Adam Turtle, Freelance Web Design in Belfast, Northern Ireland
Since1986
This day couldn’t get much worse
- 6th September, 2008
- filed under: Travel
- 3 comments
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I hate airports. There are some places I find unpleasant, and I don’t really like doing it – like the dentist or going to work, but I don’t hate them. Airports, though, I have a greater dislike for. Unless you’re having a particularly bad holiday, the airport is probably the worst part of your trip.
This morning I needed to get up early to catch a flight from Chicago’s O’Hare Int’l Airport to Baltimore, MD. I worked out last night that getting up at 7:30am should give me plenty of time to catch my flight at 10:40am. I don’t have an alarm clock, so I set my iPod’s alarm clock and my laptop, hoping that one of them would wake me up. I didn’t sleep particularly well for fear that I would sleep in, but eventually I relaxed and got to sleep.
Lucky for me, I had no need for an alarm clock. 6am on the dot, the old, fat guy in the bed gets up as if it were the middle of the day and does everything within his power to piss everyone in the dorm off. He packs his bag, slams his locker a few times, keeps opening and closing the door and lets a few farts go without much consideration for politeness. Plus he’s a big guy, so the exercise of packing the bag is causing his breathing to become seemingly asthmatic, making louder sounds than the guy passed out in the corner bed after a night on the town.
Of course, it wasn’t the noise that woke me up – I’m quite a heavy sleeper. His bag has one of those extendable handles, which happened to smack me right on the back of the head when his bag fell over. Only took him 5 minutes to realize that he’d hit me. He was nice enough to apologize though, with a sympathetic chuckle and a “sorry”. Made all the difference.
Fast forward a few hours and I’m on the blue line subway heading to O’Hare just a few minutes behind schedule as I just missed the train I was supposed to take. The website says this train takes 48 minutes to get there, so I should arrive at 9.20am, 1 hour and 20 minutes before my flight giving me time to get checked in.
Well, at least that’s the plan. About two thirds of the way down the line the voice comes over the intercom announcing construction at the next stop, so everyone has to get off, board a shuttle bus and then get back on at the following station. Fantastic! The bus is SLOW…and on the way to and from the bus I get caught behind the old people on crutches. The continued blue line train waits at the station for 10 minutes trying to maximize it’s load. I make it to the airport at last for 10am, over half an hour later than I expected. Check-in usually closes half an hour before though, right? United Airlines uses both Terminal 1 and 2, so where do I go? An employee tells me 2, so I go there and find a sign saying “Check in at Terminal 1″. So I have to board the train and get to Terminal 1. Of course, I’m now too late to get onto the flight because check in now closes 45 minutes before flights.
Which brings me to now – I’m on standby waiting for my name to be called for the 1:50pm flight to Baltimore. My chances are good, barring 20 people booking from now till then. I checked my bags, United seem to punish you for bringing any luggage – my first bag cost $15 and my guitar cost another $25, and I had to take a bunch of stuff out of my bag into my carry on bag to avoid the $125 overweight penalty. I bleep going through security, it’s my belt, but they search me anyway. They don’t have any vanilla shakes at the McDonalds, only strawberry. Oh, and it’s cash only.
And at my boarding gate, there’s a family with two kids who are having a screaming contest, encouraged by the parents. I love travelling, but if I had to go through all this crap on a regular basis then I’d crack up. Thankfully I’m just one flight away from home.
awwww adam, how i have missed your sarcasm…….however it does sound like a pretty grim day! glad u struggled through it though!!
Dude…i know your pain i hate airports the same as you lol…its Planes Trains and Automobiles lol
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.