Travel Transitions

March 30, 2014

When travelling, the transitions are challenging.

Our flight to Heathrow Airport, via Madrid, is scheduled to depart Tangier at 11:35, or 12:35 depending on which airline correspondence we read.  Since we like to be early, to deal with any challenges, we told our host, Aziz, that we would like to arrive at the airport at 9:00.  He arranged to have Mohammad pick us up at La Maison Blanche at 8:30.  Since 8:30 is earlier than Aziz feeds his guests, we arranged to have coffee, mint tea and orange juice instead of the full breakfast.  We don’t need food.  We would have plenty of time at the airport to get a snack.  Of course, we forgot that we had traded all our Moroccan money for euros.  We left La Maison Blanche with 31 MAD cents (Moroccan money).

Mohammad got us to the airport without any hitches.  We have now been at the Tangier Airport for about two hours.  We just now got to the gate.  Taylor has been a bundle of nerves, and I have been a bundle of snot.  I have used more Kleenex in the last two weeks with my ongoing allergy attack than I have used in the last 5 years.

Why did it take us two hours to get to the gate?  Well…………………I don’t know.  There are no reader boards here to tell us our gate number, or what time any flights depart.  All the airlines use the same 10 or 12 check in desks, and they change the signs according to which airline has a flight.  We were unable to check in online last night, so we didn’t have seat assignments or boarding passes.  No one speaks English.  This is enough to challenge any one prone to nervous tics, or sneezes.

Given that we knew nothing, we just sat – or rather, Taylor paced and I sneezed.  Finally, about an hour before departure three lovely young women took their boxes of papers and tickets up to three of the check in desks, put up their Iberia signs and started checking people in.  We were first in line, naturally, but the woman we were lined up in front of, ignored us.  Finally, I got in a different line leaving Taylor in front of the woman ignoring us. We eventually got checked in from my line.  By the time Taylor deserted our original line, the woman immediately took the next customer.  I guess she didn’t like Taylor.

After all that, we easily made it through customs and immigration.  We sent our bags through the xray machine and I enjoyed a thorough pat down – they didn’t put a hand on Taylor despite the fact he set off the alarm.  

We are at the gates.  There are three gates and we don’t know which one is ours.  Three planes depart at 5 minutes intervals, and there are no planes.  And we’re hungry.

With our 31 MAD, Taylor was able to buy two croissants and a Snickers bar.  We’ve now had breakfast.  More people are arriving.  There are still no planes. Insallah, our plane will arrive and I will next be writing from England.