March 2007: Getting stuck at the Malaysian/Thai border (Sadao crossing point - village in the middle of nowhere!) void any cash in either currency and credit cards blocked courtesy of HSBC's zealousness to prevent fraud on my account. Passport withheld with a ready, but unpaid for, visa. Meeting four British girls by a magic stroke of luck and borrowing the crucial cash from them.
November 2005: Landing at Koln/Bonn airport rather than Frankfurt Hahn, taking buses and trains across the area, late for work, exhausted. Same month: missed a plane from Frankfurt to Milano, rushed to the train station, got a Spar Night train ticket across Switzerland, woke up past Lugano station and wondered where on bl**dy earth I was!
June 2005: Hopelessly stuck at Helsinki metro with over 80kg of luggage while moving out of the country and relying ambitiously on my own physical strength - wrong choice! Taking a taxi to the ferry terminal, running loaded with the hapless 80kg for over 100 meters, blood-shot eyes and strained muscles - I made it in the nick of time.
August 2004: Returning from a summer institute in Washington, DC, only available plane lands in Riga at 1pm, taxi home, mum's almost got a heart attack, empty and refill the bag in 5 minutes, back to airport, depart for Prague/Frankfurt at 3pm. Mum's effectively dead.
August 2003: Back from a summer school in Prague, bus stuck on the Czech/Polish border for 6 hours, get off at Kaunas in an attempt to catch a connection to Riga and make it in time for the ferry to Sweden - bus cancelled, take a taxi to the Latvian border, catch another bus from there, rush home, repack in 10 minutes, taxi to the ferry, off to the Scandinavian shores.
The list (by no means full!) gets a nice addition today.
June 2007: A reported "toilet leakage" problem prevents a Porto-London flight from taking off; I am almost set to miss a flight to Turkey the following day; get the last remaining ticket the next morning; meet a respectable English lady working for Aquascutum clothing brand; spend the night at the same Sheraton Hotel room with her (twin beds, very emphatically); have a great coffee and a conversation with the same person the morning after, ahead of our flight; set to make it to Turkey; sitting on the plane to London wondering what at all can expect me next!
I love adventures.
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
Saturday, 2 June 2007
My job sucks
Part 1: This Lufthansa flight is taking me further and further away from Helsinki.
It is actually a St Petersburg flight to London via Frankfurt, though the previous option envisaged an overnight stopover in Helsinki. Never mind what I said to my secretary - the Helsinki one was always the most preferred solution, which has now successfully been buried. Oh well, sånt är livet, I am not unfamiliar with disappointments but they could kindly avoid the familiarity with me, thankyouverymuch.
In the business class back, I have had far too much white wine and Baileys for a thin 23-year-old to handle. Let this be a toast to my never-fulfilled Helsinki dream. Kippis!
St Petersburg was absolutely smashing - what can I say? With a 36-hour departure notice and a Kazakh power plant model to build in one day, it was exciting enough to start with, further escalating into a free Sunday evening in the wonderful "Russia's Second Capital", followed by red caviar and salmon for dinner, huge pancake breakfast, visit to St Isaac's Cathedral, client meeting (some Finns present, so unexpectedly exciting - Somija rulle!), three changes of return schedule (just let me stay outside London, please) and a connecting flight from Frankfurt - always welcome, just hope it will be longer next time! Overall, a lovely break of daily routine.
On a completely unrelated note, one month is now left till bonus...
Part 2: Sonnenuntergang in Frankfurt!...
Hallo, Westendstrasse N.1, schönen Abend, sehr geehrte Commerzbank...und da gibt's ja den Europaturm auch! What a quick throw-over into the forgotten days of student leisure and pure happiness out of nothing. I hate to sound discontent, yet it is difficult not to, given that the mildest word describing my current life starts with an "h" and ends in "l" (please not a word about anyone being too demanding, etc, I know I am and I am unhappy about it!).
Anyway, the point is that, after two Streusel buns and two Mueller-milch bottles at Frankfurt airport, I am going to lobby for all flights to be redirected via the wonderful Main-city...never mind that the Lufthansa business class ticket does not entitle one to business lounge entrance at Pulkovo airport.
So much for work today. Too, too much Baileys. Maybe they should make business class chicks pay for their booze. Boooozzzzz. Zzzzz.
It is actually a St Petersburg flight to London via Frankfurt, though the previous option envisaged an overnight stopover in Helsinki. Never mind what I said to my secretary - the Helsinki one was always the most preferred solution, which has now successfully been buried. Oh well, sånt är livet, I am not unfamiliar with disappointments but they could kindly avoid the familiarity with me, thankyouverymuch.
In the business class back, I have had far too much white wine and Baileys for a thin 23-year-old to handle. Let this be a toast to my never-fulfilled Helsinki dream. Kippis!
St Petersburg was absolutely smashing - what can I say? With a 36-hour departure notice and a Kazakh power plant model to build in one day, it was exciting enough to start with, further escalating into a free Sunday evening in the wonderful "Russia's Second Capital", followed by red caviar and salmon for dinner, huge pancake breakfast, visit to St Isaac's Cathedral, client meeting (some Finns present, so unexpectedly exciting - Somija rulle!), three changes of return schedule (just let me stay outside London, please) and a connecting flight from Frankfurt - always welcome, just hope it will be longer next time! Overall, a lovely break of daily routine.
On a completely unrelated note, one month is now left till bonus...
Part 2: Sonnenuntergang in Frankfurt!...
Hallo, Westendstrasse N.1, schönen Abend, sehr geehrte Commerzbank...und da gibt's ja den Europaturm auch! What a quick throw-over into the forgotten days of student leisure and pure happiness out of nothing. I hate to sound discontent, yet it is difficult not to, given that the mildest word describing my current life starts with an "h" and ends in "l" (please not a word about anyone being too demanding, etc, I know I am and I am unhappy about it!).
Anyway, the point is that, after two Streusel buns and two Mueller-milch bottles at Frankfurt airport, I am going to lobby for all flights to be redirected via the wonderful Main-city...never mind that the Lufthansa business class ticket does not entitle one to business lounge entrance at Pulkovo airport.
So much for work today. Too, too much Baileys. Maybe they should make business class chicks pay for their booze. Boooozzzzz. Zzzzz.
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