The Airport from Hell?

The good news is that I am writing this post from Houston, Texas. The Energy City!!!

Here is all of the bad news. I am a person who dreams, enjoys and loves to travel to wonderful places in our world. I have been very fortunate to visit many of my favorite, wonderful places. I have been in and out of many airports. There are many great airports that are passenger friendly to travelers. What is the worse airport?. That is an easy answer. The worse major airport in the world is our own Person International, located in Toronto. I had to endure. As most of the passengers at Terminal 1 were forced to endure The worst in an airport experiences!

Sure you could blame it on the added security measures that are now very necessary in our world. But I just blame this on bad management, and a very poor organization that is running the airport in Toronto. There is just no excuse what we the traveling public were forced to endure today. Big lineups, no communication. Not enough staff. All of this happens, even thought the Toronto International Airport have the nerve to charge the highest landing fees in the industry. To the airlines who operate out of Pearson International. The truth of the matter is. The people that run the Greater Toronto Airport Authority are incompetent, and don't really fucking care that there doing a poor job. Please accept my crude English. Because sadly this is the way it is!!!

Here is my experience, and for countless of other people who had to endure the same problems. I arrived at the airport for a 6 am flight with Delta airlines. I arrived at the airport terminal 1 a 3:45 am. 2 hours and 15 minutes before the flight was to leave. To save time. I had checked in with Delta, and printed my boarding pass, on the Internet. Hoping it would make my flight out of Toronto less stressful. Well it didn't do anything. There were huge lines already formed to try and check in luggage, when I arrived. So big, you couldn't figure out which line you should be in. Also of course there was no one from the airport to try and organize things into a sensible manor. By the time I checked my one suitcase in. It was already 10 minutes to 5. I now had to wait in another line to be screened by U.S. customs. By this time it was 5:15. By now there was some real concern starting to build. Would I make it to my flight. Now I had to go through airport security. More long lines moving at a snails pace. You would think they would set up an express line to accommodate passengers, with the flights that are almost ready to depart. No way! That would take some decency and intelligent on the part of the management running this terrible place.

The next line of security was a search of all of your on board luggage. Which meant more line ups. I finally made it to the departure gate for my flight to Atlanta at 5:55. In the line up for the security check for the carry on luggage. There was a nice couple who was in the same situation as me. So I was confident now that they would delay the flight. To accommodate this state of complete chaos, that we were all in.

Yes there was good news to be had when I made it to the gate. I was still going on my trip!!! Delta had switched me to a different flight. I was now on a flight to Cincinnati, then on to Houston from there. I then had to be escorted back through security to get to another gate for my new flight. It was a great feeling of relief when I was finally on my way, for my holiday. It is like I was Indiana Jones, who had somehow survived the opening of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark"

The story is not over yet. When my airplane was landing at Cincinnati- North Kentucky Airport. It was easy to see that we were landing in the middle of a snow storm. Oh no, now another problem. It was a shock I have to admit to see all of this snow in Cincinnati. When we had no snow in Toronto. But very happy to say. My flight from Cincinnati to Houston was only delayed 2 hours, due to having to have our airplane deiced prior to takeoff.

I had made it!!! What a fantastic feeling came over me. When the wheels of the Canadair CRJ-50 touched down in Houston. It was even a better feeling when I got out of the terminal building and started to feel that warm Texas Sunshine. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was about 19C.

I picked up my rented car, and was on my way. I set my GPS for my new home in Houston. The International Hostel. Which is located at 5302 Crawford Street. My GPS worked like a charm. It took me right to the address. How did I ever survive without this devise? I just don't know.

I couldn't check into my new digs until 5pm. So I grabbed a Texas Cheese steak sandwich for lunch, and started to wander around Houston. In search of a bicycle to be used on this trip. No luck it in finding a bike. But it was fun to try. I came back to the hostel and checked in. I had dinner in a great Mexican Place just a short walk from the hostel. The chicken burrito I enjoyed for dinner was one of the best I've ever had. If you like Mexican food this is an area where you will enjoy some excellent Mexican fare.

The rest of this day was spent relaxing in the hostel, and writing the beginning of this post.

The first picture from this trip is looking out of the window of the terminal building at Cincinnati-North Kentucky Airport. The joy of travel leaving all that bad weather behind!!!