Airports Suck

So until now I have had pretty good luck with airtravel. No canceled flights,  no big problems, all good stuff.
Now however, I am getting bitch slapped around by the airport that I feel like I didn't shake it well enough (and i always shake it well enough).  Yesterday I was supposed to fly out to Luxembourg from Berlin (transfer in Amsterdam). Pretty easy right? It should only take 4 hours tops. WRONG. So yesterday all of Europe decided to have snow, and all the pilots in europe decided to be whiny babies.  Paris, Amsterdam and London were completely shut down. So my flight to Amsterdam was canceled right, well maybe. The person at the baggage drop off told me she would take my bags and to go wait in the ticket line and re-book a new flight... this would be so bad if there weren't 200 people already in the line. So I wait, and Wait , and 3 hours and two feet of movement later I hear a call for my flight to board.  WHAT!?!?!  I run back to the check in counter and ask the woman what is up.
Counter woman"Oh well the plane is taking off"...
Me "What?! you told me to wait and re-book"
Counter woman "well you should have listened to the announcements"

Just so everyone knows, I wasn't being oblivious to the announcements I just couldn't hear 90% of them because of the mob of people all pissed about their canceled flights. So I wait again.  2 hours later I am taking about my flight and a guy next to me asks
"which flight to amsterdam?"
Me: "1822"
Guy " It didn't go, we were all boarded and then they told us to get off"

And that was the biggest relief of the day. Knowing that my flight was only canceled and  I didn't miss it . I finally became fed up with the line and bought an hour of internet so I could cal KLM. 10 minutes later they booked me on a flight for the next day. I was still in line and everyone around me asked if I had a flight booked. when i told them yes,  they all furiously asked for the number.

So now I am waiting and hoping to get on my flight today. Europe really needs to learn how to deal with snow.

Also I know compared to stories of some of your out there that are more seasoned in flying this one is nothing, but I now appreciate all the horror stories a little bit better.

so to summarize

Canadians met in airpot (not mentioned) = 5
Total Hours of waiting in line = 5.5
Mexicans met = also 5

UPDATE
I was supposed to leave for Luxembourg again today and while waiting at the check in we are told that our flight is delayed 3 hours. Making it so that our flight to paris would be landing 30 minutes after my connection from Paris to Luxembourg departs.  LAME.

So I stand in a line again (this time only 2.5 hours). During this line time I made some friends with the people around me. Somehow we became the line police kicking people out who try to cut in front.
Anyway so I get to the ticket counter and they set me up with a flight tomorrow for 7am. BUT they are out of hotel vouchers. So I am paying for a hotel and I have to send the bill to the customer care at Air france to be reimbursed.  All in all this sucks and I really hope I my flight tomorrow goes off without any problems.


NEW UPDATES.
So my 7am flight on sunday was canceled... well not canceled but they wouldn't take anyone on it that was on a connecting flight (ie me) because Amsterdam airport was full. So 4 more hours in line.  I finally got to the head of the line and this random woman came out of no where and tried to get in front of me.

me : "um sorry but the line starts way back there"
woman: "no, no it's ok that's my friend working I just need to ask here a question" *continues to walk forward*
me: " ma'am, we have all been waiting a long time, some of us for days. If you want to talk to your friend then wait in line"
Woman: "I just have one question, I will just be a minute it is my friend"
Me: " well, your friend is working"
woman: " Just one question"
*a window opens and the woman walks forward toward it*
me "  I DON"T CARE IF IT IS JUST A QUESTION! I only have one question too, and it is how can I get to Luxembourg, so wait in line"

The woman then walked over to a couple of other people all holding luggage and walked towards the back of the line.
SO i get the the ticket counter and the attendant tells me to catch the 11:05 departure to amsterdam (at the time it was 10:50). I ran to the check in and got there just in time. Apparently Amsterdam was taking people again. So I get there and everything is great. The are cots everywhere from the night before when hundreds of people had to sleep in the airport (crazy).

So I am relaxed and relieved. I got to my gate and grab a beer. until about 4:30 when I receive a message telling me that my flight is canceled. But not to fear, the airline is trading boarding passes for train tickets to luxembourg. Fortunately the wait for train tickets was not too long, unfortunately when I look at my itinerary the trip will take over 7 hours and I had to change trains 5 times.

Also, The Dutch train system is total crap. There is no one around to tell you where to go, the trains are not marked so you know where they are going. Fortunately I met a couple people going the same direction as me. One was Arnold a Luxembourg native that was going to Manchester for Chemical engineering. And some old guy from Belgium.

So the old guy knew the trains well and I showed him my itinerary. He told me that it would be a lot longer because on Sundays they do work on the train tracks. This wouldn't be so bad, but that meant Arnold and I would be missing our connecting train in Brussels to go to Luxembourg.  The man assured us that there would be a later train to get us there that night, right before he started talking about how he goes to Amsterdam every two weeks for all of the girls.... and discussing the various places in Europe and how they few prostitution... oooook.

The creepy guy leaves us somewhere in Belgium and Arnold and I head to Brussels. We get there around 11pm and find out that the next train to Luxembourg is at 6am.... Shit.

So we left the train station (where there were a lot of creepy guys asking us if we needed a taxi and eyeing our bags). And went outside in search of  a cheap hotel to spend the night (outside there were a lot of scary guys just eyeing our bags).

I am sure that parts of Brussels are very nice, but the part I was in was terrifying. The cheapest hotel we found was 80euros (the room was about 5 square meters), had only one bed.  Both starving we headed across the street to fry place. The guy called Arnold a little bitch because he only had Birtish pounds and couldn't find a cash machine. NICE.

We headed back to the hotel and slept. Knowing each other for a total of 6 hours now Arnold slept on the floor and gave me the bed. Four hours later we were up and getting ready to catch the train.

We got the train and 3 hours later got into Luxembourg, Arnolds drive was waiting for him and he left, but I had to call my aunt still.
None of the pay phones took coins though, you have to pay 6.50 to get a phone card and use that in the pay phones. Only problem is that none of the receivers on the phones worked. When I called, I could hear my aunt, but she couldn't hear me... at all.

"Is that you Chris? if your at the train station just stay there, and I'll try to find you"
Good thing it was me.

So I'm good now right? Wrong. My luggage from Berlin was still somewhere. It was pretty easy though, in the morning flights were heading into luxembourg again so I was able to grab my Luggage in the afternoon. And that was teh worst travel experience I have ever had. I am at my aunts now and it is great. I hope my return trip is much better.

Merry Christmas all.