Ciao from Sicily

Article written on: Tuesday JUNE 14, 2005

Internet is probably the only thing thats still working in Sicily. You might be wondering why iam starting off  with such a negative note. Wait until you hear the entire story. Its going to be a really really long story(you know, iam jobless now). So read it in your leisure.

Our flight trip from San Diego to London went good without any incidents. We arrived in London on Jun 10th @ 7:30 AM. Since we had to take a train and a bus to our friend's house in London, we put the luggage in the Locker room (Cloak room) and arrived at our friend's place in London around 10:00AM. We went around London for the next couple of days. Things were still fine.

Our flight from London to Rome thro' Alitalia airlines was on June 13 @ 12:30 PM. And we had our connecting flight from Rome to Catania through Lufthansa at 5:30PM. We arrived at Heathrow, London at 10:30 AM for our flight to Rome. We checked in 3 luggages and just hand carried a pullman and a laptop with us. Shankar had put a file with all his official paperworks/tourist passports of him and ajit/unused credit cards in our duffle bag while leaving the luggage in the cloak room. We forgot to take the file and put it back in our hand carriage. The time was already 1:00PM and the Alitalia flight didn't seem to board the passengers. Around 1:30 they announced that the flight is cancelled due to technical difficulties. All the passengers were asked to collect the checked in baggages from the baggage carousal, and then go through the immigration and customs. This was stupidity to the core. Why go through immigration when we never left the airport? Well, we had to do it whatever they say, right? Anyway, we asked for our stroller which was a gate check in before heading out to the baggage claim area. The Alitalia crew spend some 15 minutes and then responded to us saying the stroller has been sent down the baggage carousal.

We collected our baggages, waited another 30 minutes for the stroller, complained to all available Alitalia crew and still no sign of the stroller. We just gave up on it and headed to reschedule our flight to Rome. Unfortunately, Lufthansa doesn't fly from London to Rome. If not, we would have gladly switched to Lufthansa. Our bad luck, we had to go back to Alitalia. They had a flight from London to Rome at 4:30PM. The Alitalia even promised us a connecting flight from Rome to Catania if we could get a no objection stamp from Lufthansa. Shankar now ran to Lufthansa and got the no objection, comes back to Alitalia. Guess what they say now - "Iam very sorry, i made a mistake, there are no seats available in the Rome-Catania flight". Good Lord! Ok, back to Lufthansa asking to put us in their flight from Rome to Catania.

When we got reticked on both flights, it was already 3:30PM. We again checked in all the baggages for the 2nd time and complained about the stroller.This time the Alitalia crew took some effort, started looking for it, and brought it back for us.

In the midst of all things, ajit was also whining and complaining that he is hungry, want to go pee and yada yada yada....Well, there was literally no time for lunch. We rushed to our Rome flight. We gave the stroller at the Gate and made sure that we will get it back in Rome. After boarding, the flight was delayed by another 45 minutes. We atlast reached Rome at 8:45 PM. Our connecting flight to Catania was at 9:45 PM. We asked for the stroller at the gate. The same 'i don't care attitude' from the Alitalia crew-the stroller has been checked into Catania flight. Ok, by now we realized there is no point in arguing with them and start running to catch the next flight. Rome airport is really really big. Ajit refused to walk faster and we coudn't carry him and run. So, we put him the luggage cart (much against a big warning saying kids should not be put in the cart) and started to run. We arrived at the Air One Airlines(operated in alliance with Lufthansa) at 9:15. There is no Crew at the gate. Lufthansa had refused to give us a boarding pass in London for the Rome- Catania flight saying they can only be issued at the Rome airport(our point of origin). Atlast Airone airlines crew show up at 9:30 at the gate. Shankar goes to her and askes for boarding pass and she says he has to go upstairs to the Lufthansa counter and get it. He runs upstairs, and they say they stop issuing boarding pass 30 hour before the flight. After some coaxing, he finally made them issue the boarding pass and we luckily made it to the flight to Catania.

We landed in Catania at 11:00PM on June 13th. By now Ajit had fallen asleep. We went to collect our checked in baggage. Alas, one of our baggage never arrived. Only now we realized, the lost baggage has Shankar/Ajit's tourist passport and other important stuff along with all of my/ajit's clothings. We gave a complaint to the airlines and proceeded to our accomodation. Believe me, by now Shankar had had enough, and he was ready to catch the next flight and return back to US.

It has been 24 hours since we landed in Catania and still still haven't gotten our luggage. Literally no one in the Airport authority/airlines in catania seem to speak English. So, we were not able to do much.

Shankar connected his Voice Over IP Phone and tested it by placing a call to US. We had spoken only for few minutes when the broadband router blew up. The renters did assure us that all of the 110v appliances can be used in the apartment. Shankar gets the electrician to check the connection, and sure enough it was 130 volts. For a person who loves electronics, nothing seems to work in Italy. Now, we have to wait until we get a calling card.

As if there aren't enough problems, Shankar got called tonite to go back to work since the equipment he is supposed to be working on, failed. He left around midnight and doesn't know when he will be back.

On the positive note, the italian people who offered us the accomodation are really nice and very helpful. They infact ran out in the midnight and got us some food y'day. They have called the airport upteen times to ask about the lost baggage.

Anyway, me and Ajit seem to be enjoying the idle time.