5:00
It was a cloudy night, the eclipse was obscured. People gathered outside the window, returning from bars in the wee hours of the morning. A knock on the dorm room to admit a keyless straggler. It was a sleepless night. I checked the time. Five oh four, why did my alarm not go off? Stuffed stuff in my backpack. Went down the stairs. No receptionist to refund my key deposit. The smell of coffee. Nothing available. Cold brewed coffee sitting in a percolator, waiting to be turned on at seven. Where is my travelling companion of the day? Where is the taxi? Why is there no one here to call a taxi?
This is going to be a long trip.
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5:15
Another guest is about to hike to Albrook Mall, the bus terminal. No, I'm not crazy, first its a very long walk and its dark through the worst parts of town, twisting turning roads. I walked down to a major road grabbed a taxi, we passed him and picked him up. I got dropped off at the bus station paid my $2.50 even though he tried to charge us each $3. Took a one hour bus ride that passed the damn airport. Got off at the next stop, hailed another taxi, to the terminal.
7:30
Uneventful checkin other than the fact that American Airlines insists that my British Airways flight from Miami to London is not cancelled. It was cancelled yesterday, guys, they don't cancel, get everybody not to show up and then fly anyway.
Dunkin' donuts had a menu printed only in English and the woman behind the counter spoke not a word of it. So I had to try to translate the equivalent of an Egg McMuffin. "Yo quierre una pan Brittania con huevos y queso con jamon."
Wonder of wonders, I got what I wanted.
8:20 Board commences. Uneventful flight so exhausted I slept. My head crooked over to the right on my shoulder, sore neck.
12:00 Welcome to Miami International Airport
Immigration was a breezed. Got the yellow dot trail at customs, but after quick x-ray was on my way. List of Countries since you left the US? Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica. What is your occupation? "None".
Tried to catch a bus to South Beach so I could call Travelocity from my Hotel. A bus pulls up, says "Dolphin Mall" I asked the driver, "does this go to South Beach?" "Como?" Ahhh sh.t, "Este autobús va a South Beach?" "No, necessito otro." I need another, so I got off the bus. Turns out I needed to get a transfer from Dolphin Mall, not wait for another bus here. So I wait, and I wait and wait some friggin' more. Three Cubans tell me that the bus comes every hour. Finally I ask a black guy, "What time is the next bus to South Beach? I've been sitting here for hours." "You just missed it, city buses, across the street and down that flight of stairs. Just look for the bus that says South Beach." Ok, I'm making progress now. Walk down the flight of stairs buses come by every 15 minutes, none say, "South Beach". One guy tells me I need to take the "J" Bus and another says I need to take the "150". I give up. BA has opened their "Customer Service by now." Last time I passed they weren't going to open for hours, despite the fact that hundreds of incoming passengers had their connecting flights cancelled. Now I was way the hell back in the line to buy tickets. Must have been 150 in line ahead of me. I saw a line 50 meters away to check in, with two people in line. That's it. I'll check into my cancelled flight. The woman dealt with a couple for twenty three minutes. She was putting them on standby on flight 208, the one I was trying to get on. In the mean time the line I just left was clicking along and people were getting into the queue ahead of me. These people just kept asking question after question. It took the same woman 6 minutes to put me on standby. My questions, "What is my position in queue?" "I don't know." Well I know why they won't tell me. They'll bump be down when BA frequent travellers show up. In the mean time I get an email from my gal in London who tells me that Travelocity can't even confirm a flight for me on the 28th. That's a week in Miami. Not that I would mind, if I wasn't spending it at the airport.
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7 PM
I am one of forty three people on standby. Forty are called. I remain with two others. One decides the appropriate thing to do is bitch out the ticket agent as though she had anything to do with it. I went over to ticketing. There were only two people ahead of me. I told my tale of woe to the ticket agent. "Listen, route me any way you have to, through Frankfurt, Munich, Paris. My little girl is coming home from the Peace Corp in Namibia for 8 days. I haven't seen her in two years." Guy leaves, goes to back room for a minute. "I have you confirmed on flight 208 tomorrow. Give your daughter a hug from British Airways." He handed me a voucher for a suite at the DoubleTree and $40 in travel vouchers.
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