Milan, London, TO home

Yeah Venice was nice to stop into and see all the waterways and such, but then I was on to Milan to catch a flight back to London town. I took a train into Milan and then from the train I took the bus that takes an hour to get to the Milano Melpese airport. I got there at 15:55 which was just in time for my flight to start boarding. Boarding ended at 17:15, and the line ups looked longer than I was willing to stand in so I sat down for a bit. My previous flight with EasyJet I had two people ahead of me, so I figured these people must be lined up for an earlier flight and that if I waited a while the line would die down. Besides, the lines didn’t seem to have too many people in them. When I saw that after 20-25 minutes that the line was still just as long I figured I might as well get in line. I was only 20 minutes passed when they allowed you to begin check in so I assumed this time margin was ample for check in and boarding. I stood in one of about 10 lines, though they had about 20 available check in booths. It was now about 16:20 and I had 55 minutes to check in. I stood in my line and watch the other lines around me receding, but my line seemed hung up on one or two people for about 15 minutes and then there was a shift change at my counter. I wasn’t stressing but I was a bit uncomfortable with this stagnant situation. The line moved along slowly and as we advanced it appeared as though there were two lines in one where groups of people who were travelling would alternate between the left and right lines. At 15:50ish I start counting the number of people in front of me and the number of minutes they can each take up in order for me to get through in time. There’s a looming sign behind the check in desks that says, “Please allow 40 minutes to get from this point to your departing flight because we wont wait for you.” I’m stressing now, and I don’t care to check the time because I know it’s hovering somewhere between Go Time, and Too Late. At this point I’m starting to crack a little and I’m already regretting not getting into line as soon as I arrived. There’s this group of 4 people in front of me in line Left, and there are 3 people to my right, who I know came after me, but I’m just following the system and accept the advance of my predecessors with a taste of contempt and an ear of pride in my humility. I get to the front of the line and hand over my ID and booking reference, which the woman at the counter takes and begins the procedure. She looks at the screen and then at my card, then at me as she says, “Your boarding time has passed.” “I know but I’ve been in the line for almost an hour and I just got to the front of the line.” “I’ll see if it’s possible.” She makes a call and then tells me to go to their counter to make another booking and that I wont have to pay because I was in the line up. I thank her and then leave, stressing and a bit unhappy about not getting in line as soon as I got there. I had made it to the front of the line at 17:25, 10 minutes passed boarding time, and my flight was leaving without me at 17:55. I mean, I was only in line 20 minutes later than the earliest possible check in time, so they really don’t allow a very large window of opportunity. I go to the ticket agent and exaplain my situation but he says I’ll have to pay for the ticket unless he has permission from his manager to issue a free ticket for the next available flight. I don’t know the woman who served me but I can go back and check her booth number. The problem is the next available flight is the following morning, arriving at Gatwick in London at 9am, the same time my flight from Heathrow leaves for Toronto. This is no good at all, but he suggests I ask the next counter for flights from other airlines. I do, but there’s nothing. I walk around a bit and stress, then go back and ask if there are any flights from the other Airport in Milano. Nothing. I check the internet on one of those overpriced machines in the airport, and sift through some |Italian. I am online for 2 minutes when it stops working. I figure it is because VISA doesn’t know where I am. I leave and look for a cash machine because I spent my last €7 on the bus ride to the airport. My frantic plan is to check the trains in Milan to see if I can make it to London in time. I can’t find a machine and I check with the bus company who only takes cash. There’s no foreign exchange open at this hour and I don’t have an Italian contact number for Air Canada to let them know I wont make it on the flight the next morning. I’m thinking about losing the $1300, but at this point I really don’t care about it that much. I’m more concerned with the fact that all flights into St. John’s are going to be well sold out. On the bus ride back into Milano I’m thinking about this timing, and starting to realise that there’s no chance I’m going to get from Italy to London at 9pm with enough time to get into my flat, pack things up, and then get to another airport. In time to check in for a 9am flight. 12 hours to do all of that is not possible. I accept the fact that I’ll have to get another flight out of London, but I go to the train station to check anyways. It wont work out. I can get into Paris my 8am at the earliest and take another train from there, but that’s no good so I go to find an internet cafe. The woman who sold me a paneny pointed me in the right direction. I go into this cafe and got on the internet to book my flight out of Milano. It costs €120 but I’m not about to wait until the morning to see if I can swing something with the Easy Jet flight peoples. I buy it, print it and then try to get an air Canada ticket change. Problem is, their flights online can only be changed if you change the entire flight plan, so in order to rebook a flight to Toronto I also have to rebook my flight to St. John’s which isn’t even the same day, it’s two days later, planned for a stopover with family in T.O. This is so frustrating because I’m so close to having it all figured out and the online options are bunk, I guess to encourage you to use the $30 phone service. I try it several times, but there are no other options and there are no flights available into St. John’s, all sold out. The cafe is closing but the woman who works there stays a bit later so I can use the computer. I thank her when we leave, but all I have is a phone number to call from Italy. She points me in the direction of another cafe that is open later, and along the way Erin calls from London to see if I’m going to the Pot Luck with she and her friends. I’m stressing on the phone and a bit unhappy with Air Canada’s internet options. She says she’ll call me back after she checks it out and sees if she can find a number for me to call. She calls back with a long distance number to the Canadian service, where there is an emergency service available, but the wait time is like 15 minutes and I’m calling from a pay as you go phone. I thank her and then go to the internet cafe. NO puck so I call the number and I’m connected in about 1 minute, book the ticket and print it off before my internet time runs out. I don’t have time to email my uncle or family, but Erin does it for me from my account. At this point I feel better but I still have to get back to the airport, wait for the morning to come, check in, get on flight, take train, bus and walk to flat, pack a little, then walk, train, tube, tube, to airport, get on and fly to Toronto, hoping my flight a couple days later works out. Anyways, all that worked out, but I was stressed along the way and thinking about how I hadn’t been in this situation since my tree planting exploits, trying to find my crew in BC after a break and other such adventures. That’s all I care to write. Toronto was nice spent with uncle Robert and family. I’m almost home now with less than an hour before I land in St. John’s. Flight was delayed over an hour but no worries.