Stop and Say Hello @ ruiaf.org

This weekend I went to Portugal but lost the flight on Friday. Really stupid because I thought that the flight was at 4pm and arrived to the airport at 2pm with a lot of time to waste. I started reading on the coffee shop until the flight time neared and then went in line to do the boarding area. I looked at the board and there wasn't my flight in there - uh-oh. Apparently the flight was at 1.40pm. Upss. Fortunately I found another cheap flight early morning in Bergamo, close to Milan. I had to do a 5 hour train trip and then sleep in the airport which reminded me of another story.

A couple of years back, I was going from Porto to Stockholm to meet some friends. I had a stopover in Liverpool so I arrived there around 9pm but my flight was in the next morning therefore I was going to sleep in the airport. I went out to catch some "fresh", ahem, air and was trying to return to the boarding area when the officer there tells me, - Sorry sire, your flight is tomorrow, and he looked at me like I was a lunatic. What would any Beatles fan do in this situation? A Beatles night tour with minus something degrees. Obviously.

It was a Friday night so the city was quite lively. I ate dinner somewhere, tried some pubs, had some beers, practiced the art of talking with strangers. I also went to The Cavern, looked around, saw the pictures but it was almost empty and I was very disappointed. At 2am, everyone was leaving to their homes and I was stuck in Liverpool, without buses to the airport and with a coat for Portuguese weather, I had left the warm clothes in the luggage deposit with my bag.

I decided to walk to warm up a bit and started going in the direction to the airport. The bus from the airport had taken 15 minutes to the city center and I though that wouldn't be a long time walking. I hesitated a bit but then I looked in the bus stop and I noticed two things. There were only 3 or 4 bus stops before the airport and one of them was in Penny Lane! I started walking, following the bus route. Who needs a map? The problem was that the streets were really long and there were many bus stops in each street, all numbered 1,2,...,7. After a long walk I arrived to Penny Lane, indeed there is a barber shop with photographs but, other than that, it's just a normal street. I don't know what I was expecting. I then tried to steal the street sign but someone thought of that before and they were very well stuck. No luck.

Kept walking to the airport and a few hours later I arrived there. Cold as hell, I crashed on the floor and slept. Don't listen to anything I say about tourism by osmosis.