Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Italy trip

I just came back this past Sunday from my latest trip to Italy. I was there only a week but I was able to see all the people I wanted to see, especially my parents.

My mom had heart surgery last year, but she seems to be recovering well, although slowly. It was also nice to see my nieces, Sofia and Susan, and my cousin Elena's 2 daughters, Simona and Veronica. Boy, have they grown... and they're all beautiful.

Overall the vacation was nice but not very relaxing, since I had to study for a Microsoft Certification test I have to take next week that's ruining my health because of all the stress I'm under.

The worst part was definitely the trip though. I flew Virgin + British Airways and they lost my luggage on the way there. I didn't get it for 4 days!! By the time the suitcase arrived I had 2 days left, not even worth undoing it.

The trip back was much worse though. Because of high winds in London, we were delayed 2 full hours, so I missed my Virgin flight to the US. I had to stay an extra day in London (no fun though, I was set up in a hotel at the airport and I was in no mood to go out, that's for sure) and I missed Easter with the family. It was pretty sad.

Naturally, I was also questioned by Immigration at JFK (who knows why they had issues with the fact that I went to another school once) and they AGAIN lost one of the two pieces of luggage I had. They delivered it the day after, but it was broken.

What a nightmare. And now I have to go through the whole refund process, which will probably drag on for weeks.

End result, I'll never fly Virgin again (they could have put me on the later flight they had on Saturday, instead they just sent me back to British Airways, saying that they were responsible, not Virgin) and I'll try to avoid flying into London's Heathrow airport if I can, since it's a mess (words of British Airways employees, not mine). It's so big it can't handle the amount of traffic it sees daily.

Let's hope for better luck next time.