Today we woke up, packed, and ate a perfectly huge breakfast (this place had a full meat buffet, fruit buffet, breads and pastries, and mimosas…good grief). We then headed out to drop off the rental car, and one-way streets and a lack of gas stations provided, somehow we got gas and got the rental car back before being charged for another day. We took the tram back to my favorite overseas book store Algorithm, and purchased our guide book for China, and then headed back to the hotel to take full advantage of their business center, monopolizing it for a good two hours as we booked our flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town, a hotel in Cape town, and printed out the documents needed to complete our Chinese Visa.
We took full advantage of the late check out and left the hotel with enough time to walk to the bus station and hop on the bus to the Zagreb airport, where we hopped onto our flight to Frankfurt at 6pm.
We arrive in Frankfurt on time – even a little early – which is great, as we have to find our connecting flight to South Africa – and it leaves in 1 hour.
We book it across the international terminals, and finally arrive at gate B26 only to find that the flight is cancelled!???
What?
We decide not to freak out and wait in line to speak to one of the service ladies, who says, as of now the flight is cancelled, but in one hour they will have more information, so please don’t go too far.
Where are we going to go? This timing of course causes a cascade of “what ifs” as our flight out of Johannesburg is non-refundable, and if we miss that flight it’s hundreds of dollars lost, and if we miss our hotel, it is no refundable – but so much for worrying. At 8:30, the time our flight is supposed to leave, they inform us that a mechanical problem must be fixed, but that as of now it looks fixable, and the flight would only be delayed – as a gesture of their concern, here are some free sodas and magazines (oh, sorry they’re in German).
At 9:30PM, the group of irate passengers has now had 3 cokes each and is in full caffeine rage when the spokesperson says, it looks like we will depart ad midnight, we are so sorry for this delay, please here is a voucher for a free meal – now please don’t trample each other to get your 20Euro.
After a big free meal everyone is less irate and at 11:35, we begin to board the plane.
Halleluiah!
We took full advantage of the late check out and left the hotel with enough time to walk to the bus station and hop on the bus to the Zagreb airport, where we hopped onto our flight to Frankfurt at 6pm.
We arrive in Frankfurt on time – even a little early – which is great, as we have to find our connecting flight to South Africa – and it leaves in 1 hour.
We book it across the international terminals, and finally arrive at gate B26 only to find that the flight is cancelled!???
What?
We decide not to freak out and wait in line to speak to one of the service ladies, who says, as of now the flight is cancelled, but in one hour they will have more information, so please don’t go too far.
Where are we going to go? This timing of course causes a cascade of “what ifs” as our flight out of Johannesburg is non-refundable, and if we miss that flight it’s hundreds of dollars lost, and if we miss our hotel, it is no refundable – but so much for worrying. At 8:30, the time our flight is supposed to leave, they inform us that a mechanical problem must be fixed, but that as of now it looks fixable, and the flight would only be delayed – as a gesture of their concern, here are some free sodas and magazines (oh, sorry they’re in German).
At 9:30PM, the group of irate passengers has now had 3 cokes each and is in full caffeine rage when the spokesperson says, it looks like we will depart ad midnight, we are so sorry for this delay, please here is a voucher for a free meal – now please don’t trample each other to get your 20Euro.
After a big free meal everyone is less irate and at 11:35, we begin to board the plane.
Halleluiah!
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