Gone are the days when flying anyplace is a simple matter. No... nowadays, the process is so convoluted and stressful --- that frankly, I'm, seriously looking at going back to the old days of the ocean liner. You, know---a nice slow ship, where you don't have to undergo all kinds of invasive procedures just to board the airplane.
And then, if you're flying economy, be crammed into a tiny seat in, a plane that has eight seats across. So that to eat, you and your fellow seatmates have to coordinate your hand movements, so you don't elbow or hit each other. This was the condition that I and two friends found ourselves in when, to save money, we bought tickets in this charter airline to fly to Spain.
We were congratulating ourselves on getting the flights so cheap, until we boarded the plane and found ourselves stuffed like sardines. The configuration of the economy section we were in was: two seats, an aisle, four seats, another aisle, and then two more seats. We were unfortunate enough to wind up in the middle four seats. This meant-- no windows, and for my friend seated to my left, it meant being seated next to a lady with gastrointestinal problems.
I kept noticing that my friend's face was constantly turned to me, so I asked her what was wrong. She told me that she could barely breathe, because this woman kept passing gas. I tried not to laugh, and told her I could lend her a handkerchief with perfume sprayed on it so that at least she could mask it. My friend took my offer and (poor thing) had to keep that handkerchief to her nose, the whole nine hours that it took for us to get to our destination.
But that was only one of the problems with this airline. The next was that the food was a joke. It was served semi-frozen. Thank goodness that we had the sense to pack some fruits, which we ate, instead of the disgusting meal served. Of course, this being a cheap charter, we didn't even have a movie to make us forget how awful this flight was. So the hours stretched on! It seemed to us that it would take forever to get to Spain.
When we finally got there, to add insult to the suffering, our plane was not connected to the main terminal, we had to get out on the tarmac, and ---just our luck---it was raining, not a little rain---but a downpour! It figures, I thought to myself, let's see what else can go wrong here. We didn't have to wait long. When we finally made it inside the terminal, we were told that our luggage still had not been offloaded from the plane, and that we would have to wait for an announcement as to where we should go to find it.
After about an hour, they finally announced where to pick up the luggage. By this time our mood, as you can imagine was not the best. Then it turns out that one of our bags was missing. Another argument with the inept people that ran this charter airline---until finally we got our missing bag.
Thank goodness for the manager of this great hotel in Madrid we stayed at. He had prepared a welcome lunch for us --- and-- even though it wasn't his fault, apologized for the shabby introduction to his country. This brightened us considerably, and made us appreciate a country that had such a thoughtful and compassionate person representing it.
