Embarking towards Brazil- Tears and relief in the world of transit

Cape Town was doing what Cape Town does best the day before I was to leave for Brazil-  raining in all its full glory. I washed my clothes and when I woke up on Tuesday morning I was greeted with all my clothes clean yet sopping. This is something normally I could reason out quite effectively but a travel-across-the-world day where I don’t know what is going to happen on the other end is not a day when I am at my full capabilities. So soon I was running across the city with tears streaming down my face somehow feeling like the entire world is falling down my head because of a pile of wet clothes. At the Laundromat there was a clear sign “Driers can only be used if you wash” yes obviously I decided to be illiterate and put my clothes in anyway. The laundry lady was completely on it though, caught me and tried to shove me out. Apparently I couldn’t pay her any amount of money to let me dry, I couldn’t even start a fake wash cycle. Luckily my tears were only barely below the surface of my face and I graciously let them loose. The cleaning lady looked at me with some sort of contemptuous pity and said “Fine, dry your clothes”. 

I continued my day with more emotional packing and my parents picked me up early and we made our way to the airport. At the check-in desk the man asked “Where’s your return itinerary?’ and I said “what?” and he said, “Brazil won’t let you in if you don’t have it.” I pleaded but there was no budging, I wasn’t to be let on without some sort of proof I was leaving the Brazil at some point. In a stressful movement my parents and I rushed to Ocean Basket for some computer searching for some sort of bus or plane that would remove me from Brazil for the sake of passport control. Well I found a bus that would take me to Paraguay at a nice price but apparently one couldn’t book it online. All the flights were upward of 500 dollars and it all seemed hopeless till my father suggested a travel agent and an unpaid itinerary. A frantic call to a travel agent booked me a flight but when we looked at the emailed itinerary it went from Buenos Aires and not from any city in Brazil. Another stressed phone call later she had sent us a nice unpaid itinerary from Rio to Paraguay. I stressfully showed this itinerary to the check-in man, praying he would not see that top right hand corner with "THIS ITINERARY IS UNPAID AND NO RESERVATION HAS BEEN MADE". My heart stopped a beat yet finally he grunted and gave me my boarding passes.

  

Doha city lights

The plane was 2 hours late, of course, after all that stressing and a thunder storm in Johannesburg didn’t help matters yet 12 hours later we are about to land in Qatar. The loud speaker was on and reported the time, “it is now 8.30am local time in Doha”. I looked at my boarding pass going to Sao Paulo from Doha and the boarding time was 7.40am. Well, there was nothing I could do, so I refused to think about it. Out of the plane and into the airport almost all of us on the South African flight were told we had missed our connecting flights- flights to Belgium, Bangkok, Istanbul and Sao Paulo. Oh dear. A day late was not a problem but I had bought a domestic flight in Brazil for that evening which was impossible to get onto. AH! So in the boiling desert heat we shuttled off to a 5 star hotel near the airport. Fancy people greeted us and I went into the dining room where they served any kind of breakfast one could ever want then ascended to my hotel room which was more than double the size of my apartment in Korea complete with couches to invite friends over and 2 beds (I slept in both just coz I could). 

 

Well then, business. I needed to change my domestic flight. I tried to find a number for the company online, everything was all in Portuguese but I got somewhere somehow. S

kype didn’t like phoning 1- 800 numbers so, my head throbbing with all the madness, I went to the main desk and asked them to use their phone. The number didn’t work and I was near bursting into tears until everyone at the front desk gave me a caring c
hat about how I had to go eat and I would feel better. I did feel better, like a new person better, and finally the lady found a number that worked. Then I called, waited on line for about 20 minutes for an English speaker, changed my flight with a fine of 170 dollars (the flight only cost 100) and had to pay another 40 euros for the international calling charges.

With most of the stress out of the way (besides the fear of not being allowed into Brazil) it was time to see the world. A Belgium girl I had mt at the airport and I decided to adventure around. There’s probably a reason why not many people dream of visiting the Middle East. I cannot speak for everything of course but Doha was a dusty, dry and fake city. We walked along streets of nothing yet hard desert and then suddenly there was a patch of green grass that you knew took tons of water to keep healthy. Fake palm trees lined their water area and amazing architecture surrounded us. It was if, because they did not have their own natural beauty, architecture would have to do. It was so hot at 5 o clock we found refuge in a gigantic mall full of Islamic fashion. We found the water on our way back and shared our life stories. Stuck in Doha, she going to Belgium, me to Brazil we found solace in the fake palm trees and the calm water, some men gave us some nuts and some English speakers helped us find a taxi home. 

A sleep and a 5 am wake up found me on shuttle back to the airport. The plane was late, of course (why it couldn’t have been late the day before I don’t know) but then onto Brazil it was. The flight was long. Oh so long. Longer than long. A Filipino lady fainted and they were calling all the doctors on board as she needed medical attention. An Argentinian and a Brazilian were talking about the lady and the Argentinian said he knew another Filipino who fainted once and he concluded that all Filipinos like fainting. Oh dear. People. Anyway we finally arrived in Sao Paulo and after many babies crying and a buzz of discomfort all around. I got into the customs queue with my heart beating fast still frightened I was not to be let into Brazil with my unpaid for itinerary. I went to the counter trying to look as nice and nonthreatening as possible. Yet, after 44 hours of worrying the lady barely looked at me, grumpily stamped my passport and I was in BRAZIL!

Then onto my next flight where I had to rush to but yet again the boarding time came and passed and I waited for the plane. Not understanding anything I just hoped I didn’t somehow miss the flight. Finally everyone was called to the desk and a huge group of people began shouting in Portuguese. I found an English speaking man and he told me the flight was cancelled. Yet there was hope! My flight to Campo Grande had a layover in Rio and perhaps I would get a direct flight instead now. So after some more waiting around they had a translator phone me and told me that no, the plane would be going tomorrow. I pictured sleeping in the airport and hungry because I didn't have any money and after the long mission I had made I began to cry. The airport people didn’t know what to do with me so instead they took me to the restaurant and bought me some deep fried roll thing filled with cheese and a coke. The translator called again and explained that in fact I was not to sleep at the airport and was to go to a hotel. This cheered me up some and the 4 other people how were also going to Campo Grande went together. There was an old guy who was traveling with literally nothing. Just in his jeans and his shirt, no bag, no nothing. There was a beautiful Brazilian girl who showed me pictures of her modeling wedding dresses and pictures of her child yet I finally found out that somehow she wasn’t a model she was an oral hygienist and she just likes taking photos. Her dentist boss was traveling with her and learning English and I encouraged him to practice a little with me. After some shyness we started talking slowly and then the last person was a music lecturer. She travels to all the small towns all over Brazil and learns their traditional songs and music and teaches what she learns to students. She was a very powerful woman with a husky voice and somehow could speak English so well and I wished we were in a place where I could hear her sing.

On to the hotel and a sleep and a wake up and a shuttle and a wander around the airport and finally I was on a plane and asleep and in Campo Grande. I was finally there and I walked through the gates to see… No Juanita. Oh dear after all my flight changes something had gone wrong and I thought I  was an hour late and had been abandoned. I walked around the tiny airport

depressedly and when I came back to arrivals FINALLY there she was dressed in mad paint and her boyfriend Paulie had dressed as a redneck cow boy with handle bar mustache and all. I wish I had had more time to appreciate the awesomeness of their appearances but I was so tired I could only smile and stop myself from crying yet again. I was here finally and it was time to be with friends... and swear off aeroplanes for the rest of my life.