A Long Journey - And more to come!

Hello Blog and Readers,

Its time for me to check in and ramble on.... Where do I begin? Well, first and foremost I am in Kuwait... WHAT A RELIEF.... I only say this because it took us 3 days to get to Kuwait from NYC. A 1/2 journey turned into a 3 day trip around the world hahahahah. I left with my brother from JFK in NYC on Saturday the 18th, and finally made it to Kuwait the morning of the 22nd on Wednesday. So many obstacles on my way to home... let us begin by the check-in counter at British Airways in NY. I've been having an issue with my U.S passport, since I lost my previous passport and had to issue a new one.

The problem is, since my lost passport has been cancelled, they have also banned the carrier of the old passport - which in effect, is me..."Liana Afuni". So I usually have to get cleared for travel by British Airways and the Kuwaiti authorities. Let me tell you, IT IS A HEADACHE TRYING TO GET BRITISH AIRWAYS TO UNDERSTAND THAT KUWAITI IMMIGRATION HAS POSTED A NOTE ON THE B.A SYSTEM ALLOWING ME INTO THE COUNTRY! So it usually takes me about 40 minutes on a check in counter, since my passport is usually denied when swiped. The lady at the counter was pretty helpful but wasn't sure whether I could travel or not. HOWEVER, I insisted I would get on the plane to London, and then deal with the British Airways people in Heathrow regarding my second leg of the trip (Which was the part of the trip where my Boarding pass wouldn't print due to restrictions). Little did I know that getting on that airplane was a BIG MISTAKE!!!!

I slept for the majority of the first leg of the trip, until just before landing when I all of a sudden hear, "something-somthing-something We are landing in ICELAND." I immediately wake up with a WTF look but accepted this landing because I'm usually a little moody when I wake up.. so it took time for the matter to sink in.

So... Iceland.... hahahahahhahahah WOW what an experience. I have to THANK British Airways for NOT LOADING our LUGGAGE ON THE FLIGHT FROM JFK - WHAT KIND OF EXCUSE DO THEY HAVE FOR THAT??????. Not only do we have to land in a strange country, but me and brother were 2 of about 6 passengers whom did not have any luggage arrive. And the most frustrating part is none of the British Airways staff greeted us at the airport or even communicated with us after we landed, so our bags were a lost case.

We arrive in Iceland about 9 PM Icelandic time, and were picked up by a bus with the other passengers and taken to a hotel. The hotel was not bad at all, except that it was in the middle of nowhere although it was in the capital of iceland - Reykjavik. Funny thing is, I find out that 2 of my Cypriot friends are at the same hotel I was staying at - they had arrived on the Boston flight about 2 hours before we did and were also rerouted to Iceland. WHAT A SMALL WORLD I TELL YA! It was nice to see them though, at least I felt we had company.. and I was not alone!

Being in Iceland was bitter sweet - it was cool cause we got to go to a very unique place in the world. In the winter time, they only have 4 hours of daylight - from 11 am to 3 PM. They also have a population of 300,000 which is tiny for the area of land they had. So I got to learn a little about the history of Iceland! Although, we couldn't do much touristy things because we had to be in the Hotel to keep checking on the status of our flight out of the country. The next morning we we woke up and ran to the nearest shopping mall because we were told that all flights on Sunday to heathrow were CANCELLED. So we were screwed, cause we had no clothing!

We kept being told by the hotel to check to the status of the flight - once at 3 pm, once at 6 Pm, another at 11 Pm. Until finally, we were told that those going to NYC were not going to fly out at Midnight on Sunday as the Boston people were to. They had told us to wake up 7 am on Monday to check the status of our flight, but instead received a call from the hotel staff at 5 am instructing us to wake up because a bus was going to pick us up and take us to the airport for a flight out at 10 am.

We were further delayed in Iceland in the airplane for 2 hours because Iceland NEVER expects Huge airplanes on their grounds, so they don't know how to lay out the luggage in the airplane such that everything is evenly distributed for safety purposes. So B.A had to go through all the safety measures via phone to London - hahahahaha.

So we arrive to London but are basically screwed because we missed our original connecting flight to Kuwait on Saturday, and there were no seats available on the Monday flight to Kuwait. Heathrow was a commotion and NO ONE could help us rebook our flights, and furthermore our bags were still nowhere to be seen. All they would ever tell us in the airport was to call a "number" and try to rebook through that - WHICH WAS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE THAT NUMBER WAS ALWAYS BUSY. We decide to leave the terminal, in which my dad then books us a hotel by the airport to spend the night in. We then decided to book a flight out the next day through Emirates Airlines via Dubai to Kuwait.

We woke up the next morning and found out that some seats opened up on the British Airways direct flight from Heathrow to Kuwait. So my brother heads to the airport to confirm our seats on the British airways flight, to sort out my passport problem, and to sort out the luggage issue. Nonetheless, I then had to follow him to the airport because my passport issue was being a pain in the neck. ANYWAYS, THE BOTTOM LINE IS WE HAD 3 PROBLEMS IN ONE - My passport, our rebooking, and our bags! hahahah It took about an hour with the lady at the check-in counter to resolve all - which were all taken care of except our luggage which was deemed, "LOST".

Screw the luggage, we just wanted to get home!!!! We finally made it home on Wednesday morning but were very anxious that we were not gonna make it because the forecast predicted "snow" Tuesday night in London. So we just escaped by the skin of our teeth. Alas, all is well and the adventure was quite an experience.

On a sidenote, we are celebrating Christmas tomorrow. Pam is fixing a Turkey and we are exchanging Secret Santa gifts - SHOULD BE FUN!

Oh and yea my Bag arrived today :D We're waiting on 2 more bags!!!

Also, I may be traveling to Qatar and Lebanon for 1 day each next week!! WOOT WOOT - My World Traveller status will not be overthrown :D

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