Man, you guys are really slacking on the bulogu! I leave for 2 weeks and no new posts!!! Boo to that.
So as most of you guys know, I just got back from a 2 week vacation in Spain and France with Rita. It was a good time, but it got off to a rough start.
We were scheduled to leave on June 6 (yes, 6/6/06, maybe that should have tipped me off) at 8:45 from BWI on Icelandair. That's 3 strikes right there, BWI, Icelandair, and 6/6/06!! Anyway, we were supposed to get to Paris on the 7th (my 32nd birthday), and I had planned to meet up with my brother and a few friends from high school (Kevin, Sarma, and Jim White) for dinner and drinks.
At first everything seemed to be going smoothly. Rita's brother Rajeev gave us a ride to the airport and we got there in good time. It wasn't too crowded and we didn't have to wait long to checkin or go through security. We even had some time to get some food and a drink at one of the restaurants.
We boarded the plane on time, and everything proceeded as normal. Rita happens to be a bit nervous on planes, mostly at takeoff and landing. We taxied out to the runway, and we started the takeoff. Rita's nervous, she does this thing where she wont look out the windows and she looks totally scared. I lean over and tell her that everything's fine, silly billy, there's nothing to worry about. And as we're about to leave the ground the pilot slams on the breaks. I've been flying for about 30 years and I don't think that one's ever happened to me. At full speed it was, um, iteresting. The pilot comes on in icelandic first, and then in english tells us that they had to abort the takeoff because they got a message on a screen and there was nothing to worry about. You gotta love how they like to be cryptic in these situations and tell you as little as possible. Mechanical problems was my first guess, but the way things are these days my next guess was that something terrible like a terrorist attack had happened and they were shutting down the airport. Pretty sad state of affairs when it doesn't take that much for you to conjur up all these really nasty scenarios. Shortly after we came to a stop, the fire engines came out to the plane. Not a very reassuring sight. The captain came on to tell us that there was nothing to worry about and this was standard operating procedure in these situations as the hard breaking could cause the tires to catch on fire. Sweet.
We eventually taxied back to the gate. They didn't tell us much except that they were checking the message and they would get back to us. We sat there for quite a while, maybe 1-2 hours, with no AC and it was hot as balls. They told us there was nothing open anymore in the terminal and that's why they weren't sending us back in there. Super sweet. Eventually, they finally let us back into the terminal so we wouldn't melt. We had to get back on the plane though to get dinner. Awesome. At around 12:30 they finally cancelled the flight. If you've ever been in this situation you know what it's like. Everybody then has to go back to the counter so that they can get hotel/taxi/meal vouchers. It was about 1am and our choice was to take a cab back home to Arlington (and get back to the airport on our own) or get put up in a hotel and get shuttled back and forth to the airport. I wasn't sure when we'd have to get back to the airport so I chose the later. To make a pretty long story shorter, I spent most of my birthday at a shitty Days Inn outside of Annapolis, and at BWI airport. They rescheduled our plane for 7:45 on June 7th and we completely missed a day in Paris. Sweet.
Ah, you would think that would be the end of my story, but alas, that's not the case. They overnighted a part and replaced it and we were assured that it was all good. Shortly after 7, we boarded the EXACT same plane as the night before (felt good about that). We pushed off on time, taxied for a bit, then we stopped. The captain came on in icelandic, a few people cheered. I thought that would have been a good thing, but I didn't recognize the sarcastic clapping. The captain then proceeded to tell us that we had the exact same problem as before, and we had to go back to the terminal. Sweetness.
Haha, are you kidding me? They didn't even test it? Take it for a little test drive? Up to this point people had been fairly understanding, but this was ridiculous. People, including me, were, should I say, heated. Let's see, we had the guy who had to go to a wedding in Glasgow, the guy that had his brother's wedding in Paris the next day, the guys with tickets to the opening ceremonies and games of the World Cup, the people meeting up with a tour group, the grandmother who'd promised her granddaughter to take her to Paris and who's said granddaughter was now bawling her eyes out, and oh yeah, the salty just turned 32 year old who just missed his birthday in Paris. We got back to the terminal and they told us to take a seat and they'd give us an update but there was no way they were getting us to sit. Only a few minutes laters 3 cops showed up to keep the peace. This was getting close to a riot. At the next gate were the people waiting for the regularly scheduled 8:45 flight to Iceland (same flight we were supposed to take the day before), and our flight was adamant that if that plane worked, we should be on it. The Icelandair people knew that the only way to avoid the riot (and numerous law suits) would be to get us on that plane, so that's what they did. They switched all the bags, and told all those people (right before boarding) that their flight was delayed. Needless to say, they weren't thrilled either, and there was some yelling and arguing from them as well.
But eventually, we got on their plane, and it took off fine, and our connection to Paris waited for us, and we made it to Paris pretty much on time, just a day late.
Sweet :)
Rough start indeed, but the rest of the trip went pretty much exactly as planned (scary considered it was planned mostly by yours truly), and Rita and I had a great time. Those stories and pictures to come...
