Sick On Ethiopian Airlines 737 From Addis Ababa To Kigali, Rwanda
Intro
Have you ever been extremely sick when flying? To the point where it almost hurts to move a muscle or even breathe. Perhaps the worst is when you have a cold, and your ears don't want to pop on a plane, let alone the ground. Well, combine all of that, and sadly, this is what happened on my next flight with Ethiopian Airlines from Addis Ababa over to Kigali.
Sick On A Plane...
Heading off the previous flight from Mogadishu, it was time to attempt the transfer in Addis Ababa. Okay, while you are not going to miss any sort of connection that is legally sold here in ADD, it is a royal **** up when it comes to transit. Well, that is unless you are flying business class or have Star Alliance Gold, then it takes 5 minutes.
Thankfully, I had some time to kill, so I grabbed a pizza and a beer before walking over to my date. Oh yes, the dreaded B gates...
At this point, I was ready to just turn in, get on the plane and go to sleep. However, Ethiopian Airlines had other ideas as the boarding time came and went again and again.
Eventually, 30 minutes behind schedule, we boarded our bus out to the remote stand. It doesn't matter how sick I am; I never ever sit down on one of these airport buses (it's a long-standing tradition). Yes, Addis Ababa is quite an advanced airport compared to the neighboring airports, but the lack of actual jetbridges can be quite infuriating when a 10:30 pm sick departure comes around.
A lot of people are going to ask me: why are you traveling when you are sick? Well, due to my strict schedule, this is something that has to be done, and there is no other way around. But yes, I do frequently fly when I am sick; a lot of people are contagious when they fly but don't know; at least if you are showing minor symptoms, you can take precautions...
An hour later, or so it felt, we arrived at our beautiful 737 that would be taking us over to Kigali this evening. Painted out in the Star Alliance livery, this is one of the few Alliance livery planes I have ever flown on.
The flight itself wasn't bad; we ended up pushing back about 20 minutes late, and once we were airborne, the cabin crew came around to offer drinks and a meal to passengers. I have reviewed the meals on other flights, so I decided to have a nice hot tea and head off to sleep.
Just to wake up in country 96: Rwanda!
With a nice rest in hand and a slightly better overall feeling, the next hurdle was upon me. Going into my flight, I had no idea what to expect when it came to getting a visa to Rwanda, but you can find that out in the next post!
Off to go get ripped off (respectfully) by a taxi driver.
Final Thoughts
Flying sick is never a pleasant experience, but it can happen quite frequently. Ethiopian Airlines took good care of me on the plane during the flight, but the on-the-ground experience certainly left quite a bit to be desired. However, on the contrary, I recently flew Business Class and had a vastly different experience (stay tuned for that and Rwanda)!
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