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airport
Fifteen hours on a bus? Fuck that. I decided to just head to the airport, put myself on the standby list for three flights. I told myself that if I couldn't catch a break, it was probably better to make plans to travel somewhere else than spend 15 hours on a bus. Ugh.
egypt: part three
March 21, 2008
airport
Twelve and a half hours after leaving NYC, I landed in Abu Dhabi. My layover was only about 90 minutes...
egypt: part one
March 16, 2008
airport
...I barely had time to wander around the terminal (which is really beautiful, by the way - check out the curved-mosaic dome! It's like being inside a giant mushroom!)...
egypt: part one
March 16, 2008
airport
Air travel makes no sense. When I first had my "Aha!" moment to go to Egypt, I looked up direct flights from NYC to Cairo and was like "Oh no, it's like $2,000" (which was way more than I wanted to spend). So then I was like, "Well, for shit's and giggles, let me see if there are any cheaper indirect fares." The first search result said I could fly to Egypt from NYC roundtrip for under $1,000 as long as I was willing to go an extra EIGHT HOURS out of the way through Abu Dhabi BOTH TIMES

But since Faisal lives in Abu Dhabi, I figured it was like Etihad Airlines PAYING me $1,000 to visit a friend! So thanks for that Etihad! Woooo!
egypt: part one
March 16, 2008
airport
Twenty six hours after we boarded a plane in Bangkok, we found ourselves in cab leaving JFK.
thailand part nine: koh tao to bangkok to nyc
August 29, 2007
airport
...but we only had an hour or so before our next flight. So we wandered around the huge Dubai airport.
thailand part nine: koh tao to bangkok to nyc
August 29, 2007
airport
We got to deplane...
thailand part nine: koh tao to bangkok to nyc
August 29, 2007
airport
Apparently there are rules that if your flight is delayed more than a certain number of hours, the airline is required to feed you and so...
united arab emirates part two: dubai and abu dhabi
August 03, 2007
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Around 4am, Emirates Flight 384 was ready to go! Next stop: Bangkok! (Once more, I just want to thank Bernadette, Philip and Faisal for being such great hosts. We really can't thank you enough! WE HAD SO MUCH FUN! THANK YOU!).
united arab emirates part two: dubai and abu dhabi
August 03, 2007
airport
...Meredith returned with her passport! (Look how happy she is!). And that's how our month-long vacation almost got completely derailed twice before it even began! (The first time being when I mixed up the dates and showed up to the airport A DAY LATE!).
united arab emirates part one: nyc to dubai
July 31, 2007
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And that's how, after only 15 minutes of meeting her, Biba forever cemented her "LEGENDARY" status!
united arab emirates part one: nyc to dubai
July 31, 2007
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Right around midnight, exactly FIVE HOURS AFTER WE LANDED, Bernadette arrived at the airport and somehow managed to talk her way through security despite not having a passport or any airplane tickets with her! She spotted us (all greasy and grimy and dejected) and came over and said hi! Then I took this picture! After years of being friends online, this was the first time we'd met in person!

We sat down and told her the whole story and she told us not to worry because, "Mahmoun is on his way." I was like "It's midnight! Who's Mahmoun and what's he going to do?" Bernadette explained that he was a man who worked for her boss and that he was a "problem fixer." (Just like Mr. Wolf!!!)

Sure enough, about ten minutes later a very large, serious-looking Emirati man walked up to the armed guards at immigration and with a nod, they let the dude through! We were like "Whoa." Mahmoun came over to us, and asked us to tell him the problem (and he even whipped out a little pad to take notes just like Mr. Wolf!). After we'd finished explaining to him that we were almost 100% sure that the passport was still on the plane, he was like "Meredith you come with me. Bernatte and Brian, you wait here."

He came back like two minutes later with ten airline employees in tow and said something like "This airplane is supposed to fly back to New York in forty-five minutes, but it's not going anywhere until the passport that's on there is found. So let's go find it." Sure enough, just ten minutes later...
united arab emirates part one: nyc to dubai
July 31, 2007
airport
We landed in Dubai on Wednesday around 7pm local time. We got off the plane and headed all the way across the ENORMOUS Dubai airport. We finally got over to immigration on the other side of the airport and Meredith realized that she no longer had her passport with her. Since she needed it to get on the plane, we figured that it must have just fallen out of her bag and was somewhere on the floor of the plane.

So we found a security desk and they called the gate and the woman at the gate said she'd go on the plane and look for it so we should just sit tight. Ten minutes later, she calls back and says "Well, I just went through the whole area you were sitting in and it's not there. Sorry." DOH!

We spent the next several hours trying to find someone with enough authority to let us reboard the plane and search ourselves - but we had no luck. Three hours had passed at this point and we'd just learned that our plane had been refueled and would soon be headed back to JFK. If we couldn't figure out a way to get the passport, we would end up spending the next two nights in the airport until the US Embassy opened back up, and even then, there's a chance that they'd make us fly back to NYC. Ugh.

Every time we found a new person willing to hear us out, they'd call down to the gate and they'd end up reaching the same woman and she'd just be like "I searched the plane. I'ts not there. I'm not looking again."

With the plane's departure growing ever closer, I finally figured it was time to stop dicking around with the airline and try to get in touch with Bernadette. I called her cell and she was worried sick about us because she knew that our plane had landed four hours ago (and that we were on the flight). She was worried that something had happened and we'd been arrested. (Dubai is notorious for its draconian drug laws - they sentenced a British man to FOUR YEARS IN JAIL because they found an amount of marijuana that weighed less than a single grain of sugar stuck in the sole of his shoe!).

We explained the situation to Bernadette and she was immediately like "My boss is a very powerful man in this country. I'm on the way to the airport now...I'll see what I can do."
united arab emirates part one: nyc to dubai
July 31, 2007
airport
Orlando Airport. Waiting to board. 7:34pm sunset.
business trip to orlando
March 26, 2007
airport
Back in NYC! Waiting for our luggage to show up.
cayman islands vacation: part two
August 21, 2006
airport
I stayed awake for the first leg of the journey, but crashed out on the airport floor during our layover in Atlanta.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
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Boo, waiting.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
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4:30am! At JFK waiting to check-in to our flight.
cayman islands vacation: part one
August 21, 2006
airport
Fourteen hours later, we'd arrived at Incheon Airport, just outside of Seoul, Korea.
teaching english in korea: part one
July 28, 2005
airport
...and then checked in and headed to the gate!
teaching english in korea: part one
July 28, 2005
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Not! Hahah.
teaching english in korea: part one
July 28, 2005
airport
I landed in Chang Mai, a smidge before midnight.
thailand part four: koh phi phi
April 24, 2005
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Thai Airways flight from Phuket to Chang Mai? About $65! Woooo!
thailand part four: koh phi phi
April 24, 2005
airport
Meredith laughing at me reading Wired. Which she now reads. (Guess who's been infected with NERDOM?)
accidental vacation in jamaica
February 16, 2005
airport
With plenty of time to spare before our flight we decided to mack and relax with some McDonald's breakfast.
accidental vacation in jamaica
February 16, 2005
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We were immediately innundated to the relaxed Jamaican attitude that we'd heard so much about when he hit the mother of all lines trying to get through Jamaican immigration. No rush at all, mon!
accidental vacation in jamaica
February 16, 2005
airport
The shuttle bus drove us out onto the tarmac and right up to the plane.
baltic vacation part two: traveling solo in estonia
January 29, 2005
airport
I made it through customs without event and cab a cab to...
baltic vacation part two: traveling solo in estonia
January 29, 2005
airport
While walking around the airport kept seeing all these signs for separate "prayer rooms" they had set up to accommodate five different religions. The room for Christian prayer is a normal room. The other four rooms for the other denominations all have trapdoor floors that send any (filthy, non-Christian infidel) inhabitants down a chute into a giant incinerator. You gotta keep an eye on those sneaky Germans!
baltic vacation part two: traveling solo in estonia
January 29, 2005
airport
Had a two-hour in Frankfurt before catching my Estonian Air flight into Tallinn - hey, you can smoke in the airport in Germany!
baltic vacation part two: traveling solo in estonia
January 29, 2005
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Helsinki; the daughter of the Baltic! As you'd expect it was very neat and orderly...
baltic vacation part one: grant & jake in finland and lapland.
January 26, 2005
airport
Pimping, contrary to popular belief, IS reletively easy...as long as someone else is paying for it.
baltic vacation part one: grant & jake in finland and lapland.
January 26, 2005
airport
Here's Jake ready to ensure the security of his member.
baltic vacation part one: grant & jake in finland and lapland.
January 26, 2005
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Admiral's club just means you get plates of baby carrots and ranch dressing, but you get to do it in leather chairs, while businessmen give you shitty looks.
baltic vacation part one: grant & jake in finland and lapland.
January 26, 2005
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Jake seemed to think that we could pass unnoticed into the business class "Admiral's Club." As I predicted, We went over like a reggae band at a KKK rally.
baltic vacation part one: grant & jake in finland and lapland.
January 26, 2005
airport
...and I dropped the Tinster off at the airport! Thanks for coming out to visit me, sugar! When I got home, I sent Leigh a note teasing her about how I snuck the dirty homeless man's stuffed squirrel into her suitcase! She wrote me back teasing me that she'd hidden drawings in my room illustrating what she was going to do to me next time she saw me. Cursing her craftiness, I immediately set out to explore my apartment.
leigh visits san francisco
October 07, 2004
airport
Well, my ninety minute layover in Chicago turned into a seven hour delay due to inclement whether. Hey, at least I had a book.
sxsw part one: bands in austin
March 18, 2004
airport
We landed in sunny, warm Aruba at 4pm.
aruba vacation part 1: leaving nyc and first night in aruba
January 22, 2004
airport
Then Grant and I dropped the Fatty off.
trip to cali part 5: back to la
December 19, 2003
airport
Fire up iTunes and here cue up Crüe's "Home Sweet Home." Awww, yeah.
european vacation part 21: heading home!
November 01, 2003
airport
As we scrambled up to the gate we realized that there are probably worse things than being accidentally stranded in Iceland for a day or two.
european vacation part 21: heading home!
November 01, 2003
airport
Here's the not-so-great sneaky photo I tried to take of Grant freaking the fuck out when he thought he'd lost his plane ticket (which Chris had actually taken out of his bag and hidden while Grant was in the bathroom). After a few England-bound hours in the air, it was time for ANOTHER MEAL! Wooooo! Who loves airline food more than us?
european vacation part 18: leaving crete.
October 30, 2003
airport
Check it out: both Grant and Fatty are "handling their luggage."
european vacation part 18: leaving crete.
October 30, 2003
airport
Once in the airport, we grabbed a quick slice...
european vacation part 18: leaving crete.
October 30, 2003
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...and had an hour and forty-five minutes layover to kill before our puddle jumper flight from Athens to Iraklio (or Heraklion), Crete!
european vacation part 6: sightseeing with the stoddards .
October 23, 2003
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...and grabbed the train to Heathrow to catch our 10:20pm flight and kick off the next leg of the trip: Crete!
european vacation part 6: sightseeing with the stoddards .
October 23, 2003
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...a huge Cretan man that looked like a bizarro "Ogre Version" of our good friend Ross Martin. Not willing to let him escape undocumented, we dispatched Chris (who speaks fluent Greek) to tell the giant Ross-Ogre (R'ogre, if you will) that he looked just like a friend of ours and would he mind posing for a picture. There was an uncomfortably long pause as he pondered our request (which I spent fearing he was about to crush all of our heads like grapes) but instead he gave a polite nod and posed for this fantastic pic.
european vacation part 6: sightseeing with the stoddards .
October 23, 2003
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We landed in Heraklion at 5:45am and while we were waiting for our baggage, we ran into...
european vacation part 6: sightseeing with the stoddards .
October 23, 2003
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At the baggage claim carousel, our bags were the first three out. We grabbed them, breezed through customs and made it to the arrival terminal just as Charlene showed up. (For those of you that don't know, Charlene is Grant's superhot friend from High School who came and visited us in New York this past summer).

After hugs were exchanged, Charlene told us "There are a few things we can do tonight," we were about to tell her that we were exhausted and just wanted to go to bed when she finished with, "and one of them is a surprise ACDC concert that I might be able to get tickets and backstage passes to." Charlene, not knowing our taste in music asked "I don't know, is that something that the three of you would be interested in?" We nearly lost our minds. Free surprise ACDC concert? Backstage passes? We decided we had no choice but to rally yet again.
european vacation part 4: london & ac/dc
October 21, 2003
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We returned the rental car, made it through customs and headed to the cafeteria to grab something to eat and drink five liters of water each.
european vacation part 3: the blue lagoon
October 21, 2003
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We breezed right through customs...
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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...without any problems...
european vacation part 2: reykjavik, iceland.
October 21, 2003
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Fatty. Ahhh, much better!
european vacation part 1: leaving nyc
October 20, 2003
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8:30pm: We got our boarding call. Here's Fatty's picture of me...
european vacation part 1: leaving nyc
October 20, 2003
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We breezed through security and made it to our gate just a little past 6pm (which gave us just over 2 hours to kill). We grabbed a snack in the cafeteria, read a bit and (what else?) goofed out and took pictures. (Chris and I had both just gotten new cameras so we spent a lot of time familiarizing ourselves with how to use them.
european vacation part 1: leaving nyc
October 20, 2003
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5:35pm: JFK international terminal:
european vacation part 1: leaving nyc
October 20, 2003
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Shortly thereafter, I headed back to the hotel, packed up, checked out and caught a cab out to Long Beach to make my red eye flight *blech* back home to NYC.
bidness in los angeles
July 24, 2003