EuroTrip
Just a quick "hello" from Brno, Czech Republic... Late Friday evening I managed to find my way to our hotel in Vienna, Austria. It was an eventful trip from Colombo. Here is what happened in a nutshell:On Thursday 11 PM I left home and headed for the Katunayake airport in Colombo. My flight was 2:45 AM. As I arrived to the airport it struck me: my flight was canceled! I rushed to the Emirates office that was located at the back of a maze in the first floor. They told me that all night flights from and to Colombo are canceled due to the LTTE attack last Monday.
Damn it! In the paper it had just said that the airport was closed for two hours on Monday morning. There I was, clueless of what to do, tired and just waiting to get to Europe. They proposed me a couple of flights that would be in Vienna on Saturday, but I said it's not an option. Finally, I managed to touch their heart as I said "It's my girlfriend's graduation day and I'm supposed to be waiting her at our hotel in Vienna". They gave me a room from the Taj Airport Garden hotel. As soon as I got there, they called me up and said that I would fly 10:05 in the morning! Yey!
In the morning I went back to the airport with a few other unlucky souls who had faced the same situation. We were waiting in the check-in line as all the power went off from the airport. Great! Could it be any better? Soon they got the electricity back but the line was moving really slowly.
It was already 9:45 as I got to the counter. The dude behind the counter had to run in different rooms to get my tickets and whatever it was that he was fetching. Finally 9:57 he gave me my tickets. I asked where is gate 10. He replied with a question: "Have you filled in the embarkation card?" I told him I really don't have time for this stupid bureaucracy right now. After all, my flight was due in eight minutes.
Then he did the most unexpected thing. He took me to the counter where the forms are, fetched a pen from somewhere, filled in the card for me and showed me for the next counter. Excellent service! On the next counter the service was back to normal...
The woman behind the desk seemed to have all the time in the world as she was flipping through the pages of my passport. I asked her politely to hurry up. I had six minutes for the plane to leave. She said I should have come earlier. Can you believe it? Come earlier? I flipped... I asked if 12:15 last night was not early enough! She was also confused because she couldn't find the arrival stamp from my passport. She must have thought I was an ordinary tourist. I showed her the stamp saying "July 2006", and I was off to the gate 10.
The plane took off late of course and I managed to be on it. Phew...
In the plane I discussed with a Sri Lankan guy who lives in Kenya (over 30 years now), owns a radio station and is married to a Kenyan Indian woman... I was just wondering how they can possibly follow cricket in that family, without strangling each other.
Skyline of Dubai was something I've never seen before: Endless vistas of sand are suddenly spotted with occasional patches of green fields. Coming closer to the city, the suburbs look like straight out of Sim City Arab Edition 2.0, whilst the massive skyscrapers emerge in the distance. I definitely have to visit that place one day.
Now I didn't have time for anything else but rushing to my connection flight to Frankfurt. That must have been the most pleasant flight in my life: Maybe the best chicken I've ever had in my life, 40 odd movies to choose from and most comfortable seats ever. Emirates really knows how to please the customers... as long as they just get on the plane. :)
Just to complicate things more the flight from Frankfurt to Vienna was late. After all that had happened it didn't bug me at all. I took a cab from Vienna airport to our hotel. It was a 20-minute ride and cost me my month's rent! :-()
Time in Vienna with Paula was really nice: just strolling around the city, visiting a couple of museums, enjoying each other's company and... sneezing. As Jani would put it: "I'm allergic to trees having sex", i.e. pollen.
And yes, of course I experienced many shocking European things already: dogs on a leash, functioning public transportation, ample amount of litter bins here and there, absence of cows, drinkable tap water, no horns tooting, people always coming right at me (walking on the wrong side), fresh air in the city center, damn cold weather (10-20 degrees) etc. I honestly don't know if I like more of this organized society or the beautiful chaos "back home".
Now I'm killing time at Paula's place. They have a really nice AIESEC community here also. I better go out now and see what's in the city... I'll report to you later. See ya!
posted by Tomi Astikainen @ Tuesday, April 03, 2007
1 Comments:
Hi Tomi,
Saw your posting only yesterday evening, but couldn't post a comments since I had to catch my van to go home!
Your posting are very interesting to read. Seems like you had such trouble to get back to Paula.But in end...ha...ha...ha...
Our other quys are ready to go on the second Wils Drift today! Hope they will have some fun and learning. That was a very unforgettable event for me! But the second batch will really miss you, I'm sure!
Hope you are having real fun over there with Paula. Please give my regards to her.
Have to get back to work!
Enjoy and take care!
Malie
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