The Daily Blog of Helga van

Friday 

Dear Elsie

Today was the day we arrived safely in Italy and, after leaving home at 11.30am yesterday morning, we arrived at our holiday apartment just after 9.30am today! It’s probably the quickest we’ve ever got to Italy & it was mainly due to flying Ethiopian Airlines. The trip itself was pretty good. The plane from Cape Town to Addis was a Dreamliner, modern, very spacious and comfortable. We risked booking split seats, selecting a window and aisle and it worked out that the middle seat remained free all the way through. That made a big difference.

Everyone had told us the airport at Addis is a ‘dive’.  We had heard there were 7 gates, so we weren’t sure it was very big. Ethiopian airlines have a 146 planes, so they are flying all over the place. We only had an hour and a half to get off the plane & get to the next gate. Our flight took off almost half an hour late, so we were going to arrive late which we did. But still, I thought we would be fine. We were soon to learn why Addis airport is considered less than optimal.

Because they only have 7 gates with air-bridges, they depend heavily on buses to transport passengers to and from the terminal. After landing, we taxied for about 15 minutes. Then it took an interminable age to get everyone off only to discover, we needed to go by coach to the terminus.

That took time, but the worst was still to come. After we got into the building, we were herded towards  a security point where all our luggage had to be x-rayed. There were attendants running up and down asking if people were flying to different parts of the world because their flights were about to leave. If someone was, they tried to get them into a shorter queue to get through security. But it was at this point that there was bedlam. It wasn’t just luggage and take your laptop out – it was shoes, watches, cell phones, belts, anything with metal. And people were leaving things on (mainly watches) which were then causing security to beep. They were becoming frantic because their flights were about to leave. Tempers were rising. Furious passenger were being told to calm down and all the time there was this steady stream of onward flyers undressing and dressing, unpacking and packing, sorting and looking for their stuff, setting off the security machine, returning to do it again. Chaos!  By now it was about 11.45pm and our flight was due to leave at 00.15am, but I still wasn’t too stressed. I was really sure they wouldn’t leave without us. Watching the bun fight around me, I tried to figure out WHY this was being done to in-transit passengers. What security risk were we? I couldn’t fathom it. Anyway, we finally reassembled ourselves, made sure we had everything and bulleted up the stairs where a gentleman asked where we were going. When we told him to Milan, he said our gate had changed and it was now A10. It was right there. We spent a few minutes talking to David and sending photos to the family and then it was time to go. It was the shortest layover we’ve ever had. I feel we need a t-shirt saying, “We flew via Addis”

The onward flight was in the dead of night. They did not fly direct but had to detour out over the Red Sea so as to avoid Sudan. Why, I don’t know.  Despite the lateness of the hour Ethiopian Airlines saw fit to give us dinner at about 1am. After that we tried to sleep but it was in short fitful spurts. My watch eventually told me I had slept for half an hour. We had the moon on our side and what a glorious sight it was flying over Greece. My cell phone couldn’t do it justice.

On arriving at Malpensa in Milan, the only odd thing they did and we’ve never had before is they checked our boarding passes when we left the plane. That held up the queue while people scratched for a piece of paper they had lost track of.

Here, there is no stress. The couple who own the apartment where we are staying are absolutely charming. They went out of their way to make us welcome and allowed us a very early check in. We weren’t here long when this happened.

Today was a day for recovery and getting our bearings. Tomorrow, as the rain falls, we will do some exploring or maybe we won’t. We’ll see. The temperature has been down to about 14C but came up to 17C this afternoon. Not too cold after all.

In my Bible reading today I saw something I’d never noticed before. Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress. The Lord will meet you wherever you are.

Judges 6:11
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.

It’s not about now – we are only passing through.

Keep the smile going.

God bless you.

In His Grip,

Gran xx 🙂