AND THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
Tuesday, May 2 6:00 am
Yellowknife airport: I checked in two hours early for my flight to Edmonton and was immediately told that since I was flying stand by they couldn't issue me a boarding pass until everyone had boarded the plane. When I told them that I thought that was ridiculous since the plane was less than one third full I was told that it was simply company policy. Nothing much I could do to fight that argument so I shut up and just shook my head pretending to grin and bear it. Also because I was flying stand by they could only check my bag as far as Edmonton. The flight was ok until we approached Edmonton and it got very bumpy.
In Edmonton I had to collect it there and then go and check in with Air Canada for the flight to Toronto. I stood in line at the check in for ages as the one agent dealt with a guy who was having even more problems than I. At one point another agent came and asked me if I wanted to use the computer to check in. I told him that I had to see an agent because I wasn't sure what to do as my bag had already been checked through, He said we could do it on the computer so I tagged along after him and we went through the procedure only to have the computer not recognise my itinerary code. After three tries I was back standing in line behind the same guy. When I finally got to the agent she was able to take care of me until she tried to get me a boarding pass and couldn't because the flight wasn't open yet. She had to run off to find someone who had the code to open the flight so I stood there for another fifteen minutes waiting for her to get back. At least she was able to check my bag all of the way through to Johannesburg but then she couldn't issue me any other boarding passes so I had to check in with Lufthansa in Toronto.
I must say that I wasn't too happy to arrive in Edmonton to find it snowing and blowing after it had been in the twenties there earlier. After checking in with Air Canada in Edmonton I proceeded to try to book a hotel room as I felt that I needed some sleep to gear up for the longer flights and also didn't want to hang around the airport for fifteen hours. No such luck. After calling five nearby hotels and being unable to find an available room I gave up. My next option was to grab a taxi and run to Future Shop to pick up an upgrade to Adobe Photoshop and another bigger memory card for the camera. That seemed like a fairly simple thing to do and something that would kill an hour or so. More wishful thinking. The taxi driver didn't know where Future Shop was so began making phone calls (3) and radio calls (2) to get a location. Finally it seemed he knew where to go. When we got to the area he couldn't find the store so stopped at another store to ask directions. That happened three times before I finally spotted Future Shop. I went in, went straight to the clerk in the software section and told her what I wanted. She said she thought they were sold out because they had a sale the previous week but she offered to go into the back to check. Meanwhile I wandered around and found the program. When she returned she said they were sold out so I informed her that they were not and happily pointed out the package. I then went to locate the memory card and was pleased to find one with even more capacity than I had heard of (8 gigabytes instead of 4). I also picked up another filter to put over my lenses to keep the dust out. When the guy rang up my purchases he made a mistake and had to do it all over again. Meanwhile the meter was running on the taxi outside...
I eventually got back to the airport and went into the bar that has smoking room attached. While there I spoke with a number of Newfoundlanders, a truck driver from Edmonton and the owners of the Raven Pub in Yellowknife. The Newfoundlanders were heading home, the truck driver to Fort St. John, BC and the Yellowknifers to Honolulu. After a few hours freezing in there I decided to go to the Air Canada lounge where it would no doubt be warmer. I sat there for the rest of the time except for occasional trips down to the smoking room. While in the lounge I snacked on pita bread and dip; then soup and salad and finally cheese and fruit (well, it WAS a long day). Shortly after midnight we boarded the Toronto flight. It was a good thing that I had eaten lots in the lounge because we got absolutely nothing on the plane. I managed to doze a little on the flight but can't say that I really slept. That flight was uneventful.
Wednesday, May 3
When we arrived in Toronto I at 6:00 am I went straight to the Lufthansa counter only to be told that they wouldn't be open until 2:00 pm! I debated trying to get a room but then decided against it because I wanted to be there to get to the Lufthansa check in as soon as they opened. Of course by the time I found that out I was out of the secure area where the smoking rooms are so had to go outside. Fortunately it was a beautiful day and quite comfortable sitting out there. After an hour or so i went to see if Air Canada could check me in. Nope, have to wait until 2:00 when the Lufthansa people wander in. Back outside again. Out there I got talking with a woman from Montreal who was just returning form her fourth stint of volunteering (women and children shelters, etc.) in Lima, Peru. She was quite a talker so all that i had to do was sit there like a bobble head doll. After a while I went inside to sit and read. Then back outside for a smoke. Back inside to read. Back outside to smoke. When noon finally rolled around I went to the one restaurant on that level and had a chicken caesar salad taking as much time as I could eating and reading. After lunch it was back outside then back in to check on Lufthansa. At 2:00 I was told that they wouldn't be ready for another half hour so back outside I went. At 2:30 I finally got there and was checked in without any problem (or so I thought). Then I still had three hours to kill before boarding time. Much to my surprise we had to take a bus to another terminal but I checked to make sure there was a smoking area before i got on the bus. Once at the proper terminal I went to the smoking room, then to the Duty Free shop to get some cigarettes (horribly long line there and only one clerk working), then back to the smoking room until it was time to board the plane. When I got to the agent taking tickets he asked why there were no coupons attached to my ticket. I told him that it was an electronic ticket but he said it should say so on the ticket. I remembered seeing that on my Toronto boarding pass but never thought to look for it on the Frankfurt one. He made me stand aside while he boarded other people. After I while I asked him if I was going to have to stand there like a criminal until everyone else was boarded. At that point he let me through saying that he would fix it up later. The food on the flight was pretty good - an appetizer of shrimp and salad, a main course of salmon with baby shrimp and spinach and an incredible double truffle chocolate cake. Good wines with the meal too. I took a couple of the sleep aid pills, put on a nicotine patch and managed to sleep for a couple of hours of the seven hour flight. We hit several rough spots along the way but generally the flight was good.
Thursday, May 4
The first thing, even before going to the washroom or the smoking area, I did when I got into the Frankfurt airport (7:30 am) was to go to the Lufthansa counter and get my ticket fixed so I won't (in theory) have any more problems with it not saying that it is an electronic ticket. Then I saw a computer store so went in and got the plug adapters for here and for South Africa. Having taken care of business I tried to find my way out of the airport. That turned out to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated and i had to stop several times to ask directions. One guy I asked didn't understand what I was asking and when i asked him how to get out the building he said he didn't know because he was only a security officer! No problems getting through Immigration I am happy to say. After walking for what seemed like miles to my tired old body I found out where the bus to the hotel was supposed to be. Of course, with the way my luck has been going it left just as I was getting there so I had quite a wait for the next one. I tried to phone to ask to be picked up but neither I nor another guy was able to figure out how to use the machine. I went to get another guy who had just used it but just as he was going to show me what to do the van pulled in. Happily I was able to get into my room right away and the front desk made reservations for me to go on the city tour at noon.
The tour was pretty good and there just two of us in the van so it was very much personalized for us. The other person was a woman from Oregon who is on her way to Johannesburg and then Botswana to visit her son who runs a "Walk with the Elephants" safari. Incredible coincidence. The guide was extremely knowledgeable, although sometimes a little difficult to understand because he spoke so quickly. The city is a mixture of old and new as much of it was destroyed by the 1.2 million bombs dropped on it. They are still finding bombs this many years later. We only stopped briefly twice so I didn't get a lot of photos but hopefully some are better than none. The river is a very important part of the city but we didn't ever stop near it so I don't have any photos. I was tempted to go for a cruise on the river but decided I wasn't really up to it and I want to have a bit of a rest before I head back to the airport.
Next stop Johannesburg....