Today is my first day here in Zurich for my month-long euro trip and man did this day flew fast. I got up at 9:00 in the morning, went to lunch at around 12:00 noon. Headed straight to the Zurich Hauptbahnhof / Central Station to get a month-long sector 10 Transport pass. Went back to the apartment to rest for a bit but fell asleep instead (again). So, I just got up from my accidental slumber to realize that it’s already 7:00 p.m. Oh man, what just happened?
Hmm, I guess fatigue caught up on me, you see I am not really good at traveling; be it on a plane or bus or whatever, I just can’t seem to do the “sit back, relax and rest” kinda thing. ( Translation: I was up the whole awfully looong trip; fidgety, restless and well, cranky.)
Don’t get me wrong, I love flying (honestly, I still do dream of being a pilot 10 years after I realized that being a Filipino, I am more likely to be a deckhand on a cargo ship than a flight attendant, much less a pilot) and would say yes to flying whenever. It’s just that I can’t get myself to just sit and shut up on one place.
So what do I have here, I guess to get things started with my Euro-trip series of posts here’s a little chronicle of my flight from Manila to my first ever euro city, Zurich (Amsterdam not counted!):
NAIA 2008-12-27-08:30:00:000000 (Local Time)
Oh man, imagine how “fulfilling” it is to actually arrive early at the airport (my flight is at 11:45 am) and to break your long-standing streak of being late on flights! Oh yeah!
While in the cab on my way to the airport (with my mom), I had been thinking about what to do with my spare time after getting cleared to board. Things like grab a couple of magazines, coffee, watch planes on the tarmac (I love plane spotting!) came first on the list.
Upon arriving at the airport, there was already a long line for the initial baggage check and it took me around 30 minutes to go past that point, but that’s cool, I have all the time in the world to do this anyway. When I finally got past that point… What in the world?! Two horribly long queue of hundreds of stressed people welcomed me at the KLM check-in counters.
Found the separate internet checkin counter but holy cow, you still have to go thru the horribly long queue because they only have 2 manual (read: manual) weighing scales for all 7 checkin counters. So much for the “early at the airport thing” that it took me more than an hour to complete my check-in. Worst thing is, my mom was waiting alone outside the airport for my call. (I asked her to go with me to the airport so she can bring home some of my stuff in case I go over KLM’s mediocre 20 KG baggage allowance.)
Tempers were flaring during the check-in ordeal that there was this big black lady making a scene and tried to physically hurt an attendant. Good thing some people got off their toes quickly to restrain the lady. Funny thing is, her husband was just watching doing nothing, and yes, he’s much smaller than her so that’s probably it.
NAIA 2008-12-27-10:45:00:000000 (Local Time)
Finally got on the boarding area and was just waiting for the boarding call. There were complementary broadsheets, which is good, so I can save my magazines for the long flight.
NAIA 2008:12:27:11:45:00:000000 (Local Time)
The plane should be taking off at this time but there was a P.A. of a delayed boarding because of a blah blah blah. I already went thru hell to get this far, I don’t think it still can get any worse.
KLM BOEING 777-300ER 2008:12:27:12:45:00:000000 (Local Time)
Finally, plane is taking off to amsterdam and yes, it’s the start of a looong 13-hour flight. Good thing I was seated on an exit row so I got some extra legroom. The flight itself was uneventful. I wasn’t able to sleep, as usual and painfully endured every minute of the flight.
The plane itself is nice and new though, a welcome change from the usual aging 747s on my previous flights. In flight entertainment is good, the plane has personal monitors (yeah!) I got to see The Incredible Hulk, which is very lame by the way, and the Pineapple Express, a pot-full of comedy that kicks ass. Tried to play chess with an AI but gave up after losing the first 100 attempts at easy level, yeah I know, I suck. Food sucks though.
AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT 2008-12-27-18:05:00:000000 (Local Time)
Despite the delay in NAIA, the plane actually arrived ahead of schedule. And Finally! My first encounter with a european city! How was it? Well, people are nice, they also have a pair of eyes, a nose, two ears, one mouth etc. Yeah, they look rather normal to me he he.
Thermometer reads -2 Degrees Celsius but it sure feels like -50 because I was the smartest guy to check-in his coat for not wanting to carry tons of stuff on board (Hey, that’s what I call courtesy to other passengers by not competing for that measly overhead bin space)
Anyhow, since I enjoyed my inflight meal so much (Ugh) I was starving to death. I immediately grabbed something to eat and here’s what my first european dinner looks like:
The picture quality is a bit off and it sure seems something else, but for the sake of those who can’t get what it is; that’s a nice piece of meaty 8 oz fillet mignon with a bottle of beer and a bottle of Evian.
AMSTERDAM SCHIPHOL AIRPORT 2008-12-27-19:50:00:000000 (Local Time)
Boarding time. Forgot to take off my watch but the metal detector didn’t went off. Hhhhmm, it’s either the metal detector is not working properly or my watch is pseudo-metal ha ha
KLM BOEING 737 2008-12-27-21:10:00:000000 (Local Time)
Off to Switzerland, takeoff is a bit delayed because the plane needs some de-icing. The de-icing truck looks like something out of a starwars movie.
ZURICH AIRPORT 2008-12-27-22:30:00:000000 (Local Time)
Zurich at last! Oh brother, all these german words, it’s killing me! ha ha. Well, I managed to get into the apartment in one piece so all is well that ends well.
Bottom-Line
Can’t hardly wait to properly start my vacation. Will go out first thing tomorrow to check the city out and will post a couple of follow up blogs to document my greatest adventure yet.
