Washington - More conferencing
Trip Start
Nov 09, 2006
1
8
Trip End
Nov 18, 2006
Washington,
District of Columbia,
United States
Thursday, November 16, 2006
I realised I needed to book some sort of transport to the airport so I headed down to the transportation desk. There was quite a queue of people wanting shuttles and such, but after meeting up with the 3 Aussies we decided to hire one of those stretch limos, which actually worked out cheaper than the taxi option we were going to take. Once that was arranged I had to check out, so I left my bags with the concierge and decided to head out for my reamining 3 hours.
I decided to go north up Connecticut Avenue and head towards the Zoo. I had heard that they had a baby Panda there so thought if it wasn't too long a walk it might be nice to see it. It only took 20 minutes from the hotel and was quite a pleasant walk, albeit entirely uphill. I got there and was pleasantly surprised to find it was free entry all year round, so I just wandered in. I picked up a map and a few souvenirs from the shop on the way in and then headed round. The baby panda was just adorable, not really doing much except being flopped over a log, but cute nonetheless. The zoo was really nice - very spacious with lots of space for all the animals. The orangutans had a free run of the whole place with special overhead walkways for them - they trust them not to leave the zoo and none have left so far. I went round to the tigers, but the 3 cubs were hidden away as it was a bit chilly for them being so young.
Two hours went by very quickly so I decided to head back to the hotel to collect my things. I was pleased the journey back was all downhill and it didn't take long at all to get back. I collected my baggage and met the Aussies and the limo outside. We climbed in this huge limo and headed off to the airport. The traffic was a bit heavy on the highway but we made good time, arriving with just under 3 hours to go. This is where it all started to go horribly wrong.
We went our separate ways and I headed off to find the check-in desk for United Airlines (note to anyone - avoid them like the plague!!). I was horrified to see a queue with at least 1000 people in it snaking around the airport trying to get checked in to about 12 desks. I joined the queue and waited...and waited...and waited. It got to the stage where there was only 40 minutes until my flight departed and I had only just reached the spot where I was told it would be another 1.5hours. Panicking that I was going to miss my flight, along with lots of other people, I kept wandering to see if I could get a flight with another airline, as it was looking very likely I would be stuck in Washington for at least another 24 hours. In the end sneakiness prevailed. I had been chatting with a young American guy in front of me in the queue who had a flight at the same time to Poland. We came up with a plan, and then sought out the friendliest looking security chap. We looked pitiful, told him that we had just got married and were heading off on our honeymoon - we desperately wanted to leave tonight and didn't want tohave our holiday spoiled. We also offered him a small cash incentive. It worked. He took us (and our bribe) straight to the front of the queue, where we were checked in in record time. We rushed through the security checks and I am pleased to say we both caught our flights with just a few minutes to spare. What a palava!!!
