I arrived in Capetown, SA on May 16 after a harrowing experience at the Frankfurt Airport. For all of you who took Jensen's Strategic Management Alliances class--Star Alliance sucks!! I experienced just about every gap in their alliance during my 48 hours in Germany. To make a long story short, Lufthansa checked me in all the way to Cape Town even tho SA Airlines conducted my second flight but did not adhere to SAA's policy of not letting passengers fly if they have no completely blank pages in their passport. I had blank spaces, but not a completely blank page so was stopped at the gate and made to stay in Frankfurt for one night so that I could visit the US consulate and get more pages in the morning.
On my way from the airport to the hotel, I met a really nice former South African named Thorsten who helped me find my hotel. Lucky for me the weather was absolutely beautiful that day, and all these street festivals were going on. We walked around for a few hours before I got super tired and went home. I tried Frankfurt's famed Applewine and got an informal tour of all the major skyscrapers from Thorsten.
The next morning, I headed to the US consulate, where, after standing in a very very long line with a mix of American travelers in similar situations as mine, and people trying to visit and emigrate to the US. Inside I met this woman that was not allowed on a plane to Prague because her passport had less than 90 days left on it AFTER she was scheduled to leave Prague.
I got my extra passport pages and left for the airport and made it to Cape Town where I was welcomed by Laura, Mina and Wendy. I was so relieved to see them!
