Hello everybody!
So I've said time and time again on my posts
that I am spending two months in France.
Well, I'm finally here! After having the trip from
hell to get here, I've actually made it this
far without killing myself...
Getting here really was the trip from hell.
Because my dad works for SAA, we get
a special discounted ticket, which we often
have trouble with at the check-in counters
of airports. We aren't supposed to be, but we
do. I had a confirmed ticket to Munich,
but when I went to check in at the counter,
I was told (very snootily) that I have to
wait until 15 minutes before the flight gates closed
to know if I could get a seat on the flight.
As much as I told her that this was NOT
how it works, it made no difference. Eventually,
because I "knew" the captain of the flight
(oooh how cool am I) she gave me a ticket
for the "jumpseat". Normally the crew book
2 or 3 extra seats just in case, and there
is an extra seat in the cockpit as well.
I was going to have to sit in the cockpit -
which was very nice of the pilots to offer,
and an awesome thing that nobody gets to
do anymore, but this was not ideal..
Sitiing the whole night in there, or sleeping
in the crew bunks where they could all
see me?! THAT wasn't part of my plan
at all! But in the end I did get a seat
because 5 people didn't pitch up (I did get
to sit in the cockpit for the take-off
though - which is quite a priveledge, and is
especially cool at night.
Before I carry on, let me just add that
sleeping in economy class is an art, and
I have a lot of respect for anyone who can
do it properly. I am not one of these
people.
Anyway, when I arrived in Munich, I was super
tired, but managed to find my way to
collect my bag (there was also a big glass
container with two HUGE sausages on
it on the conveyor belt - go figure). Then I got lost.
I couldn't find the way to catch a connecting
flight, so I asked a very unhelpful German
man...but I got there eventually and was helped by
a lady with hairy moles (charming).
Paris was even MORE confusing - the airport
is round and has all these little escalator tunnels
going through it in all different directions
(it is also very concrete-y and really ugly)
. In Paris I had to buy a TGV train ticket - but I
first had to figure out that it was in a
different building entirely, then waited
half an hour because the airport people had found a bag
that they thought had a bomb in it - all I
could think was that it would be a real waste for me
to have come aaaaall this way only to be blown
to bits...
Next came
getting the train ticket,
which was relatively easy, except that the man
who helped me was very French and
kept mixing English and French which is very
confusing :/
If I thought that that was the end of it
, man was I wrong - when I got on the train,
I could not, for the life of me, find my seat!
Twice I sat in the wrong seat and was
chased! But even now, I still have no idea
where the heck my real seat was!
Finally, I arrived in Montpellier, where
I have been the entire week so far, settling
myself in, and getting lost (many timmes)
...But more on that in the next post since
by now I'm sure it's getting
boring reading all this!
