Not Another Fucking Flight...

I board the glass cage shuttle to take us to the plain. The women standing next to me on the bus is probably in her early thirties, very attractive. We make eye contact and smile and then proceed to the plane. I am not the first person off the bus but everybody is so slow, that I am the first person on the plane. I take my seat and the woman I was next to on the bus happened to be sitting next to me. Coincidences like this always make me laugh. I offer to help her with her bags and she says she is fine. I fall asleep for about 2 minutes and wake up. I joke with her to "feel free to wake me up if I snore". She tells me she doesn't understand as she doesn't speak alot of English. I say that's ok. The pilot informs us that there were delays with the plane coming from Romania and that we will be taxiing to the runway and the actual flight time will be 5 hours. Just what i need more time in transit.

I go to sleep. I was sure half an hour had elapsed when I woke up but we were still sitting where we were when I first got on. I stay awake for 5 minutes and we finally start moving. Once we are moving, it is straight to the runway and we take off. I drift off to sleep for 30 minutes again and wake up as they are about to begin the food and beverage service. Perfect timing.. I order a wrap combo which includes Pringles and a bottle of water and a vodka combo which is vodka, red bull and a bag of peanuts. The total cost was 55 AED (Arab Emirates Dirhams). I wasn't sure what the conversion rate was because i didn't use any money in Dubai. I payed by credit card because I only had Euro on me. Most people were using cash. I didn't care I was hungry and thirsty. As usual i devoured the food and drank the vodka and Red Bull. I decided to sleep some more and when I woke up there was still about 3 hours flight time. I listen to my Ipod.. some Beatles, Bob Marley and Creedence. I needed to relax.

I looked out the window and watched thousands of kilometres of snow covered land and mountains pass by. It was like nothing I had witnessed before. As we flew over Romania heading to the airport, it became clear that this really was going to be an adventure. This was like nothing I had ever seen before and with the difficulties in language... I may be in for a bigger shock than I thought. Oh well.... here's to adventure.

TThe runway was next to acres of snow covered fields and i really liked the countryside that I could see from my window. I had arranged for a private driver to meet me at the airport. The flight was supposed to land at 12:50 Bucharest time, however was now an hour late. I wasn't sure whether he would still be there waiting for me. I didn't want to have to take a chance on the taxi's in Eastern Europe... It's the one thing I will avoid if I can, especially on my own. I get off the plane as fast as I can. make haste for the baggage claim and wait for my bag. After about 10 minutes of waiting I start to wonder if they lost it between the connecting flights, then about 5 minutes later it finally comes.

It is minus 3 degrees celcius when we land and i lost my voice slightly, almost instantly from the cold. I make my way to immigration and the woman asks me where i arrive from and i say "Australia via Dubai". She asks if it is the first time I have been here... I reply "Yes".. then she stamps my passport and says "Good Luck". Hmmm... I hope she means that in a positive way.

The interesting thing for me was that they didn't have any baggage scanners or security checks whatsoever at Bucharest Airport. Anyway I am writing this from my hotel. I am very tired because I haven't had much sleep. I will make my next post about my first impressions of Bucharest and more when i can.