Prologue
So this had been a very long ordeal. I accepted this job in June and was supposed to arrive at the end of July. I got everything I needed done for my employment visa in 15 days. Then it became delay, delay, delay from the other end. Until October when I got mt visa and plane ticket. I was to fly United to Washington, DC and then Saudi Airlines to Riyadh on Monday the 29th. Not having access to TV at home, I was only vaguely aware of a presence called Sandy until someone informed me on Saturday night that there was a hurricane making landfall. Every day I had been checking my flight status to make sure it was still there and sure enough- my flights were cancelled. Four months of waiting! I called United and was on hold for about 70 minutes and they produced a new flight schedule: Atlanta to Frankfurt on Lufthansa and then to Riyadh.
Frankfurt
The flight to Frankfurt was a red eye and I felt the suffering: I had a crying baby to the right and another behind me. They took turns to make sure I was miserable. I plugged into the airplane radio and cranked it up to avoid them. I found a station I liked and discovered they only have about 90 minutes before the music repeats. Only later did I realize that I brought ear plugs with me and they were in a secret compartment of my backpack. But they did feed me two meals on that flight!
The Frankfurt Airport was interesting- I have not been there for 22 years and did not recognize the place. Spent a lot of time in my high school years in that airport. The excitement of being back in Germany after all these was tempered by the fact that I was trapped in the airport. It was exciting to hear Deutsch again and while I could understand much of it- I have grown fat and lazy with English. Because I was switching to Saudi I had to pass through German customs into the terminal and then wait four hours before the Saudi front desk finally opened to check in. If I was smart I would've stayed inside the gate area- much nicer- but I did not know. After getting a boarding card at the front desk I went back through customs to my gate to wait for several more hours.
*Lesson learned- always check your full flight itinerary and don't assume that all airlines are alike. United and Lufthansa allowed two free check-in bags for international travel. Saudi only allowed one. So I had to pay for my second bad- twice: once to Riyadh and again later to Dammam. Those who truly know me understand what a cheap person I am: I would've left the second bag behind (who needs extra underwear?).
Riyadh
The Saudi flight arrived late and then we left late. I boarded the flight fairly early and got to watch the circus of boarding and stowing bags. Several German gate agents came onto the plane organize the chaos and to yell at us for taking so long and to get our bags stashed and sit. This was nothing like a US flight: people moving around constantly, blocking the attendants, conversations, switching seats. The people in my row ditched me and so I left alone the whole flight. I was devastated to have the row to myself!
Landed so late that by the time I got through customs I was 90 minutes overdue. It was a relief to see a man holding a sign "Mr. Christopher Rice" at 12:30 am on Wednesday morning. Osama, an employee of the company from Jordan, had been patiently waiting for me and took me to my Riyadh Hotel. He informed me that I would be that it was a holiday week and I would be off until Saturday when I would fly to Dammam and drive to Al Khobar. At the hotel I took a shower and it was good.
