We began in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Flew to Malaysia. Had a 12 hour layover. Had another flight to Turkey. We landed in Istanbul, Turkey. We stepped off the plane and down the stairs. Most of our squad caught the first bus that transports you from the plane to the airport. There wasn’t room for 11 of us so we waited for the second bus. We got to the airport and made our way to an international security line that didn’t move an inch for about 13 minutes. The rest of our squad is nowhere to be seen. After asking a man in uniform, we were told that we needed to move to a different security line, our gate was at the complete opposite end of the airport, and… we need to RUN.
See, our plane had already been delayed in the air and now the 11 of us had wasted nearly 15 minutes standing in line for absolutely nothing. We had T-21 minutes before our plane was taking off. So, I made sure my 24 pound back pack was on correctly, my purse was zipped so I didn’t lose my Passport, and my snacks were nice and secure – and I took off running after my squad-mates that took the lead. THANK THE LORD my big pack was checked! We ran down the hall to the correct security line.
The group ahead of me got through quickly and I see them slowly disappear to the 2nd floor on an escalator. I got stuck in a line behind a poor mom who couldn’t figure out how to collapse her baby stroller. Instead of moving her aside and letting others go through until she figured it out, they stopped the entire line. At this point I’m by myself. I know there are 5 others that were running behind me but they hadn’t made it to security yet. The momma finally found the tiny button that collapses the stroller (the one they put in the most random and difficult place to find!) and the line started moving again. I was almost to the 2nd floor when I finally saw the last 5 squad-mates get in line for security.
World Race has a rule that you’re not supposed to go anywhere without a buddy. Confession- this travel day, I broke that rule…
I got to the second floor and saw gate number 221. “Are you kidding me?!!” I said out loud…to myself. Our gate was number 754. NOW I understand why the airport worker-man told us to RUN. NOW I know why we had to pass a fitness test at training camp that consisted of running however many miles with our packs on.
“Suck it up Denaé- I know you almost died at training camp during your fitness test but you can do this! Maybe I should have left a snack out- it’s easier to run when you’re distracted by a snack. I wonder if golf carts are a thing here. Why on earth is my backpack so heavy?! Where even are we!? My sandals are sliding on this floor – I’m going to biff it around one of these corners! How funny would it be if someone was announcing as we ran through the airport.. like at the Kentucky Derby! A fan boy on roller-skates would be appreciated right now. Oh gosh, please don’t call my name over the speaker so the entire airport knows I’m late!”
(As if running doesn’t give it away already…)
Just a little access into my thought process in that moment- in case you were curious!
I continued running.
Weaving in and out of people, I thought the straps on my backpack were going to break. However, being completely honest, I was more worried about crushing my snacks.
Every time the flat escalator things came up, I cheated and ran through people on those. Gained a few seconds every time.
Also, there’s this…
5 minutes in and I couldn’t see the group that was in front of me or the group behind me. So I just kept running. I finally reached the escalators that go down to the 700 gates. Almost there! I get on the escalator to go down… and the group that was running in front of me was riding back up the opposite escalator. The gate was closed. They wouldn’t let anyone else on the plane. The plane that the rest of the squad was on. The plane that was getting us to our next destination for the month. The plane that was STILL SITTING RIGHT THERE.
Dang it.
At this point I am sweating and breathing like a sumo wrestler was sitting on my chest. So naturally, instead of riding the escalator down and riding the opposite escalator back up, I just turned around, excused myself around an older gentleman that was on the step behind me, and I ran back up the down escalator.
HAVE YOU EVER TRIED THAT!? As if my legs and lungs weren’t already dying – I gave every ounce of energy I had left running up that down escalator…and was going absolutely NOWHERE!!! Now I’m laughing and really can’t breathe!
“What kind of dummy does this!? Well, you are, genius! People are already staring, can’t bail now!” I suddenly became VERY aware that I’m wearing my tall nude colored compression socks..with sandals…over the bottom of my jeans. I look like my great-great grandmother. Cute. “Wow, I can’t breathe! So, who knew having a heart beat in your ears was a thing? Man, there’s way more stairs to climb on this thing than I thought. OH! Snacks! just think about snacks!”
I finally picked up my pace enough to just barely get ahead and stepped up on to the platform at the top. If it weren’t for the attractive men around (just being honest) – I probably would have given in to the full body collapse to the floor that my legs were begging for! (Because being dressed like my great-great grandmother was working so well for me to begin with).
We walked alllll the way back to the front of the airport where we originally started,
and waited in line to try to get our tickets traded in for another flight. Luckily they had another flight going out at 7pm (only 10 hours away!). We spent the entire day sitting on the floor in the airport, eating free food, and searching desperately for WiFi for something to do. Not sure why none of us thought to go explore the city until after we left…but, I got to try Turkish coffee! WIN.
Thankfully the last flight in to Tirana, Albania was quick and smooth. If only we had taken in to consideration the time change between Cambodia and Albania when we scheduled our host to pick us up. Oops. Whats another couple of hours of waiting in the airport after a day like we had already had, right!?
We finally got to Lezhe around 10pm – safe and sound! Slightly Hangry (I ate all my snacks) and exhausted!
Another travel day in the books. This one will definitely be unforgettable.
