Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Leaving Germany

Slept thru my alarm, but only by twenty minutes. So I checked out of "The Tent" and caught the tram to the train station. German trains are extremely nice, they even have power outlets for laptops and such. They are also accordingly pricey, however travel tip #23 says book an eticket online three days in advance and it's about half price!! My ticket had me switching trains in Frankfurt, but the train I was already on is going directly there so I arrived in PLENTY of time. So I spent 1.5 hrs on the check-in line for Air India and then the agent tried to send me to Los Angeles!! Luckily I caught her mistake, but then she tells me that my flight has been delayed and that I must go to another counter to check-in. There I see that the delay is a mere 8.5hrs!!! I guess we are on Indian time now! Well I didn't really want to leave my backpack in the hands of Air India eight hours prior to the flight, it would probably end up in LA (if I were lucky), so I didn't check-in. But then it hit me that with such a delay I'm due some kind of compensation. So I went back and checked in and they asked me why I wasn't already at the Hotel?? Cause I'm an idiot! Hopped a bus to a rather posh Indian owned hotel and being famished at this point was happy to arrive just in time to chow down on dinner. A very simple indian meal of salad, rice, potato, veggie, bread and a beer, but I think it was the best meal I have had in about 100 days!! Topped it off with a plum and a piece of marble cake for dessert and thoroughly sated went around to buy some snacks for the plane.OK, now it's time to check out the room. Really very nice! Stayed away from the open snack bar with no prices, others weren't so lucky. Had a nice shower and a shave compliments of the hotel and as luck would have it the "The Manchurian Candidate" was just starting. And it also ended just in time for me to catch the bus back to the airport. There I spent my last euros on a beer and sat to meditate till boarding.
It was not overbooked as I suspected it would be, but it was full. Smooth flight, even got a little sleep. One thing I noticed was that Indians have no concept of space. I thought once or twice while getting off the plane that I might be getting raped! Maybe they're just really in a hurry to get home? So the delay actually turned out to be a good thing. Not only did I get a little pampering, but instead of arriving at 3am I arrived around noon. Now the adventure begins......