After the Hell in Helsinki trip in spring of this year I was a little gun-shy of returning to Russia. My ex-KGB contact who had always come through before couldn’t pull off a new visa in Helsinki and didn’t even call Irina to tell her he was sorry or explain. Now we had to find a new way to get me in country.
Irina and Vicky put their heads together and out came the “Home Stay” visa. Under this little-used option someone you know in Russia who is a Russian citizen, like maybe your wife, can invite a reputable person, like maybe her husband, to stay in the citizen’s home for a duration not to exceed the lesser of 1-three months, 2-the citizen’s patience, or 3-the visitor’s bank account. Since Irina is the model of patience and life in Russia is not too expensive if you and the Russian citizen exercise extreme discipline and three months is more than enough time to enjoy the quaintness of the country, we went for it.
So the girls got started on the invitation (all aliens enter Russia by “invitation” only) paperwork, which is always a major task in Russia. After carefully completing pages and pages of questions covering every aspect of the invitee’s life and character to insure one is worthy of a visit to Russia; and a like amount of questions delving into inviter’s ability to host the invitee and present the State in a proper and acceptable manner the document was submitted to the OVIR (a holdover from old Soviet times – the government agency responsible for knowing at all times exactly where every legal visitor or citizen is).
Summer came and went, fall was fast approaching and a trip to Russia had faded from my mind. One quiet day in October the phone rings. I pick it up and hear “Potrick, its Vicky I got your invitation today!!! You will be coming to Russia in December and staying all winter, isn’t that wonderful.”
“UHHH, great Vicky, now I must work quickly to get a visa. FEDX the invitation to me”. Maybe FEDX will lose it, if not I still have to get the visa, which after Helsinki, is no slam-dunk deal.
Well, I guess I didn’t make it into “undesirable aliens” database somewhere deep inside Russian’s computer system, because my visa arrived with only the expected minor hassles. OK, are we ready for a little chill time in Russia during “high tourist season” – Dec through February? Hey, thousands of Swedes with King Charlie 7, French with Napoleon, and Germans with Adolph also chose high tourist season to visit . Besides I will have my finest South Texas cold weather gear and will arrive without marching orders via the renowned Dutch hospitality of KLM. Lets get going!!!
As the week of departure arrives both the inviter and invitee closely monitor the weather and only notice low temperatures in the teens and small snow showers. “No problem!!”
Tday-1 - Early Thursday night – 12/2/10
Operating under strict orders that all of the suitcases must be “zipper ready” at 18:00 (local time) as clock struck and I yelled “Attention on deck, stand by for suitcase inspection”.
“Yes Potrick, quit shouting, they are ready”
After careful inspection I am please to announce, “Outstanding Irina, I can’t believe it, both of our suitcases are not even close to 50 pounds. What are we forgetting?”
“We have everything we need Potrick, remember all my winter clothes and most of yours are already there. Maybe I will go to town and see if there are any other toys that Tolic (the grandson) might like.”
“NET, NEIN, NO!!! IRINA, we already have one big suitcase stuffed with toys and the carry-on’s are full also!!! Don’t they make toys in Russia??
Irina agrees, enough is enough and we restfully spend the remainder of the evening dreaming of troika sleigh rides through the snow-covered forest bundled under warm bear blankets.
T Day – Friday 13:00GMT** 12/3/10
(** GMT is Greenwich Mean Time is the way all pilots standardize their time to avoid the confusion of Time Zones. GMT is the time at Greenwich, outside of London, and local times are adjusted:
Corpus local time (i.e. 7:00am) + 6 hrs = (i.e. 13:00) GMT
Amsterdam local time (i.e 14:00) – 1hr = (i.e.13:00) GMT
St Petersburg local time (i.e 16:00) – 3hrs = (i.e. 13:00) GMT
Are you confused yet? It help’s to remember which direction the sun usually come up from whether you subtract or add. )
Early revelry, quick breakfast, last minute tasks, shower and then secure the hot water heater. “Man, I am starting to sweat it’s really warm here this morning!” So I unbutton my warm long sleeve shirt and cool down. About the same time Robert arrives ready to haul us to the airport. “Things are starting to smooth out,” I thought.
“Ummm, no one at the airport, probably due to scanner scare or groper fear.” Quickly got the bags checked all the way through from Corpus Christi to LED (St Petersburg, Ru). And headed for the gate taking the “Groper Option”. Heard scanners are a danger for people like me prone to skin cancers and thought this option might be more entertaining. Anticlimactic, must be a low threat day at CRP.
We arrived early because last trip I got screwed when I paid Continental $50 for my one bag to check it all the way to Russia. The sweet lady at Corpus check-in swore that according to their “Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)” I pay the fee to Continental, they tag the bag to LED (St Pet. Ru), and pass Brit Air’s share of the fee on to them. “Easy, no problems” she claimed.
Arriving at IAH(Houston) I preceded to the Presidents club for refreshment and then on to the BA gate. While quietly sitting in the gate area I was surprised to hear my name paged to report to the Gate Commander’s desk. “What’s the problem I asked?”
The BA Gate Commander told me “we have problem, there is no record of a payment for your luggage, we can bill your credit card here if you like”. Surprise!! I tried to explain that I had already paid in Corpus and showed them my receipt. The Gate Commander didn’t care about some stinking receipt from Continental, he demanded immediate payment and I demanded a supervisor; but it was all to no avail. After my futile discussion with the supervisor the Gate Commander snickered “You can either pay BA $60 for your bag or we leave it here – your choice and BTW we don’t use Continental’s SOP”.
“Those Brits are always so proper, understanding and to the point,” I paid the second time for my bag and vowed never to do that again.
But today things were just going wonderfully. Turns out KLM doesn’t charge for the 1st bag so we didn’t pay anyone for our bags. We just spent a relaxed time in the Houston airport. Did a little looking around at the shops, got a light lunch, checked e-mail and Amsterdam weather and casually ambled down to board. Every thing looked great for an early December flight.
The flight was about as comfortable as you can expect riding in the cattle section; OPPS excuse me I meant the Economy class. But our luck continued, we had an empty seat in our 3-seat section. Things were working out great!
T-DAY+1 – Saturday 07:30 GMT 12/4/10 (17.5 hrs awake time)
Touched down right on time, morning in Amsterdam. Light snow and no new accumulation. From Amsterdam we again chose a later flight because it was more convenient for Vicky to pick us up. No problem, there were plenty of shops, attractions and even a small art museum with pieces from the Rijksmuseum to pass some time. Tiring of the sites and expensive shops we found the reciprocal lounge that offered us comfortable place to wait for our 11:10 GMT boarding time. It was an average lounge with a panoramic view of the airport, roads and fields across the way and the light wispy snow falling outside.
About 10:00 GMT we noticed that the snow was picking up a little, but nothing unusual for this time of the year. “Potrick, isn’t it just beautiful, I miss it so much being always in hot, boring Corpus Christi”.
“Yes, dear”, as always, was my standard answer.
T-DAY +1 – Saturday 10:15 GMT 12/4/10 (20.5 hrs awake time)
Preparing to head for departure, I ambled over to the club’s main desk to confirm our gate. The ladies were busy on the phones, I waited, I noticed the beautiful snow was now looking more like a nasty white out. It was really coming down, what a difference 10 minutes can make. Finally the lady hung up the phone and I asked about our gate. She looked a little disturbed and said, “I don’t know, they just closed the airport!”
“Not good” I thought. “Is our plane at the gate?” was my next question.
“Let me see”, and she started scrolling across her screen. “No it’s not arrived yet --- heavens appears like it won’t be here until 14:30 GMT”.
“Whoooa, that’s trouble”. If our plane had already landed and been at the gate we might be able to leave quickly when the airport reopens. But if it is not here it may never get here today. Luck looks to be a changing.
Walked back to Irina and gave her the bad news. Looking out the window and seeing the snow quickly piling up on the roads I had my first fearful feeling we might just be stuck here for the night.
Irina remembered we needed to immediately let Vicky know that we would be late before she leaves for the airport. Unfortunately we don’t have World Service Cell phones so I suggested we just e-mail her and sit tight to see how things go in the next hour or so. Maybe we will have more info in a while. “I’ll go ask where we can find phone to call Russia.”
Now there was lots of activity around the lady’s desk. As we walked up I heard her say that the airport would reopen in 30 minutes. “Things were getting kinda squirrelly, but maybe we will get out of here close to schedule. After all this is a world class hub airport in an area where they do have snow in the winter, so this shouldn’t be too big of a deal” I thought. They didn’t have any cancellation or delay info at the lounge so the consensus was “grab our bags, go buy a phone card and see what’s going on at the gate, then call Vicky”.
T-DAY +1 – Saturday 11:00 GMT 12/4/10 (21 hrs awake time)
Left the lounge, got a phone card, found our gate and arrived just in time to see that our flight had been delayed 2 hours. Called Vicky and gave her the bad news, now it looked like our Russian arrival would be 20:00 GMT (8:00pm Ruskie local). “Looks like it’s gona be a long day, might as well go back to the club and get some snacks and drinks,” I suggested as we made the 20-minute hike back to the club.
We nibbled on Dutch pastries, ham and cheese, gulped down strong coffee to fight that tired and run down feeling you sometimes get after being either awake or uncomfortable for 24 hours. Time flies when you are having fun and soon it was time again to head for the gate to make the 14:00 GMT departure.
T-DAY +1 – Saturday 13:00 GMT 12/4/10 (24 hrs awake time)
Dejavue? Arrive back at the gate just as they are delaying the departure another hour. “Hummm. Lets see that’s 3 twenty minute walks, or one hour of hiking and hauling baggage out of the last 3 hours.” Irina always likes to walk but this getting a bit excessive. “Irina, lets just walk to the nearest chairs and see if we can get a little sleep during the next hour”.
We found a spot and my head immediately went to the full backwards tilt position. A bit later I half woke up and found my self with my mouth wide open. You know how ugly someone looks in that position, I was embarrassed. Grabbed my wool scarf and wrapped it around my mouth and returned to the full tilt position for a few more minutes of half-sleep.
Next thing I remember was Irina shaking me and saying, “wake up, we must go, they are queuing for the security check”.
Shook my head and remembered where I was, unwrapped that hot scarf from my mouth, grabbed the bags and took my place in the security line. Snow looked about the same as when they closed the airport, but I was optimistic. Maybe they just over-reacted and got things cleaned up. Besides the arriving flight was pulling into our gate; maybe we will get out of here.
Walking up to the security guy Irina suddenly remembers that she needed to call Vicky and tell her that the flight was leaving. She asks the security guy if the plane was really going. “This guy doesn’t have any idea what is going on, just hurry, call Vicky, tell her it looks like we will be leaving and get back so we are not the last ones boarding the plane” I tell her losing my place in the line with all the bags. Irina goes and makes the call.
Finally we were all on the secure side of the security check and the gatekeepers started checking passports and boarding passes. The boarding area was full of restless Russians anxious to get going. As a number of them had their flight canceled the day before and they were in no mood to spend another night in Amsterdam.
I could just smell the growing herd mentality and loss of control in the boarding area. One of the gateway keepers opened the door and walked down the jet way out of sight. Instantly 10 or more Russians run through the opened door and followed him down the jet way. Just as quickly they come running out of the jet way, chased by the gateway keeper loudly scolding them. “Irina, we need to get closer to the jet way door or we will never get any overhead space for our bags.”
More good news! Arriving passengers started deplaning. The service crew and pilots who gave a thumbs-up to our crew followed them. I started feeling good about getting to St Petersburg tonight. “Better late than not at all” I thought.
We waited and waited. Finally the crew boarded the aircraft. “Irina, looks like we’re making progress”. 15 minutes the service crew returned. “Uh-Oh!” Now I again smell trouble.
Over the PA system comes the message “Attention, attention we are awaiting a message from KLM regarding this flight before we can board the plane and proceed.”
“What the hell is that all about?” Never have I heard such a message while waiting to board. “Maybe there is some kind of terrorist threat” was my first fear.
T-DAY +1 – Saturday 16:00 GMT 12/4/10 (27 hrs awake time)
The gateway keeper cleared his throat over the microphone; then said “KLM has canceled all flights until further notice!”
“What does that mean Potrick?” Irina asked
“I don’t know, but we’re not flying tonight, shsssssss Irina. He is saying something else.” The gateway keeper announced that we would be giving passengers a ticket with information on it regarding lodging and rebooking. Now I smelled desperation and fear!!!
This guy standing next to us grabbed his KLM info card, grabbed his wife and started running down the concourse. “Irina, lets go!! Quickly, quickly follow that guy (the guy who was now 20-30 yards down the concourse running) he must know what to do.” And so we now retraced our 20-minute walk to gate in about 7 minutes. Things were heating up!!!
We didn’t know where he was heading but he appeared to know, and we followed. Hopping on the escalator had a chance to catch our breath. Approaching the bottom the sign “Immigration Exit” comes into sight. “OH NO, Potrick” Irina exclaimed. “They will not let me out, my Europe visa is expired”.
Yelling at Irina “We will see, come on; move it, move it!!!” we catch up with the guy we were following. Turns out he isn’t Russian but Belgium and tells us we need to get out of here ASAP and go to the place where KLM gets everyone a hotel or we will be sleeping on the terminal floor.
Irina explains her visa problem and his reply “be tough and demand a 24 visa or you sleep on the floor”.
Fell into the line for “Non-Europeans” along with hundreds of other outcasts from the 3rd world and wait. Finally I make it to the immigration guy’s window, he quickly checks my US passport and waves me right through. Then I tell him about Irina’s visa problem, he frowns, and wait as she gives him her visa. He quickly reviews her passport and smugly says “Her documents are not in order; she can’t pass through to the EU”.
I start making a scene and demand that I see the supervisor. He picks up his phone and a few minutes later a 7 foot tall guy in a green immigrations uniform with side arms and handcuffs shows up. Physical contact didn’t look like a good option in the “be tough” attitude, so it was back to logic and pleading.
Baush, the 7 foot immigrator explains “Eet is impossible to let Irina through without a boarding pass for a plane leaving Amsterdam in the next 24 hours – against regulations”.
Irina puts on her saddest face, “But I live in the USA and have a Green Card, can’t you pleeease let me through”.
“No exceptions Madame!” Baush sourly replies.
Irina doesn’t take the answer “No” easily. “But sir, I am 55 years old, I live in the USA, I don’t want to stay in your Holland! I flew for 24 hours without sleeping and will get sick if I sleep on the floor.’
“Maybe you can find a chair to sleep on Madame. If you get your boarding pass maybe I can help you then” was the final answer from the Immigrator.
“OK we will try to get a boarding pass and return” I dejectedly said.
T-DAY +1 – Saturday 17:00 GMT 12/4/10 (28 hrs awake time)
Turning to leave I hear “excuse me” in a slight British accent from a tall guy.
“Oh no, wonder what this guy wants now” then I notice a woman by his side. “Yes” I replied. Apparently this couple overheard our conversation and have the same problem. Paul, the tall Brit, tells me is married to Tanya and she also doesn’t have a visa to enter the EU either.
“Follow us Paul I will tell you what we need on the escalator. They are not going to let us out of the terminal unless we have a boarding passes for our wives. This is what we are going to do. Remember that long line that we ran past getting here? That is the Transportation Desk where you re-book. When we get to the top the girls will head for line and you and I will run to the hotel inside the Terminal and check if they have any rooms. You Ok with that Paul?”
“Yes, but I doubt they will have any rooms” Paul replys.
“Yeah, I know it’s a long shot but at least the girls will be in line and we can search for other options.” Exiting the escalator “Ok, girls, you understand everything? We will meet you back at the line, I’m sure you won’t get to the desk before we return.” We split and head for our targets.
Passing an Information Desk where people are stacked 3 deep trying to get some help, “Lets skip it Paul this will take too long, lets keep going I saw a sign to the Mercure hotel earlier today we can just follow the directions”.
Finally locate the hotel entrance and walk in. Kind of a weird looking hotel lobby and I was wondering if this was one of those Japanese cubical airport type hotels I had seen in some magazines with a cot, sink, and toilet; more like a jail cell than a hotel room. But we didn’t have to worry about staying in a cell. The sign on the desk of course said “NO ROOMS”. Didn’t even bother waiting for the multi-tasking overmadeup young receptionist girl to get off the phone and finish polishing her nails. We head back to our girls.
In the 30-40 minutes we had been gone the girls have made some progress. They were maybe 20 yards of people behind them and only 70 yard of people in front of them. Waving to them, “We’ll join you”.
At end of the line a KLM rep is talking to a bunch of people. We moseyed up to see what the buzz was and hear something like “boarding passes….. no….can’t…..”
“Wonder what’s going on Paul? Lets make sure we are in the right line.”
We barge our way in, nice having Paul along, to get close enough to ask her if this is the line to get a new boarding pass. She starts “it is normally, yes, but tonight KLM is not issuing any new boarding passes.”
“WHAT!!!! We MUST have a new boarding pass or immigration won’t let our wives out of the terminal!”
“Nothing I can do, go talk to immigration.” The cute blond KLM rep turns and calmly replies. “Next”
“OK girls it’s back to Baush, the immigrator. No boarding passes tonight the KLM girl tells us. It’s back to begging at the Immigration Exit”
Irina seldom takes “NO” for the final answer when she is looking for “YES”. “I am going directly to the desk and ask about my boarding pass”, she heads for the desk. Barging in front of the guy at the information desk Irina tells the lady “I must have a boarding pass or they won’t let me out of the terminal tonight and will have to sleep on the floor.”
“Madame, where are you going?” The desk girl asks.
“St Petersburg, Russia”
“AHHHHH, Russian” the desk girl snidely & loudly exclaims. “ WHAT!!! You expect to be let into my country without visa!!! WHY??? If I go to Moscow without visa they will not let me in, why should we let you into my Holland??? Go, get way I have people to serve.” Irina humiliated and mad slinks away heading to the Immigration Office.
T-DAY +1 – Saturday 18:00 GMT 12/4/10 (29 hrs awake time)
Back at the immigration zone where we had started an hour or so before Baush looked busy. “Baush, we got a problem, no….”
“I know, I know for you we will make a one time exception, give you a visa and let you through. It will just take some time. I am doing visa for 3 Africans now, I will do yours next right after we finish them.” Baush told me.
Looking around I noticed the usual group of suspects: Africans, Chinese, Mongolians, Indians, Russians, Kurgistanians, Tackistanies and all the other 3rd worlders. We were all in the same fix now just milling around the immigration office window hoping for a stinking 24hr visa to get out of this stinking Terminal.
Waiting there our little group of 4 starts getting bigger. Girls find a lovely old lady, Nadia, probably 70ish, dazed, wandering around with no idea what is going on or what to do. They take her to Baush. “She is with us and also needs visa”. Next a couple of young girls on the make and a Russian guy whom I think the young girls were hitting on join our group of outcasts.
Paul starts telling about his earlier dealings with KLM; being on hold for 4 hours trying to get them on the phone last night. I decide to try Baush’s phone and call the KLM service # on the card they had given us. No luck immediately got the usual message “Due to unexpected heavy call volume your wait time will be 10 minutes…..” After 20 minutes hang up. I’ll try one more time. Another 10 minutes wait time, just hung up and gave up. “Paul, looks like the same problem tonight, but I don’t have 4 hours to wait on hold.”
An immigration officer starts telling us how hotels just love nights like tonight – they get top dollar for all their rooms. The Indian girl says she heard there were no rooms left in the city. Rumors are rampant!!!
Finally with visas in hand our little troupe of untouchables whiz right through the gate and into the EU. Next stop the KLM Service desk to get our hotel, hot meal and warm, comfortable bed.
T-DAY +1 – Saturday 19:00 GMT 12/4/10 (30 hrs awake time)
Rounding the corner and heading towards the Service Desk I can see there is an angry, tired mob around the 4 KLM uniformed guys manning the stranded travelers service desk. As we move forward the extent of the disaster reveals itself, some kind of line snakes back around the corner as far as the eye can see. “Well guys this looks like the place where we need to be. Right in with this crowd of thousands. Girls wait right here, don’t leave, and Paul and I will check it out.”
“Paul, lets not have a replay of the ‘boarding pass line’ we’ll make sure this is really where we need to be and that they are giving out hotel rooms.” We disappear into the mass of stranded humanity. We confirm with the first strandee this is indeed the line for tonight’s free room and board. Yeah this is it. Then we turn the corner to see the Mother of all lines; as far as the eye can see strandees standing, sitting, laying around all in some kind of line while waiting to be courteously and promptly served by those 4 KLM reps at the service windows.
Paul is really discouraged as we return. “Potrick”, he says “I have been here before, faced the same situation. Went on our own to find rooms. We were lucky and found a halfway decent room. But!!! The SOB airline refused to reimburse us the full amount, which wasn’t much and it took over 8 months to get our pitiful refund.”
Walking up to our little clan of strandees Paul relates the bad news. Tanya, Paul’s wife, listing confirms that after their last experience with KLM they don’t want to try to find hotel on our own. “I will go see for myself what can be done, you men stay here” and Tanya vanishes in a mass of strandees.
“Paul, seems Tanya is like Irina both suffer from a Russian logic - men are apparently too unreliable.” The others in our clan, discouraged, start drifting away. The young Russian guy calls a friend to pick him up and the young girls go looking for new targets-of-opportunity.
Suddenly Tanya’s smiling face is seen emerging from the mass of human strandees. Maybe she’s bringing good news and hope. “Paul, Paul I found a Russian man who is close to the front of the line, he is a wonderful man, he will let us in with him!!! We won’t have to go the end. We will just join him quietly and secretly one-by-one, we will say we are family or something if any one asks.”
Paul’s face reddens, takes on a very serious look and firmly he says, “My Dear, WE are not butting into the line!!! That is unfair, foul play! What about all the others behind us, they are sure to become angry and we will all get thrown out. No! Tanya WE won’t do that!”
I thought Paul was displaying that admirable character British Character trait that of late seems to have disappeared – fair play. Irina and I both agree “butting into that line could cause a riot. These people have been there for hours, they are tired, hungry and unpredictable”. Tanya reluctantly agrees. But she decided she would sneak Nadia, our old lady of the group, in so she hopefully will find a room in the inn.
While Paul and I were waiting for Tanya and Irina to return from their mercy mission, it began to appear that it was all for not in any event. Rumors were spreading that KLM has no more hotel rooms to give out; all of the hotels they work with are full! Tanya and Irina return and confirm the rumor.
“What to do now??? Why don’t you guys stay put for a few minutes and I will see if I can leave the terminal and find any other purveyors of hotel rooms around.”
So I head for the exit and notice a couple of guards. “Whoa I better check with these guys to make sure I can get back in,” I thought. Sure enough the guard tells me these are “one-way” doors, once you pass through you can’t re-enter the terminal here. Bad news “All this security sometimes really stinks” I thought. “Is there any hotel info or representatives outside where we could try and make reservations?” I asked. He said there was, so I returned to clan to see what we will do.
Huddling with Paul and Tanya it is clear that after their prior stranding they refuse to leave the terminal and would sleep on the floor if they couldn’t find a better place. Paul tries to convince us to do the same.
I, however after about 30 something hours of traveling, was not about to sleep on the floor of the terminal. Moreover I knew Irina would file divorce on the spot if I suggested that option. Irina is just not the type to curl up on the cold tile floor, after using the public toilet to wash up in and prepare for the evening, using our carry on luggage as a pillow all-the-while surrounded by a hoards of Africans, Chinese, Indians, Russians and others. No, we would venture out of the terminal, into the unknown and seek our fortune and warm bed. Exchanging e-mail addresses we part ways hoping to see each other tomorrow at the departure gate.
On exiting I turn my attention to finding the “wall of hotel advertisements” with direct phone lines to them. Yes! There they are, but lots of people were waiting to use them. No problem right next to them is the more civilized Hotel Reservation Kiosk. “What? Only 15 or so people in line, after today this is no line!!”
Beware, line length doesn’t always portray the whole story. After 20 minutes the same guy who had been talking to the service rep when we arrived is still dallying around with his hotel selection; either too picky or no rooms – probably too picky. “This is not working out well,” I think. Looking around the “wall of hotel advertisements” was thinning out. “Irina stay in line I will try and call a hotel”
I could see all the normal hotels, Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, etc and the guys calling all seemed to hang up rather quickly. Bad sign, probably no rooms. I moved on down the board where there were a couple of local hotels. Grabbed a free phone, picked the least sleazy of the group, the Swankenburg Hotel, and called. Obviously a Dutch place, the pics of the restaurant and rooms looked normal and it had a free shuttle – “Yes, I need a no-smoking room for 2 for one night, do you have anything?” I asked the lady at the other end.
From the other end of the line came a surprising “YES”.
I wasn’t going to quibble nor worry about the prestige level of the accommodations “How much?”
“69 Euros”
“My name is Potrick Chrisco and I will take it!” YES! I was scared we would be stuck for 200+ Euros. Maybe things are improving, but I will wait until I see the hotel to confirm a change in our karma.
As soon as I hung up people surrounded me, simultaneously asking “who did you call???”. I gave them the info and told Irina to get out of that stinking line we don’t need their stinking help. Which by the way - the same guy was still talking to the service rep.
Grabbed our carry-ons, and stepped out side for our next surprise. Smash, right to the face a cold brisk wind and pellet snow were pounding us. Just wonderful. “Don’t worry Irina, they probably have some kind of covered, sheltered area for us at the shuttle stop.” I could see there were some across the street. But the Swankenburg’s stop was at the end and the only protection from the elements was a light pole. “Where is that frigging bus??”
Standing behind the pole to block the wind, I thought “STUPID YOU! You should have called the hotel back, asked how many rooms they had open, discuss what kind of payment I could get for filling those rooms, and probably had ended up having them pay me to sleep there. Oh well, just another missed opportunity; maybe next time I am stranded in Schiphol. Tonight I just hope the place is OK.”
T-DAY +1 – Saturday 20:00 GMT 12/4/10 (31 hrs awake time)
Finally the Swankenburg shuttle, a beat up old van arrives. “Hope it’s heated”. It was, kinda, most heat came from all the bodies squeezed in to the van. I, the hotel finder for all these people, barley got a seat in van.
A quick 20-minute drive through the winter wonderland countryside and we arrive in the small village and our hotel. Irina could barely stay seated she was sooo excited seeing snow, charming small Dutch houses covered with snow, kids out playing in the snow, idiots out riding their bikes in the snow.
The Swankenburg was a jewel; the hotel room was perfectly cozy, just needed a little more heat. Freshened up and headed for the Chinese restaurant we had passed about a block away.
Irina was in heaven, snow and Chinese food everything she loves. Sloshing through the snow we only saw a few kids out and about. “I hope it’s still open Irina, or we are in trouble. Quit peeking in all the houses, lets get there before they close….. Irina! Forget the real-estate ads on the window, we will go to bed cold and hungry if you don’t hurry.
Finally peering in the window I could see life. Tried the door, still open and the little Chinese lady ushers us in. A pretty big restaurant and only one other group, things must close early on a snowy Swankenburg Saturday Night.
Since arriving in the morning we had only snacked a little at the airline lounge so looking at the menu Irina suggests the 5 course General Wou extravaganza. What the heck, sounds good to me. 5 courses and a few wines later things are mellowing out, but we still had the walk home through the winter wonderland.
I ask for the check and Irina starts talking to the waiter/owner maybe also cook about EU economics. “OH NO, we’ll be here another hour”. He jumps right into Taxes, 15 minutes later Irina moves to Health Care, and after another unknown period of time I finish it up with Currency Exchange – I review the bill and convert Euros to $s. We pay, we leave, we walk to the hotel, we brush our teeth with no toothpaste, we crawl under down covers.
T-DAY +1 – Saturday 22:00 GMT 12/4/10 (33 hrs awake time)
Day one+ in the bag, we sleep like babes.
To be continued
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