracow.
05:00 am - they change the train track, I feel anxious, there are more ppl than seats.
05:18 am - got on the train and have a seat, yes!
08:10 am - my dear friend Michal picks me up with a taxi to the airport in Warszawa (thank you so much!)
Around 9 am I'm at the airport and waiting for my flight to London.
12:20 pm - on the half empty plane - 2 extra seats for my feet! yeah!
Around 2 pm I'm keeping calm and carrying on at London Heathrow airport.
5 something pm I slide through the security interview and get on the plane.
The flight seems to be ok, sitting next to a nice guy with the urbanears headphones in teal color. We chat almost through all 8 hour flight. I wonder, how ppl around us have tolerated that. I also have a book: The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco. Not sure if I like it yet..
Around 8 pm - get off the plane in Chicago airport. I will remember this day for quite some time :) go to the line. The line is not moving, the time is ticking, the ppl are late and nervous. My flight to LA is in an hour. I make it to the booth... and they take me to the security room.
Around 09:20 pm I tell jazz dance history to the customs security officer. I seems to be a nice guy so I don't stress out. He asks me to dance before he gives my passport back, so I do some jazz in the security office. Just like that.
My flight is in 30 minutes, so I find my suitcase and run. Ppl are helpful so I make it to the gates right on time. The flight is 10 min. late. I sit down and wait until they anounce that the pilot did not arrive and they delay the flight until tomorrow. Great, I think.
Arround midnight Chicago time I'm at the business hotel. What the fuck?
05:00 am - I'm at the lobby ready to go back to the airport. Let's try it one more time!
08:00 am - we're boarding, at last! I did't have a drop of coffee since I April 3rd Cracow time, still holding my addiction.
08:20 am - we're waiting in the plane.
08:30 am - we're unboarding! Seriously? yes. they forgot to clean and check the freakin' plane. Still no coffee for me.
Around 09:30 am we start to leave Chicago airport, the pilots are bursting with some smart jokes. For some reason ppl don't find it funny... they give out sandwiches for the economy class ppl. how generous.
April 5th, at noon Los Angeles time we arrive to the airport and wait, until other planes move out of the way. Pilots are happy: "yay! we made it to LA! have a good day and good life. Forget everything what happened to you during these two days! Think it was a film". I LOL, cause I'm surprised.
Strange that my suitcase arrived too.
I appreciate the amount of miles American Airlines sent to me after this craziness of 41 hour.
I had 48 h before, which was even worse. But knowing that sometimes it's just 18 h, makes me feel better and not dream the nightmares before the long travels as I did before this one.
Yours,
Wandering Spirit G.
