Better Late Than Never

Yesterdays travel experience was one of the most stressful things I've ever had to deal with. We got to the Dublin airport right on schedule- we were pretty relaxed- with the exception of Deena of course who could have used a couple lamas classes to ease her with her pre-flight anxiety. The REAL downhill slope, however, began when Rocko and I tried to check in after waiting on line for abt an hr- they informed us that we actually had no flight. That's rt. The exact words were actually: "your reservation has been cancelled." My face turned white and I fought back the tears of anxiety and disappointment (not for very long tho). I still don't know wut happened but our travel agency cancelled our reservation for some unknown reason when rocko tried to change her return flight a couple days ago to extend her stay in Israel.

When I spoke to the woman at Lufthansa- the carrier we were taking to israel- she informed us that she didn't know why or how but that our flight was cancelled, and that there were no more seats available on our flight. She put us on standby for both overbooked flights into Frankfort-our connection- and then into Tel Aviv, and told us that we'd hopefully be able to get on the standby flight tom morning, but that she didn't know abt the next leg into Israel. A rush of concerns flew into my head: where were we gonna sleep, what were we gonna eat, how long until we would finally get to Israel? Overwhelmed by my thoughts, I then broke into tears, as I acknowledged the likelihood that I'd be stranded in multiple airports for the next three days without a phone, food, or a clue of how to take care of myself.

It was a brief- but scary- panic attack. About 15 seconds later I recollected myself and got on the fone with the travel agency-- using deenas fone that she soooo kindly lent me before leaving with sahar for their (our) flight. They already checked in and had to go before they missed their flight too. When I got through to the travel agent, I made sure to speak with RESPECTFUL urgency (no one will help you if you're a jerk- it's a rough reality when you're slowly coming off of a fresh anxiety attack) and I was connected very quickly to the supervisor. He apologized for the inconvenience and put us on a new flight with Air France only abt an hour after our original flight, now connecting thru Paris.

When Rocko and I got to the gate- I calmed myself down with one oh-so-very-necessary beer. Rocko, gluten free, turned to her quick fix-- chocolate. Thank god we quickly got onto our flight and we were put in the first row so we were sure we were now on path for smooth travels from here on in.

The flight was great bh- unfortunately our crazy adventure was destined to continue once we landed in Paris. It began with the most ridiculous experience with security that caused us to almost miss our flight. We misread the signs cuz they're actually impossible to understand- and ended up leaving the area within security. I'm quite good with my navigational skills, contrary to the my spacey front. The real issue was that I don't think I could have created such confusing and misleading airport signs if I tried. Meanwhile, once we left the security area, they wouldn't let us back in, so then we had to run around like fools to the other end of the labyrinth-like airport following the everso helpful signs. So ridiculous. O and no one speaks English- which really helped. It took us about 15 minutes to realize that our pronunciation of 'A' was being interpreted as 'E' so we had to change our accent fRom 'Ay' to 'Ah' when we asked a different person every daled amot where Terminal 'Ah' was. Through siata deshmaya- we somehow made it to the check in gate 10 minutes before it closed. After running around like idiots looking for our elusive terminal, we flagged down a bus. The driver, on a whim/he was fed up with my pestering questions about terminal 'ah', decided to drop us off near our terminal even tho his route didn't go there. If we didn't get on that bus there's no way we wouldve made our flight. Its crazy how these things just work out...not too smoothly tho- of course there's more.

When we tried to board, we experienced yet another hurtle as we got stopped by security and were interrogated further before we could board the plane. I glanced at the computer and saw that our names were flagged- of course- like why wouldn't they be. Meanwhile- we finally made it on the plane.. And we were given the first row of business class. With our 5 course meal, wine, hot towels, and complimentary El Al sunglasses (wouldn't be the same luxurious experience without those), Rocko and I marveling at how we had just jumped to the opposite extreme of today's events. Such a wild day. God willing things should continue on this new course in Israel.

We're now at the apt- settled and safe. And even though Rocko and I don't have luggage- (I know you didn't think we'd actually get our bags with our luck) we couldn't be happier to be in Israel and comfortably settled in Deenas apartment. It should be a great finale for vacation. I couldn't think of a better ending to our already amazing trip. So psyched!!!!