Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Things got progressively worse from the moment I stepped into Changi Airport. Arriving at 8 (which gave me lenty of time-or so I thought), I found out that the Singapore to Helsinki flight was cancelled and that I had to depart on an earlier Swissair flight to Bangkok instead, and then from there fly to Helsinki. Singapore-Bangkok-Helsinki-Budapest. So dinner with the family was a hurried affair (we ate at Fish & Co), plus I had to call everyone who was coming (hey people, thanks for the sentiment! Sorry about this) to ask them not to come see me off, because I had to go a whole lot earlier. I did manage to see Pete at the airport though, because he was already there.
The flight landed at Bangkok at SG time 1210am...and I was told by the Finnair assistant that the connecting flight to Helsinki would board at 1215, giving me 5 minutes to rush from one end of the airport to the other...only to find out that he meant Bangkok time (I still have no idea what the time difference is). I was so afraid of missing the plane I didn't even dare to make a pitstop at the little girl's room. I'm sure this will have long term repercussions on my purging system=/ TMD (* language will progressively get more vulgar).
The flight to Helsinki was uneventful, if a little long...I think it took at least 11 hours or 12...I couldn't tell because it seemed like perpetual night on the flight. From Helsinki I boarded the plane to Budapest (**Forthcoming backlog written at the Vantaa airport at Helsinki). Even before we took off the pilot said the flight would be delayed-- so instead of reaching at 1030 (like I told my roommate who came to pick me up), the plane landed in Ferigehy Budapest half an hour later. Not the best way to start off with someone I will be living with for the next 5 months or so...
At the airport's arrival lounge I found out that somehow they had left my luggage at Bangkok. And that it would
maybe only be flying into Helsinki tomorrow, and reach Budapest
hopefully at 11am next morning. Am horrified. Have nothing to change into. Have got no toothbrush. And no charger with which to charge either handphone
or laptop. And the bunch of airport staff in charge of the lost and found baggage seem like a feckless and inefficient lot.
%$#!*@!^%!!
THEN I got lost. I wondered around for at least an hour trying to find someone who could speak English reasonably well enough to understand me. But then i realised I couldn't pronounce the name of the street I wanted to get to, so I had to write it on a piece of paper and frantically wave it around in front of whomever I was trying to get instructions out of. I managed to extract enough conclusive instructions from this one student, and got on a tram (they have 3 modes of transportation here, as if it weren't already confusing enough- bus, tram and train). I even got him to count the stations for me, because I couldn't understand the Hungarian name of whatever place he was asking me to alight at. Only to get off (after the 6th station, like he said), at what seemed like an entirely foreign looking place. I was almost ready to CRY, but too hungry to do so. I went into the safest looking place- MacDonald's-and sat down over a latte from MaCafe to mull over my jinxed up day. I wanted to call my roommate Thomas, but couldn't find his number. Because I was reduced to this desperate condition I called home and got my brother to hack into my email account for me, and to find Thomas' number. Then I called Thomas, and it turns out all along I was just a few blocks away from Dohany utca (where I live), only I couldn't tell because I was looking at a whole different angle. Need rest... Tomorrow will surely be better because when things are as crappy as this they can't get worse (here's optimism for you)...
+++ BACKLOG:
(At the Vantaa Helsinki Airport)
Am at the Vantaa Helsinki airport now…it is 7.40am here, but my computer clock tells me that it is 1.45pm back in SG. I have been in transit for nearly 16 hours now…since I left SG yesterday at 9.20pm. It wasn’t supposed to be this early, but the flight to Helsinki was delayed, so we had to make an additional stopover at Bangkok (I have no idea what its airport is called- Chulalongkorn maybe?). Anyway, this time disparity thing is really messing up my system. At Bangkok I landed at maybe Singapore time 1210, and the Finnair assistant said the flight to Helsinki would take off at 1215. He obviously menat Bangkok time…which I didn’t realize until I ran (sort of) to the gate where we were supposed to board the Helsinki flight. We had to wait another hour or so, ad I was so afraid I’d missed the flight I didn’t even dare to go pee. The Bangkok airport staff weren’t very helpful- they couldn’t speak English, and I didn’t even bother to try Chinese. The only thing I know how to say in Thai is like, phad thai or something. And Chulalongkorn (it qualifies).
Now I’ve got to wait another hour or so before I can board my flight to Budapest. I wanted to buy a drink and sit down at the café like everyone else was doing, but I realized I have no idea if I should tip them. And that if I don’t they might do something horrible to me (you never know what they practice in foreign places, and it’s better not to tempt fate). And I also have no idea how much exactly to tip them- my Math is so bad I wouldn’t know what 10 % or 15 % or whatever amount they tipped was out of my bill. This sucks. Now I’m afraid to wonder away in case there are anymore changes to the flight plans and the plane leaves without me. In that case I would slowly but surely starve to death in the Vantaa airport since I dare not buy food. There is a book shop with books for sale, the prices seem pretty straightforward, and I don’t think you need to tip for buying non-food stuff, but unless I can re-configure my digestive system to extract necessary nutrients for sustaining life from books I will still starve to death of I leave my seat. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t get a drink anyway. Think I will die from boredom though. Hate transit time. Who would’ve known that the Land of Nokia would present so many challenges to survival?!
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
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