Well, in some ways I can tell that I am rusty at this whole international travel thing.  In others, I can see that it’s just like getting in the groove of anything else you’ve practiced a lot in the past. I have certainly prepped longer and harder on this trip to Africa than I have on any other trip I’ve ever taken…mainly because it’s a brand new destination for me and because I have medical and mental health issues that I wasn’t battling back when I was exploring places around the world. My preparations have worked in my favor so far, but some times, you just can’t plan for everything.

As promised, I’m going to try to keep you guys updated as I go along on this trip. I am just using my phone and a keyboard that connects via Bluetooth, so my posts might not always be formatted correctly, just FYI.

GETTING FROM POINT A TO POINT B

August 4th and 5th were 32 nonstop hours of straight travel from South Carolina to  Cape Town, South Africa.

It all started when I took a shuttle to Atlanta at 2:45 am on the 4th (which was flawless), and hopped on a 15-hour Ethiopian flight to Addis Ababa where I only had a 1.5 hour layover.  I never normally have such short layovers, but I had done extensive research and it seemed that Ethiopian Airlines and Addis Ababa were well equipped to handle tight layovers and did so often.  No travelers on any of the forums complained about missing flights.  It also appeared that my gates would be close together and so it should only take a moment to get from one to the other.  The only alternative I had were flights with 12-23 hour layovers in the Middle East and I figured it was worth the risk to go on this flight.

Well!  Ethiopian airlines definitely turned into an experience!

• The first thing I noticed on the Atlanta to Cape Town flight was how dirty the airplane was. I was a little shocked and frankly disgusted.  I thought maybe it was me being a germaphobe or a silly American, and I berated myself for being such an antiseptic, privileged white person.  But the next flight was much cleaner and I had no problems…so no, I think maybe I was just being a little harsh on myself and this particular flight was just gross.
• For such a long flight, I was worried about how big the person would be sitting next to me, but turned out the flight wasn’t even close to being full and I had a row all to myself.  What a nice reprieve!
• The 14 hours were still excruciating.  My back and shoulder muscles were already spasming in full when I got on the plane from carrying luggage around the Atlanta airport, and my seat scrunched me over which did not help at all.  Unfortunately, I knew this was likely and there’s nothing to do for my back at this point besides take meds and whimper a little.  Thank goodness I was able to move around a little because no one was sitting beside me.
• The flight said it was leaving on time…all the way up to the 45 minutes after our supposed takeoff time that it took us to board in Atlanta.  I was peeved because the plane was there but Ethiopian just took sooooooooo long to start the boarding process.  I knew I was going to be stressed to the max when I got off the flight, but I forced myself not to think about it until then.  I read half of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, played hours of Sudoku, watched a couple movies, and journaled for a bit but 14 hours on a plane is just long, no matter how you look at it.
• Even though I ordered gluten free meals when I bought my tickets, Ethiopian did not have gluten free meals available for me.  This was a huge bummer. The flight attendant had a really hard time understanding what I was asking for and she was kind enough to bring me a couple of items to see if I could eat them.  I ate what I could which was mostly nothing.  Good thing I never have an appetite.  What I did taste test was pretty awful and the coffee was probably the worst I’ve had in my life, which is saying a lot based on all the places I’ve been hahahaha!
• As we neared Addis Ababa, I consoled myself with, “I’m sure everything will be fine. This happens all the time.  Surely they’ll be quick de-boarding, and the gate will be nearby (based on everything I had read) and maybe they’ll even hold the plane a few minutes since they know passengers are on this plane waiting to connect.” I even asked the flight attendant and she said she had no idea if I would make the next flight and couldn’t help (which I know from experience is not necessarily the case.  I have had an attendant contact the other flight crew and ask them to hold the flight because they had a passenger that was going to be a few minutes late).
• Well…even though I was close to the front (on purpose for this reason!), de-boarding and re-boarding the next plane turned into a chaotic, comedic mess.  This family in front of me had more bags than a school bus full of kids would have had and I was dancing on my toes wanting to ask them to hurry up when everyone finally started moving on Plane 1. But then the line halted and we stood for probably 15 minutes because it turned out we had to wait on a bus to collect and transfer us! By this point, Plane 2 should have been well into their boarding process.  It was supposed to leave at 9:05 and it was currently 8:30. My anxiety was richocheting through the roof and I knew I was an idiot for not taking a Valium before this.  We FINALLY got on the bus, which I raced off before it barely had stopped, and I sprinted through the doors expecting to see the next gate….only to realize that the airport was making us go through security again!!!  I have never in all my travels had to go through security before a connecting flight, and I started waving my ticket and my-version-of-yelling to anyone I could that I had to make the 9 am Cape Town flight please let me through!!  I finally made it through the line and the last lady at security told me, “Hurry! Hurry! It’s far away.”  My heart sank, but I started running with my heavy-for-me backpack, another small bag, and a screaming uterus.  Keep in mind, the last time I ran like this was in 2008 when I had my knee surgery and was told I shouldn’t run anymore because my joints couldn’t take it.  I ran, ran, ran dodging people with their ridiculous bags towering on top of one another and kids looking lost and airport personnel lounging around without a care in the world and I kept on thinking, “there is no way I’m making this flight.”  I had to walk a few times to catch my breath, and then I’d start back up. I ran at least 2 km to the gate that should have been right next to the gate I arrived at, praying the whole time that none of my body parts would slip out of place. It was well after the time the flight should have closed the gate and the plane should have left, but once I got there I wanted to cry when I saw a long line of people waiting to board the Cape Town flight.  I stood in line trying not to tremble and just took a while trying to calm my body down. At this point I was literally dripping sweat and I felt sorry for whoever was going to be sitting next to me because I could feel the heat radiating off of me. I was grateful I decided to wear black and I didn’t have my hiking boots on.Similar to the other Ethiopian flight, this one took forever to board, for no seeming reason.
• Most of the people boarding were Arab families.  All of the women were wearing black hijabs and scarves and I was again glad I was wearing black and had a black mask on.  There were a few of us Americans and I knew I definitely was not blending in haha!  The lady in front of me became quite irate when people kept on cutting us in line.  She muttered under her breath a few times, then she turned to me and asked me loudly, “Weren’t you the one in line behind me?! Who do these people think they are? Are we invisible?” I just shrugged my shoulders and cringed.  Then she turned back around and actually started stating “The word is EXCUSE ME!” To the people moving past.  I wanted to melt into the background and then when a group of ladies started arguing back with her I was like, “Oh lord, get me away from this American!”  Being in the middle of a bunch of women yelling at each other in different languages seemed like a disaster waiting to happen and not one I wanted to be in the middle of. This was a perfect example of someone NOT being culturally sensitive. Who cares that someone is cutting in line? You are still going to get on this plane before it leaves.  I don’t know much about Arabic culture, but it appeared to me that most of the cutting in line was people trying to join their families, even if there were like 20 people to a family.  Ok, they didn’t say excuse me, but would you even know if they did because it was in Arabic? Now, when a guy who looked like he was a prince and was by himself tried to just step in front of us (I’m assuming because we were women and he felt he had the right to do that), I was a bit irritated and I stepped right back in front, haha!
• We finally boarded a bus and got to the plane…only, we stood out in the pouring rain for 10 minutes waiting to actually get onto the plane.  I just started laughing because I was already soaked anyway and I was thankful to have the cold rain tone down the feeling that I was still boiling.  We boarded, only to wait for 2 more rounds of people to come in on buses.  5 flight attendants were scurrying around like nervous chickens with all this paperwork in hand pointing at my my line of seats and I thought, “oh my god, if they make me get off this plane…” This has actually happened to me before so I was just hoping and hoping I wouldn’t have a repeat experience. Apparently a stink was being made because the girl beside me was not with her family and there was an empty seat that shouldn’t have been empty. Might explain why she kept looking at me with deadly disgust, but not entirely sure. Honestly, if we weren’t on a plane, I wouldn’t be surprised if she brought out a knife on me….really, she looked like she wanted to kill me. Also, I’m not sure why it took 5 of them to figure out the problem, but it was at least 10 am by the time we left.  I didn’t care at that point, but I was worried that my driver would not wait for me in Cape Town. I couldn’t text or call because in all my preparations, I didn’t even think about making sure I had access to Ethiopian cell data (because I was only supposed to be in country for an hour and a half!)
• This flight WAS full and apparently I was either not the only one who had been sweating gallons right before I boarded the plane or there were just a lot of people with bad BO.  The flight attendants started walking up and down the aisles from front to back with 2 bottles in hand up to the ceiling spraying a steady stream of someone’s cologne.  I couldn’t help but giggle.  My cousin Jake later said it reminded him of the old Russian planes he flew on back in the 90’s and I was like, “YES!” It reminded me exactly of the old soviet flights I’ve been on with the chaos, confusion, and stink, hahaha!
• I nodded off a couple of times on this flight, and was super glad I had gotten a wrap around neck pillow.  It kept my neck from moving and I felt like an idiot for taking so long to embrace the travel pillow. No wonder I had never been able to sleep on a flight before!
• No gluten free food on this 6.5 hour flight either. I drank juice a couple times. Steered clear of the coffee.
• Once I left the embrace of Ethiopian airlines, every thing else happened smoothly with no hiccups.  I got in touch with my driver through the shuttle service, and he had waited for me despite the delay. My checked bag actually arrived on the carousel, which is an honest-to-God miracle that I definitely highly doubted would happen. My driver was super nice and it only took us about half an hour to get to my hotel.
• I immediately got checked in, got WIFI hooked up, let loved ones know I was there safely, and straightway went to the hotel’s cafe to get some real food after 32 hours of a few bites of questionable eats. I had a beautiful glass of wine, some shaved beef/pickled onion/Russian sauce concoction on gluten free bread and delicious fancy french fries.  It wasn’t a lot of food and a normal person would have still been hungry but it was super tasty and I felt like I was splurging.  My receipt said R200 and I cringed…until I realized that my fancy hotel dinner came out to a whopping $11, haha!
• When I got back to my room, jet lag finally hit me hard and I collapsed, spent and happy and thankful that I was finally here.

WRAP-UP

I don’t think I’ll be flying Ethiopian again, but I will confess that despite the craziness, none of my flights were canceled, I made it safely across an ocean and 2 continents, and my luggage made it with me too.  And that’s the most important thing.  The other things just become fodder for good stories later on.

I did learn a few things too…

1. Ethiopian airlines is not the airline to take if you need quick, efficient service or if you have dietary restrictions.
2. Definitely wear shoes that you can easily slip on and off and that you can run in since you never know if an airport marathon will be required.
3. Don’t be an idiot…invest in that travel pillow, ESPECIALLY if you have EDS and you really don’t need your neck vertebrae slipping out of place.  You might actually sleep too. In the past, I never used a pillow because my neck still wobbled all over the place and I still hurt too much to sleep.  This pillow solved that problem for me!
4. Definitely take your anxiety meds proactively!
5. Take those pain meds and anxiety meds before you think you need them.
6. Make sure you include the country you have a layover in in your list of places you have an ESIM or Global Access in (before your flights).
7. Bring at least one substantial snack for each flight and never expect them to have gluten free options, even if they say they do.
8. Laugh at all the ridiculous things that happen.  Because they will!