On route
Day 1
Lift off from the Air Port was at 1:30pm on Sri Lankan time, after about 11 hours of flight time and some awesome scenes of snow covered mountain over Turkey (may be I was flyng over Sujatha's head ;) ), The first stop was the Charles De Gaulle Air Port in France. After 45 mins of transit time and less than a hour of flying time I was getting out at the Air Port in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Air Port was fairly big but had very little number of people tonight; I kept following signs first to clear the luggage and then to get out where I wanted to catch a train to the main bus station, This was the difficult part, most people seem not to speak English. After getting directions I finally came to the place where you get the trains. But then it was harder I had to buy a ticket and there was a machine there which had everything in German and on top that the scheduled did not have any train that would get me to the bus I had booked online. After asking help from another person who could not speak English I finally decided to catch a Taxi to get to the bus on time.
After explaning where I wanted to go by using the printout of the online booking I with the manage of a good Afgani-German driver who asked around to find the exact place for me I got to the station at 23:45 to catch the bus scheduled for 23:59.
Then was the most shocking thing, I was worried that I would get late and miss the bus is it’s Germany. German’s are supposed to be on time !!! But amazingly the bus came only 45 to 50 mins late J I was getting worried during this time of what to do if he bus is not there. Other than me there were only 2 Italian girls waiting around, they were in a better state than me cause they knew German but still we were getting frustrated. The whether in Frankfurt was mildly cold but was to cold for me after standing around the first 15 mins.
When the bus came finally I was so relieved and was ready to get on. But there was a problem, the driver cum conductor wanted my ticket and all I had was the print out of the confirmation of my online booking. After explaning several times with the help of the Italian girls I finally let on. J
After a while I realized that he had taken my paper with the booking and it being the only copy I had to also show during the return trip I was worrying. My plan was to explain that I needed it ( using more hand language) for the trip as I was about to get down. I got a better chance when the bus stoped after about 2 to 3 hours of travel and driver announced 15mins brake. After a first unsuccessful attempt in explaining using min number of words with hand signals I almost got thrown out. J Next attempt was better first I thought to ateast have the reservation no copied so asked for that and got that. Then it came to me to get a photo copy and they were ok to check on that and luckily for me the restaurant we had stoped at was able to give a copy. So got back to the bus and that was the happier outcome for both of us. J
It is after the bus started moving again that I took out the laptop and started write down the days happenings. Cant see much of a view out side cause it’s too dark. The panel on the bus gives the local time as 4:43am right now and the outside temp as 6 degrees.
Will add more things as I experience and find time to write down...
Lift off from the Air Port was at 1:30pm on Sri Lankan time, after about 11 hours of flight time and some awesome scenes of snow covered mountain over Turkey (may be I was flyng over Sujatha's head ;) ), The first stop was the Charles De Gaulle Air Port in France. After 45 mins of transit time and less than a hour of flying time I was getting out at the Air Port in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Air Port was fairly big but had very little number of people tonight; I kept following signs first to clear the luggage and then to get out where I wanted to catch a train to the main bus station, This was the difficult part, most people seem not to speak English. After getting directions I finally came to the place where you get the trains. But then it was harder I had to buy a ticket and there was a machine there which had everything in German and on top that the scheduled did not have any train that would get me to the bus I had booked online. After asking help from another person who could not speak English I finally decided to catch a Taxi to get to the bus on time.
After explaning where I wanted to go by using the printout of the online booking I with the manage of a good Afgani-German driver who asked around to find the exact place for me I got to the station at 23:45 to catch the bus scheduled for 23:59.
Then was the most shocking thing, I was worried that I would get late and miss the bus is it’s Germany. German’s are supposed to be on time !!! But amazingly the bus came only 45 to 50 mins late J I was getting worried during this time of what to do if he bus is not there. Other than me there were only 2 Italian girls waiting around, they were in a better state than me cause they knew German but still we were getting frustrated. The whether in Frankfurt was mildly cold but was to cold for me after standing around the first 15 mins.
When the bus came finally I was so relieved and was ready to get on. But there was a problem, the driver cum conductor wanted my ticket and all I had was the print out of the confirmation of my online booking. After explaning several times with the help of the Italian girls I finally let on. J
After a while I realized that he had taken my paper with the booking and it being the only copy I had to also show during the return trip I was worrying. My plan was to explain that I needed it ( using more hand language) for the trip as I was about to get down. I got a better chance when the bus stoped after about 2 to 3 hours of travel and driver announced 15mins brake. After a first unsuccessful attempt in explaining using min number of words with hand signals I almost got thrown out. J Next attempt was better first I thought to ateast have the reservation no copied so asked for that and got that. Then it came to me to get a photo copy and they were ok to check on that and luckily for me the restaurant we had stoped at was able to give a copy. So got back to the bus and that was the happier outcome for both of us. J
It is after the bus started moving again that I took out the laptop and started write down the days happenings. Cant see much of a view out side cause it’s too dark. The panel on the bus gives the local time as 4:43am right now and the outside temp as 6 degrees.
Will add more things as I experience and find time to write down...
posted by Suchith Abeyewickreme at 2:19 PM
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