Everyone laughed when one of my colleagues said, "Next time, follow your instinct. If you felt you'll have a layover, don't think twice about bringing your clothes and toiletries. It's like trusting your instinct when you feel your man is cheating on you". ;D
Last year, we were stuck in our hotel rooms for two days waiting for our next call of duty. We weren't able to operate our supposed to be turnaround flight back to Jeddah from Istanbul because of technical problems. Without pajamas to even wear inside the room, going out to take the free meal in the hotel's restaurant was impossible. I hid myself in the bath robe whenever the room service came in. It felt different having to use the toothbrush and toothpaste provided in the room, and all the other toiletries like soap, lotion, shampoo and conditioner. The worst was flying back without wearing a deodorant! Haha.
So, few minutes before pick up time to operate my first flight on the first day of 2016, for some reasons, I had a big feeling I'm going to have a layover in Istanbul again. I was caught in a decision of whether bringing in some extra layover clothes and my own toiletries, or not. Last minute, I decided not and I removed the bag of toiletries which was already inside my trolley. Then, I headed out to check- out for the flight.
The flight went so well. It departed and landed on time. The challenge was the long taxi at the airport. It took us almost two hours from touchdown to finally deplane our passengers, ruining our legality to fly back to base. Thousands of travelers were stranded there due to continuous heavy snowfall causing delays and even cancellations of flights. One of those cancelled flights were our flight so I had to deal with that unanticipated layover again. We all wanted to go back despite our legality issues but there was nothing we could do about it.
Thank God this time, I had something to wear inside my room though it wasn't something I could wear outside to experience the snow for the first time. :) Our room service was free of charge so I ordered some soup for the cold weather and a grilled sea bass fillet with salad. The following day, I was able to see the snow better through a view from my room. I had breakfast with the crew prior to leaving the hotel. On our way to the airport, I was delighted to see snow on the side of the road and everywhere.
Thank you Lord for simply because I have never seen snow until this time in my life. :) I have a layover in New York before my days off this month and I hope it snows so I could fully experience what it's like to be out there in the winter wonderland. I know building a snowman will take some time but I'd be happy with playing and throwing a few snowballs. :)
