Uppsala/Stockholm, Sweden--Fez, Morocco
Slept in a little, then up, showered, and a little breakfast. After talking to Gunnar for awhile, I packed then read. Last night I did online check-in for my first flight, but for the RyanAir flight, I had to scan my passport with my phone to get the chip to show up. It did not work. After an hour last night I gave up, then tried again this morning for half an hour but no go. The email said that I would have to pay a 50 euro fee to do in-person check in. Frustrating! Eventually it was time to go. Gunnar drove me to the airport in Stockholm, where I went to check in (even though I had already checked in online) then went to my gate. The flight was completely booked, so they asked me to check my overhead bag for free. The gate was very crowded, probably because it was the weekend. Eventually I went and got a muffin and flavored water, then found a space on the floor to wait. The plane was delayed around 40 minutes which was fine because I had a four and a half hour layover in Madrid.
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| Joshua wanted a selfie of Gunnar and I--here we are at the airport. |
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| Gunnar and his dog. |
I had the window seat for the flight with one other person in the aisle seat, so it was nice to be able to have that empty middle seat as extra space for the four hour flight. In Madrid, I had to go to baggage to get my bag. There is a board showing which flights are at which carousels, but it took forever for ours to appear. When it finally showed up and I got there, I saw my bag and ran to get it. Then I went to connecting flights, but couldn't get in without a boarding pass. The woman standing there told me that I had to go to Terminal 2 for Ryan Air and directed me to the bus to get there. Finally found the bus and Terminal 2, but there were 140 check-in desks. I went to the right and eventually got to desk 1--no Ryan Air. So I googled it, the search said to look at the flight boards. So I looked at the flight board, and sure enough one of the columns was the check in desk number! Who knew?? Of course it was at the very end--desk 138. Tired and cranky, I walked down there through another crowded airport, got in line, then explained the online check-in issue. She tried to use my phone to scan my passport, even had me take off the case, but nothing. Glad it wasn't just me. She said next time to just skip through that section (I didn't see that I could do that, but okay). She checked me in and assigned me an aisle seat--yay! (And no extra charge for the seat or the in-person check-in--yay again!) The flights board did not list a gate with a note that said that it would be posted at 10:15 (my flight was for 11:35). So I found a place to eat because neither Iberia airlines nor RyanAir feeds you or gives you drink service. You have to pay exorbitantly for them. And made a mental note to fill my water bottle. Well, when I found my gate number, I looked, but had trouble finding it so I asked an information person. Turns out I had to go back through the duty free shopping. I hate being forced to walk through the duty free shopping area, like when they make you walk through the gift shop to exit the museum but much worse because I don't mind the gift shop. A money-grab. And then you get behind the people looking as they very slowly walk through. But anyway, got there and realized that there was no bathroom or water bottle filler here. So, (sigh), back through duty free, use the toilet, then stand in a really long line to fill up my water bottle (very slow water stream), then back through duty free once again to my gate. Soon, we found out that our 11:35 flight was delayed, and then delayed again. We finally boarded around 1:00. My riad had scheduled a driver for me (for more money than usual because it was at night), so I messaged them twice using the booking app with updated information for the driver about my arrival time being delayed. My original arrival had been 12:15. I wasn't sure if the drivers kept track of the flights (I had shared that information with the riad). RyanAir seems to be running an experiment to see how many people can possibly be squished into a metal tube. I saw the pilots in the window as we were boarding and even they looked squished in the cockpit. I had to pay extra for my carry-on and they added into the "package" priority boarding. So when everyone queued up to board, I found myself accidentally in the priority line, so I said oops and jumped into the steerage line, then remembered that I had priority boarding (it was on my boarding pass) and slipped back into that line, feeling just a little bit above my station. The other two guys in my row had to step over my large backpack because it didn't slip into the tinier-than-normal underseat space. I put down my tray table (again, way tinier than normal!), took off my hoodie and put that and my jacket on the tray so that I could lay my head on it and try to sleep. I dozed a tiny bit, but didn't sleep during our hour and a half flight. Of course, they made numerous announcements about the food and boutique items that were for purchase, translated into many different languages, as they rolled their carts up and down the aisle. That rather interrupted any sleep I could have had--it jerked me awake the first time as I was just falling asleep.
But then we landed and got off the airplane. As on many of the flights I have taken on this trip, we walked down the stairs to reach the tarmac. Carrying our bags. I went in the tiny Fes airport and went to the main doors where drivers were waiting. None of them had my name. So I went outside and was pestered by taxi drivers. I texted again on the booking app that there was no driver! In going through my emails from my riad, one had a what's app number in the French text. I called that and someone from the driving service answered. He said that the driver came back and said that no one was at the airport. I said that I had texted the riad twice with about the delays and asked them to inform the driver. He said, oh, yeah, I see that now. And said that the driver was on the way. Then we texted on what's app and I found that I had to pay the driver in cash--I had no Moroccan dirhams (MAD). So I found an ATM, but it wouldn't work with any of my cards. So I tried the cash exchange desk, but no one was there. The information desk said that the guy was one duty and tried to find him--even checking the prayer room. He said that he was probably in the back office of the exchange. He called out to him and knocked, but there was no answer. Well, all this time I also had taxi drivers and the other drivers whose passengers didn't show hassling me. I said no, that I had a driver coming in 20 minutes. One driver brought over a rather sad looking taxi driver and kept saying that he was my driver. Finally we went through the organizer of my ride and he did indeed have the taxi driver drive me. I was able to pay him in a combination of Euros and dollars the equivalent of 200 dirham, even though I had been told that it was going to be 300. On the way, the driver kept making weird noises, answering his phone with a loud voice, and driving in between two lanes. Finally he pulled over and another man (who turns out to be the organizer) took me and my bags in his car, which also had his wife sitting there. The entire rest of the way he kept making weird jokes and saying demeaning things about his wife and calling me Flower. I was very uncomfortable. Because I still owed him 100 dirham, he stopped at an ATM for me to get money. It didn't work, so we tried 2 others, finally getting one that worked with my debit card (I didn't know the PIN for my Capital One card--stupid me!). Then he parked in a dark area and walked me into the medina to my riad. We used the big knocker and the buzzer until we probably woke the owner and he came and let me in. The driver hugged me and kissed my head and my cheek before he left. (I will be finding a different driver to get back to the airport.).
I was taken up some very steep stairs and given a form to fill out, then taken up some more steep steps to my room. I was given keys by the sleepy proprietor, then took in the room. I am 5 feet 3 inches tall. The ceiling is about three inches above my head. And it is stained dark in some areas, including an area that looks like mold right above my head. There is one very small window (about 15 by 15 inches) which opens above a common room of the riad (I think). I closed it because it was very chilly in the room. There is a table I can open my suitcase on, it only hangs over the front by a few inches. There is also a tiled round table that has to be moved to open the bathroom door. The bed takes up the majority of the room. There is about three feet between the bed and the wall. The "mattress" has no give. It is hard and lumpy. It makes me feel like I'm camping on the ground but without the cushion of a sleeping bag. The sheets are stained. The floor is clean, though. The bathroom is cleanish. The shower sticks out from bathroom wall, no curtain or defined space and the floor beneath it is still wet. And the air in the room is chilly and musty (not good for my allergies or asthma). Two very small, thin pillows. And a blanket. Hmmmm. I 've stayed in many nicer places. Six nights. OK. It is now 3:45; I text my family that I am safe in Fes and change for bed. I don't even have enough water in my water bottle to brush my teeth with. <Sigh> Hopefully things will be better tomorrow after I've had some sleep. At least there's an outlet above the bed so that I can charge my phone.
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