And the adventure begins!! :)

For someone who travels quite a lot, I should have gotten over this already. I have this bad habit of missing airplanes. Getting to the airport about 30 seconds *before* check-in closes seems to be my goal, but sometimes I get there 30 seconds *after* it closes and I get screwed.

This time was different though. My flight was at 10:15pm. I arrived at the airport at 8pm. A full 2hrs and 15min before the flight. On the Condor Airlines ticket rules, it said check-in closed 60min before departure, so I was way ahead of schedule. Right? Wrong.

I get to the check-in counter and the woman informs me that check-in is closed. There was another woman there already complaining, and other people came in behind me. She said there was nothing she could do about it, that we're 10 minutes late. At this point, my head is spinning. What do you mean 10 minutes late? The flight leaves in 2hrs!! And she says nope! The flight leaves in 50 minutes!

For a moment, I freak out. I bought that ticket 6 months ago. Did I check the time wrong? Am I nuts? Did I really miss this transatlantic and non-refundable/non-changeable flight?

I didn't have my reservation printed out, but I had it saved on my computer. So I get the computer out and check. Nope. I'm not crazy. It says Salvador-Frankfurt -- 10:15pm. I take a deep breath. Ok, so I didn't screw up. They did. So I show it to her and she asks me if they hadn't sent me an email telling me there was a time change. Obviously no, they didn't. So she tells me to wait right there, that she'd go talk to her supervisor.

To make a long story short, they take me to the company office where they'll try to figure something out (because after all, I'm in Salvador, I live in Brasilia, and if I missed the flight it was their fault, so hotel, meals, etc, will have to be taken care by them!). At this point, it is 8:36pm and they're doing the final head-check in the airplane, when lo and behold, they discover there's ONE empty seat. They turn to me and ask "do you want to go?" OF COURSE!!!

So all hell breaks loose, we start running through the airport, this woman carrying my backpack and flashing her badge everywhere, passing me through security checks and passport control, getting to the gate, hand-writing my boarding pass (no joke!) and putting me in the plane.

It was epic!!

All this goes to show that if they really wanted to, they could put you on the flight even 14 minutes before the departure time. And the kicker? We weren't even late. We left on time!!

And I arrived in Frankfurt safe and sound and happy!

--> My backpack however, did not. But that's another story... :) <--

Universal Passport

There's something that unites us crazy travelers of the world, the ones that don't ever stop and are always hungry for more. That something is our reaction to the dreaded "Where are you from?" question. We wince. We cower. We don't know how to answer it.

But finally, it seems there's an answer that would satisfy, if not our interlocutor, at least ourselves in replying: "I'm an Earthling." Simple. No complications. No explanations. Short and to the point.

I always thought borders and visas were artificial inventions that spoiled a little bit the joys of traveling. We were all born on the same planet, why should some of us have different rights than others? Following a discussion with my good friend J., he sent me a link to this Universal Passport. It's an awesome idea, and I love what it says on the bottom right corner:

"The bearer of this passport is allowed to travel freely throughout the entire planet.

As a citizen of Planet Earth, the owner of this document agrees to maintain and respect all the traditions and cultures of the lands he or she travels or lives in."

I couldn't have said it better myself. It's perfect! I just hope someday it becomes a reality and we don't need to go through full-body scans before we are allowed to border a plane.