Oh Canada

July 5, 2011-Disclaimer-I started this blog almost a month after arriving in Belgium. The next couple of posts are a couple of weeks old. Enjoy!

And I'm off. Well, sort of. I left SFO at 8AM for Toronto to catch my connecting flight to Brussels via Montreal. For some reason, even though I was scheduled to fly to Belgium, I had to enter customs in Canada, check my passport, claim my baggage, including my bike box, recheck my luggage and bike box and catch my next flight, all within one hour. The customs official looked a little puzzled when I told him my expected duration in Canada after he asked "How long do you plan to spend in Canada?". Less than one hour.

It was not to be. I waited and waited and waited. Still no luggage or bike box. It seemed like multiple flights and passengers were encountering the similar problems. I heard on one of the CB radios at the Air Canada desk, "Alright, everyone calm down and take a deep breath. Let's work the problem. Use the correct radio call signs and we can figure it out". They didn't have enough radios or people to figure out where the majority of the luggage was. With about 15 minutes before my scheduled flight departure(not boarding time, but departure), I saw my bike box and bag.  I hustled through the security checkpoint and found myself at the back of a very long line-the same line for all the other people who missed their flight.

Long story short- no more flights going to Europe were available that day. So, Air Canada gave me a free hotel with $32 Canadian dollars to splurge on hotel food.

My room at the Delta Hotel

It was actually pretty nice, although the I still ended up spending $20 on food in addition to the $32 of free spending(the food was expensive!)

Oh Canada!

Nice swim in the pool, dinner at 10PM, a couple of emails and 11 hours of sleep. Oh yeah, and I ate about 3000 calories for my $22 brunch at the hotel. It was either that or the $10 Canadian KFC across the street, which with the international transaction fees, would probably be around the same price. 

I caught my flight with the absence of a new bottle of chamois cream Mark Marquez gave me after it was confiscated at security in San Francisco. So pissed! Later, as I would find out, chamois cream is really hard to find in Belgium. Yes believe it.