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Published: September 23rd 2011
Wednesday 14th Sept, fly Casablanca to Istanbul We were up early, packed and on our way out the door by 8.30am. We caught a taxi from the Uncles place back to the train station in Sale and were on a 9am train towards Casablanca, changing trains once to get to the Casablanca airport. The train took about 2 hours.
I wanted to get to the airport early as I had a bone to pick with Air Arabia as they had changed our flights and not only caused us to loose a internal flight in Turkey which I had already purchased and was non refundable, but also stole 2 days from our holiday time. We were advised a few weeks ago and have been trying to contact the airline since then. They did not answer any of my emails and we were unable to get through on the telephone, as the airline's head office is at Casa airport we had to leave it until now to try and sort out. Big help they were too, NOT!! The bloody woman just kept telling me they are a budget airline and it is written in the small print that they can cancel
and change flights and if you don't like it stiff shit really. I was getting angry but it was no use - she just kept saying budget airline, budget airline you get what you pay for. She did not seem to get the irony when I said well actually we are not getting what we paid for. So we just have to live with the changes with no recourse.
They had also given me a credit as I had paid extra to get a window seat (being Zak's first flight I thought it would be nice if he sat by a window to see out). Anyway they could no longer guarantee this window seat so gave me a credit, when I asked for this refund in cash the woman said it would be taken off my next flight I booked with Air Arabia. Well, it was now that I really lost my rag and it is probably a good thing that not many people at the airport could understand English as my language became very colourful as I advised this bloody woman that I would not be using the services of her (insert expletives here) airline ever again!!
So in
the end all my ranting and raving got us nowhere, I hate budget airlines, but they are a necessary evil for my budget. Luckily for them at the checkin counter a window seat was still available for us, otherwise I'm not sure what I would have done!! lol
The whole time Zak of course was calm, cool and collected while I was stressing out. I stress easily at airports and luckily I choose to travel with people who are able to stay chilled and unaffected while I am loosing it. (Lyn, Zak has the same 'we can't do anything about it' attitude that you have.)
Pre-first-flight Zak seemed not to be at all nervous, although he did visit the toilet 16 times in the hour and a half before our flight started to board. He had to make a last quick phone call home to Mother as I stood in line at the boarding gate.
As we were walking down to the gang way towards the bus that drove us out onto the tarmac near the plane Zak asked me if they have toilets on the plane as he needed to go again.
The flight
departed on time. This was the first time I have flown with an Arabic / Muslim orientated airline and was surprised when they broadcast a Islamic prayer before take off. Zak's Mother would be pleased as I'm sure this was one of the prayers that he promised her he would make.
It's so cool observing a first time flyer. To me flying is now like sitting on a bus, again a necessary evil which is required to get anywhere in a hurry. He did really well during the flight just glancing at me during take off and during a few small turbulence to get reassurance that the vibrations were normal. At take off and landing was really the only time anything could be seen from the window, as during most of the flight we of course flew high above the clouds.
Our uneventful flight had a bit of a bumpy landing on time at half past midnight. I think Zak enjoyed the flight, but was also happy to be safely on the ground again.
As usual there was a mad panic to disembark from the plane by everyone else, we just took our time, as this is
one thing we had lots of as our next flight was at 7am and we had hours to kill at the airport.
Getting through customs was no problem, that was after I purchased a little stamp sized sticker that they struggled to find room for in my passport.
Luckily Zak befriended a Turkish guy who was also spending the night in the airport waiting for a morning flight to his now home in France. This meant that he could of course speak French and they became smoking buddies as it was necessary to leave the airport building to have a cigarette. After a few hours of back and forth the security guards also got to know them both. I was left to guard the luggage from the other all nighter's trying to kill time until their morning flights.
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Robyn
non-member comment
hopefully third time lucky
This is the third time I have tried to do this. Love the photos, unfortunatley I have read these out of order and have already seen the tagine meal. Love the photos of all the 'knockers' - I want one like the fly please, unless of course you can find a mosquito. Hope Zak is enjoying his adventure in the big wide world. I will learn to use skype soon I hope - I have managed to speak with my sister in NZ a couple of times but that is it - I'll do better next time Cheers