Take the long way home - Peter Varholak

Get somewhere is easy. But get back can be quite challenging.

Dear Toastmaster, ladies and gentleman.

Recently I had been to Cuba with my brother and friend. We travelled there by Air France. French are known for their cuisine so food had been magnifique how French say. Our experience from stay was excellent, but it is another story. This story is about return back to the UK.

All our trouble begun couple of days before the flight. My brother received message that due to technical problems our flight can be delayed. Nothing to worry about. We were still enjoying our stay. 2 days before flight we found the fastest internet provider in the capital city where we could also print fly tickets. After an hour of trying to do checking we finally gave up and decide try another day. It was really amazing speed. Imagine: you open facebook and wait 5 minutes only to find out that you have spanish language as default language and that somebody else is still signed in. You remember that sign out can be somewhere where in english version. You wait another 5 minutes and then your browser crash. 1 day before flight we tried again. It simply refused to check us in. Contact reservation centre stated internet. We can do it at the airport still, can´t we? Day of the flight came and we were there little bit sooner. What if, you tell yourself. At the airport we found out that not everything is like it seems. Do you know what Air France technical problems they had? French are really well known for at least two things. Excellent food and frequent strikes. And we were in situation where it wasn´t matter of food really. We had been offered replacement aeroplane from Carribean airlines to Paris. When is departure? In five hours? That is still pretty good. We can still make it to another aeroplane in Paris. While we were waiting we changed the money, paid leaving tax from Cuba and of course still enjoying what Cuban people prepared from available resources. And we were most social at the airport and at least in 5 mile distance area. I found out that cuban rum is also good for social interactions. :).

Paris is a beautiful city... At least people that I know say it. We finally missed the plane to London due to weather conditions. But Air France was so kind that they offered us replacement plane with another company. British Airways. Hmmmm. Sounds good. At least everything will be working. We spent 7 hours at the aeroport just to find out that they will be delayed by 2 more hours. Meantime we enjoyed local food, sport matches and free internet connection. I can tell local Mc Donald tasted the same like in England and on table football usually my friend had been winning over me and my brother. And free internet? I used all my free internet minutes to find out number for Steven and Tomoko to let them know that I will probably don´t make it on time and can´t do my role. Come to the meeting 7 hours later can be little bit unconvenient. We also tried to retrieve my brothers baggage. And we saw the best baggage transportation in the world in action with all of these transport belts. But at the aeroport employers ensured us that bag will fly with us.

Finally. Our airplane arrived. We are going home! Ehm... To the London! I have to tell that British Airways employees have really amazing customer service. They were polite and really helpful. I flied in a way my brother invented couple of years ago. He calls it teleport. You enter for example plane or train or whatewer in one city and you wake up in another. It is really amazing way of travel. We rushed for baggage claim. Forget that you have couple of important things there. But cigars it would be very unpleasant to lost one of the main proofs of visiting the Cuban Republic. Our baggage nowhere. Finally baggage claim employee realized that they did mistake and sent our baggage with another airplane. Yes, things like that happen. When you want to travel to the hot country count with possibility that you will be freezing in a shirt on a way back.

But when your bag will be delivered by courier in next days you will say to yourself: this is life. And life teach us the best lessons and tells us the best stories.