Sunday morning, I managed to get myself out of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and fly to Istanbul where I treated myself to six hours of sleep at the airport. A little past three in the afternoon, I was lying on the grass again after a long time.
The days filled with disappointment, lies, and unfulfilled agreements; with blazing sun, the howling from the minarets, and the singing from the Koran in an overture of people who never answer the phone. 700 euros spent on the telephone in one week, and the days that never seem to end. When they do, it is among dogs, cats, rats and cockroaches in a cement factory where my stay seems without end.
On Saturday, I was finally directed to the right police station for extending my three-day visa that had expired. The Saudi person who was accompanying me has vanished into thin air and turned off his phone. They are threatening with prison and a EUR 2000 fine. Cairo on line again, resolving the situation. The working hours are drawing to a close, the bosses are leaving, no one speaks English, and I turn off Arabic out of protest - it is better to say nothing at all than only 30% of what you want to say, because they think that those 30% is everything. You're going to prison unless the Saudi person appears. The phone is off. After four hours, I manage to get myself out of the police station (after having paid an arm and a leg for the visa), mostly thanks to Mr. Andrej Dernovšček of the Cairo Embassy.
At two in the morning, I encounter an expected complication at the airport. The freight forwarder gets up from the bed and goes to the office to send a fax to the airport. Minutes go by, there is a last call for the passengers to Istanbul. The fax comes in but is cut into two pages. "Are you flying? The baggage is waiting by the airplane." When the Turks decide to leave me grounded, the police are finally satisfied with the fax and I speed away towards the exit. "Have a nice flight!" "Be sure it's gonna be one of my nicest ever!"
The story is not over yet. The truck is still in Jeddah. It hasn't been loaded on board (yet). But believe me, it wasn't pleasant down there. All it matters is I got myself out of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To be continued.