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Renato told us we might see a friend of his sister who worked at the
airport but she was not there when he left us at the entrance.
Mother Teresa Airport
We had to wait half an hour before the Malev check-in desk opened and
in that half hour we had three blackouts. This is on the international
airport of Albania !! People just stopped and waited until power was
back and then continued what they were doing. No problem.
Finaly a sign "Malev" was hung above one of the checkin desks so we
presented our tickets and got boarding passes. Then Ben noticed the
name of one of the ladies and asked if she was Renato's sisters friend
and she was.
"Now we are friends", she told us when she called me back and
gave us new boarding passes :-)
Later we found out she gave us economy seats with as much
legroom as firstclass seats so we were very happy with that! This is
realy a nice example of the friendliness of the Albanian people we
met. It may be a poor country but these people know what it is to be
hospitable !
After check-in we went to passport control. here we had to pay another
10 euro to leave Albania and then we went through safety check and
into the departure hall.
The departure hall is a building with three big doors, gate 1, gate 2
and gate 3. When a flight is boarding, you go to "your" gate, show
your boarding pass and get into a bus that is waiting to drive you to
the platform.
We had a nice conversation with some Albanian people and then it was
our time for the bus. We were happy we didn't had to walk because
it was raining cats and dogs when we went to the aircraft.
A last view on Albania
Boarding the plane
We had a very pleasant flight on the Malev Fokker F70 to Budapest.
Because we had only twenty minutes between arriving at Budapest
and boarding of our flight to Amsterdam we were a little worried.
Renato had told us we may have to run to be in time but when
our Fokker had landed in Budapest the bus drove us to an entrance
of the departure hall that was next to the gate we had to go to
so we didn't had to hurry.
Rien takes a picture of Ben and me in Budapest
We had ten minutes left when we arrived at the gate. Finally, boarding
of the Boeing 737 started. It was a combined flight of Malev, KLM and
NorthWest so all announcements were in Hongarian, Dutch and English.
It's only two hours to Amsterdam so we just had a light meal and then
we started our descent to Schiphol Airport.
Customs and passport check went very smooth so at nine o'clock PM we
were waiting for Rien's wife in the big hall at Schiphol Airport.
After a few minutes she arrived and drove us to the office of the
OostEuropa Zending. Here our trip officialy ended and at a little
before midnight I was back home. My own bed was waiting for me :-)
Epilog
I think Albania is a very nice country and these people deserve
all the help they can get. If you feel you want to help, contact
the "OostEuropa
Zending". You can look at their (Dutch) website to read about
their mission work and aid to the people in Albania and other countries
and contact them for more information.
http://www.oosteuropazending.com/
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