The weekend was full of fun and we made many memories. Life is full of surprises as was this weekend. Having good friends to share my experience with is a meaningful thing. But what is a great experience without a little adversity. As the blog posted before mentioned, the weekend was full of good times and great memories. But the one memory that will probably prevail over all the others will be the trip to the airport Tuesday morning. After a low key night of drinks and cards at the Irish pub. Matty P & I had to wake up at 4:30am to make a 6:45am flight after a failed attempt to get him a shuttle ride that would put him at the airport on time. Malpensa International Airport, our destination in Italy, was an hour drive. We crossed the border successfully without any problems because all borders to Switzerland are open at this time. Close to 35 minutes into the drive I realize we did not gas up before we left and were now close to empty. I really didn't know how many kilometers we would get until we ran out of gas, so we crossed our fingers to reach the next gas station. 2 minutes and 13 seconds later we were out of gas and stranded at an exit turnoff and only 25 km from the airport. We decided to trek on foot for the nearest gas station but there were none in sight. We probably walk/jogged a good 3 miles in 20 degree weather with a wind chill of about 15 degrees, before we were able to get off the highway and try to find a gas station. We had no luck, both of us tried our cells, I couldn't get through on my iphone and my Swiss phone didn't have any credit. Matt was able to get through on an emergency line but lost coverage. We then proceeded to try the SOS on the side of the highway and after about 10 min of chatting in broken Italian we were able to get an English speaking operator to get us a tow truck. 20 minutes later we were picked up and driven to the nearest gas station. Let's just say it was a good thing we stopped at the 3mile point because we had a about 10 more km before we would of reached the next gas station. We gassed up but only had 60 euro on us and the cost of the tow was 100 euro. He drove us back to his office facilities and began putting the car in a garage. He had my keys and I didn't feel real comfortable with that so when he tried to roll down my window I told him NO and again in broken Italian I asked him if he would take us to a nearby ATM. We were already spectacle of what was going on because we were in an environment we've never been before and had no control of what was going on. Not to mention the language barrier. Somewhere in the conversation we missed the part about him saying his main office would not be open until 8am and we should get a cafe and wait for it to open so we can pay via credit card. This was not something we were interested in because Matty P had to get back to Spain to take a test for his Sports and Culture class. the tow truck guy drove us to a ATM and we paid him and were on our way. We arrived at Malpensa around 8:30am and Matty asked the receptionist when the next earliest flight would be. The kind lady responded with an answer that would put us back in a position of fright where we had been for the past 3 hrs and were just starting to feel some assurance Matty would make it on time. When then checked flights by other airlines and there happened to be one (Lufthansa) that had a flight at 12:20pm. We just had to drive to the next terminal and hope that it was a non-stop. 300 euros later we had a flight that would get him there on time. We said our goodbyes and relished in our recent experience.
Moral of the story. Gas up before you go on a trip and don't let the first time you run out of gas be in a foreign country. Here's to enjoying the journey. Love
"Enjoy the Journey"
Love
Bud