I typed an entire blog directly into the blog and then the stupid thing lost it. So now i have to type it again and i was already pissed off when i typed it the first time so now I am apoplectic. Good think I am not trying to speak to anyone right now. And forget my typos, i don’t have the energy to fix them.
I am supposed to be in Cape Town right now. But my stupid credit card company back in February decided to issue a fraud alert because i actually had used my card. Go figure. I told them when I left i was in Africa and would use it so leave me alone. Instead, they contacted my brother who contacted me and i told them to leave me alone again. They however neglected to mention that in the course of this process they ended up blocking the charge for my air ticket Botswana to Cape Town.
So yesterday i arrive at the airport and have no ticket. And there are no tickets to be had. So i pay for a taxi to take me to the long distance bus people who could so happily get me to CT, but not until Friday morning. Well, I would leave Friday morning at 6:30 but won’t get to CT until Saturday afternoon. Fun times. And it is two buses, one to Jo’burg (6 hours) then a 5 hour wait then the night bus to CT. Then I have my return ticket back on Wednesday so I get to be there for 2 full days.
Meanwhile, they didn’t block my hotel room for 6 nights or my 2 days of jazz festival tickets, so i have those to pay for. And only will be there for one day of the festival. I also missed my tour of Robben Island today – right now in fact – which is where they held Nelson Mandela for all those years.
At least the knowledge of that helps me realize that this isn’t that big of deal. I mean, my credit card company isn’t actually holding me locked up in a small cell for god knows how many years, they are just wasting my time and money for this next week. And really, they did it for my own good, right?
So I am now waiting for the airlines to confirm they can change my return ticket (I had booked each leg separately because I had wanted to take a train back from CT but the train company was to incompetent to manage that, so here I am). I want to recapture 2 of the days lost by flying back on the 5th instead of the 3rd. Will have to pay some bucks because no cheap fares are available. I have now talked to two people there who swore they would be back to me within 15 minutes each time. (not even close and still not.) See I can get a seat, pay more, but they can’t tell me how much more, that is a different department and I am not able to talk to that department and they don’t know when that department will be able to talk to me.
With my luck it will be on the bus i need to now take. I will be recognizable as the only white woman on the bus screaming onto a phone because i can’t hear a word they are saying to me. (Yes, we do talk louder when we can’t hear, why is that?) I can’t call them back because my air time company charges me for time even when i am calling a toll free number. Then the airline will want my credit card number, which i will have to scream to them in a crowded bus. No, I will have to get off the bus, where ever it is and walk to my destination. Great. Fantastic. Then tonight i pay for a hotel in Gabs because the bus leaves tomorrow too early in the a.m. for me to get there via the local buses. But i will get to see some of south Africa onthis journey. At least until it gets dark and then we will have only the sound of a cow hitting the bus (well, a bus hitting a cow is probably more accurate) to know nature is out there all around us.
It is a good thing that I am still thinking about Nelson Mandela. Without that perspective, really I would be in much worser (yeah, I meant worser) shape.
Well, the 15 minutes have elapsed again and still no word from the airline. Who ARE these people?
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