TRAVEL WOES

Everyone has their stories about travel woes.  Well, today I have a woe.  I arrived at the airport in Catania in plenty of time for my 10 a.m. flight, only to discover that the airport was closed!!!!  Three days ago, I passed this airport on my way to Noto, and I saw a plane land here.  I guess they closed up shop yesterday.  They’re apparently doing some repair work on the runways, and they are bussing passengers to another airport for flight departures. 

I supposedly received an email advising me to arrive at the airport at 7 a.m. today, but I can’t find any such email.  And, of course, I got no refund and had to purchase a ticket for twice as much as I paid for the original.  If that isn’t woeful enough, I now had to fly through Rome to get to my destination, Bari, Puglia.  I had a direct, one hour flight and now I had one stop in Rome and 3 ½ hours of travel time, plus  4 ½ hours of waiting time at the terminal until I could catch the bus that took us to the military airport being temporarily used.

To top off this tale of travel woes, I finally arrived in Bari, but my luggage didn’t.  The only good news is that I had put my clean clothes and my medications in my carry-on, so I at least have something to wear, but, alas, no toothbrush! 

I’m sure many of you have travel stories that would make more tiny violins sing than this one does…..but it’s over and I move on. 

My Italian friends here have invited me to stay with them until I leave for Thailand.  They are extremely generous and gracious people, and I think I will accept their offer.  It will be wonderful to be with people rather than alone, and I will get lots of practice speaking Italian!