Her flight arrived in the middle of the night, which was perfect ... better than arriving during the day when I am at school.
I called the Yellow cab, which was recommended by a friend; before I go on with the story, I have to say that every time I get in a cab, I get anxious - will I make it to the destination? does this driver know how to get there? is he going to rip e off?
Well, my driver did not know how to exit Maadi and I kept looking at the meter... Then, he takes the corniche way, which I do not know very well, because I always take the Autostrade. Anyway, I tried telling him to go on the Autostrade... but he didn't seem to listen to me. I gave up thinking he is the driver, he should know better and I should stop annoying the poor guy! We made it to the airport; I asked him to drop me off at terminal 1 arrivals; he took me to the departures parking when I thought to myself: "I am in my pyjamas with no bags, where does he think I am going?" Then he points to one little door that says arrivals.... to give him credit, I went in there just to say I checked, although I knew that was not the place.
Then I walk back to the parking and tell him it is not there, so I need him to take me to the proper arrivals. he tries telling me he cannot, when I get impatient and tell him I always go there with cars and you can get in. He is telling me the police won't let him! This is all in Arabic.... sometimes I wonder how I manage this. he takes me to talk to the police guy... In my PJ's, looking not very "official" I start just like a nagging woman telling the police guy I need my driver etc. He shuts me down! Oops!!!
He speaks no English and talks to this other man (because by this point we have quite the crowd there) who translates for me..... Hamdulillah!!!!!!!!!! The words are as following: "Madame, this driver - PROBLEM! Cars can go there, this man NO! Police is going to take him!". I am loosing it .... "What am I supposed to do? I need a driver!"; they immediately come up with solutions - their cars are there and they can take me to Maadi. bekem?? 90 pounds!!!!! WHAT?????????? With a meter it's 50 pounds! I leave being fed up with drivers, taxis, men ....
So here I am walking to the right arrival ... it is quite the walk so I decide to call the taxi company and start bashing them on the phone.... it took the worse out of me... I demand to be sent a taxi within the next 10 minutes and of course I tell them the whole story of my arrested driver.
I find Leen waiting for me and then we wait for the taxi ... and we wait...and we wait... and wait. While waiting there's at least 4 telephone conversations that I am having with the taxi company when I lost it completely and started shouting in the phone, that the whole airport could hear me! The guy wouldn't listen to me; he kept saying: Terminal 1, yes ok, ok! The taxi is coming... and I am like: "Hold on, listen... terminal 1 is big!!! There's 3 halls.. how will he know which one to go to, if I don;t tell you?" No... I was talking to a concrete wall....
It took about 40 minutes for the taxi to arrive ... we made it home eventually; while in the taxi I called the company again; they knew my name: "Madame Gabriela??" YES!!! It's me again! I want to complain... Response "yes, tell me now on the phone, what is your complaint?"..... No comment!
To give them credit, 2 days later somebody called me to officially apologize on behalf of the company... this does not happen very often, but I was happy they did! I advised them to keep a record of their drivers, so that they wont get arrested anymore.
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