Ok, so last week I did just a little bit of flying. Monday was from Frankfurt to Paris. Wednesday was Paris to Frankfurt, and then Frankfurt to Copenhagen. Thursday wrapped it up with the final leg from Copenhagen to Frankfurt.
The flight to Paris was nothing special - normal flight into a VERY strange looking terminal at Charles De Gaulle. This terminal (terminal 1, I think), is a big, round terminal, with little "satellites" off it that the planes dock at. The big round terminal part is kinda then like a donut, and you can change levels and sides of the donut using a whole heap of travellators that criss-cross the donut hole. Picture something like at Hogwarts, with all the staircases, but with less witches and stuff. :)
Driving from CDG to Velizy (a suburb of Paris) was the first leg to hell. I had printed the directions from the web into PDF format, and stored them on my palm. If I had have thought ahead, I would have realised that this made them REALLY small, and REALLY hard to read!
Anyway, I managed to figure them all out, and get to the street that I was looking for in Velizy...or should I say - a street with the same name. Turns out that there are two of them within about 10k of each other, and the directions that someone had given me were for the street that housed an Army barracks, rather than my hotel. :(
After a few frantic phone calls, about 10 missed exits on the French Autobahn (picture me doing laps, very frustrated), I made it to my hotel, and all was good. Then I discovered that breakfast is served in a cardboard box. :(
PS: Es gibt zu viele französisch Leute in Frankreich. :)
Now onto the return flights...
Paris to Frankfurt went off without too much of a hitch. I did start off in the wrong terminal, and had to take a bus to the donut again, but I made it to the gate on time. There was a bitching long line of ppl waiting to clear security, but we were all bound for Frankfurt, so that was ok.
Well, we landed in Frankfurt at 16:00. I was originally booked on a 21:40 flight to Copenhagen (originally had a 19:00 flight from Frog-town), but I had changed it to 17:50 in Paris. I noticed that there was a 17:00 flight to Copenhagen, so the lovely lady in the Star Alliance lounge changed it for me.
So, I catch the bus-thingy out to the plane, and we board. Take off time passes, and we still haven't left the gate. Everyone is looking kinda confused, when the Captain comes over the loudspeaker and says "We just found one of the passengers smoking in the toilet on the plane. For your safety we cannot allow this, and have had to call the police". So, the cops come and escort oneiratee passenger off the plane, and we take off over 1hr late.
Coming back from Copenhagen, I got to the airport early, so I changed flights...again...onto a 17:15 flight. This is becoming a habit.
So, I run to the gate, as the plane is supposed to be boarding. I get to the gate, and everyone is still milling around, kinda looking lost. Take off time passes, and the gate still isn't open. Finally someone comes over the loudspeaker and says "Unfortunately the plane is too sick to fly. There is a burning smell on board, and we don't know where it is coming from. The good news is that we have found you another plane, and it will leave at 19:15 from gate D1." TWO HOURS LATER!!! (And Belinda was at the airport in Frankfurt expecting me on the 17:15 flight)
So, finally I board the flight for Frankfurt, just dying to get home. Surely it will go smoothly, right? WRONG!
So, we are on our final approach into Frankfurt. The plane is descending nicely, and we are about 100-200m off the ground. Suddenly the plane climb steeply for minute after minute. Finally we level off, and the Captain says "I don't know why we weren't allowed to land. Today is just one of those days." THAT'S SOMETHING INSPIRATIONAL TO HEAR FROM YOUR CAPTAIN!!!
Anyway, we finally land, and the Captain tells basically that on approach 2 planes crossed our runway, and one of them wasn't able to leave the runway in time. Because of this we had to abort the landing so that we didn't die.
Can I stay home for a week or so now?!?!?
Tschüß,
'Brush.
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