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Published: January 22nd 2008
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In theory I traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria for the EGEE-II All-Activity Meeting, but in reality I just traveled towards it. I will be damned if this doesn't become part of my travel blog to Sofia, Bulgaria. Here is my story - ENJOY!:
Starting my day at 5am to catch a taxi to the airport for a flight from Pisa to Milan at 6.55am, only to have that flight cancelled for the second time. From there a bus was organised for 8am (again, but this time to Rome) where I was told to remain at the "Meeting Point". Come 8:15-8:30, being in Italy, we remained as patient as possible only to become anxious to walk over to where the buses were arranged the last time. (I speak in the plural as I had another gentleman with me who was ironically on the same cancelled flight the last time).
We arrived to find that there were no buses to Rome, to then walk back to the ticket counter to be told that they had gone over to the Meeting Point, saw no one therefore cancelling the bus (without making an announcement nor calling the cellular number for which I was obliged
to give).
From there we were put on the next flight to Rome at 11:15am. Arriving in Rome at 12:15, doing security check points, passport control, then checking the board for proper gate assignments, only to find the flight delayed by an hour and a half. Waiting patiently at the gate, approaching boarding time, the sign flashed flight cancelled, returning back to the ticket counter, another flight was scheduled for 8pm. Having 6 hours to wait left various wondering around the airport and a few pints. Come check-in time (now for the third time) I waited in line to find that my 8 o'clock pm flight was cancelled (lucky number 3) and I would have to stay in a hotel and take the next flight out in the morning. Having to change lines cause the assistant did not have the capabilities to book hotels as well, I found myself back in line (# of lines, a blur). Come my turn, the assistant processed my information in order to hand me a schedule that read: 1 night in hotel, morning flight at 7:55am from Rome to Milan, then a layover till 2pm in Milan to arrive in Sofia at 6pm.
Now having missed the Monday meeting and going to miss Tuesday's meeting, it didn't seem much sense to spend another full day in an airport only to have dinner, half day of meetings to be back on a plane the following day at 1:30pm. Deciding to return back to Pisa, I was told to return back to the ticket counter, process my request, return back to check-in (4th time now) to have a flight back to Pisa at 9:15pm.
Making my way through security for the third time, I check to make sure the gate assignments were correct, only to find that it had been changed to not A19 as my ticket said, but to A21 (normal gate for Pisa at that time). Arrive at gate A21 see the TV screen reading Verona, then Pisa it was sure to be the right one. Verona was late by 15 mins so coming up on almost 9pm (boarding at 8:45), I asked the pimply faced teenager what was going on with the Pisa flight, he made a quick phone to tell me that it is on time and will be boarding immediately following Verona (which would make sense as the man on the phone probably had no idea from which gate he was calling from, but that is besides the point). I sat back down, waiting patiently as I have been all day (not knowing the real flight to Pisa was boarding at A19 as we were speaking). When the smoke cleared there were only 3 of us left, those who followed the instructions of our trusted Alitalia employee.
No flights till the following morning, the only thing left to do in order to arrive in Pisa was the last train of the evening. I crossed yet again the airport to reach the train station to take a train from the airport to Roma Ostiensa at 10:30pm. Arriving at my transfer station, the wait was 1 hour for my connecting train (midnight) to arrive in Pisa at 3:30am. During my hour wait I was rightly kicked while I was down in paying €10 for a bottle of iced tea as the machine dropped my remaining €8.50 only to pull open the change dish for it to be empty, nice. I finally arrived in Pisa at 3:40am, took a taxi home and walk in the door at 4am = 2 taxis, 1 plane, 1 train, 4 check-ins, 4 ticket counters, 3 security checks, 4 cancelled/missed flights for a grand total of 23 hours of travel. Destination Pisa-Rome
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