The four days I have spent in Berlin have almost allowed me to push the first leg of my journey to that place in my mind where I keep the things that hurt me and make me want to curl up in a ball and cry. I had an excellent time in this city. The hotel was right in downtown allowing for hours of walking and exploring. The history of Berlin is mind blowing, the people are super nice, and the beer and food…..well……this was from last night’s dinner. German done right!
I went through the ritual last night of folding and packing and getting ready for my 5:15am wakeup call. My flight leaves for Warsaw at 9:00 but a few colleagues from the US have an 8:30 flight so we were going to share a taxi. I knew I would get there early but with business class, there is always the lounge to hang at and grab a bit of breakfast. Or so I thought. Yes, it starts again.
My US friends are taking a civil flight on lovely Lufthansa so I shake hands, wish them well and watch them fly through the business class line and into the terminal a good 2 hours before their flight and, I am sure, sitting in the lounge as I write this at 7:20. Where am I sitting you ask? Well, it is in a little steel chair with gum on it that is sticking to the ass of my pants. The smell of cigarette smoked wafts through the air and I stare at check in counter 78 waiting, hoping, and praying that this is the tough part. I had gone to the Star Alliance counter in terminal A, right beside where my US colleagues went in only to find out that no, I could not check in here. Star Alliance yes, but LOT……come on now.
I was instructed that I needed to go to terminal D, a mere 3 minute walk away and go to check in 78. I wander around looking for terminal D and see the way!!
I arrive in this smoky little terminal, find check in 78, wait in line like a good little soldier only to be told “No. your flight eez at 9:00. You cannot check in until at least 1 hour 30 previous. Go look at blue monitor.” Nice. So I go look at blue monitor to see I need to go to counter 78 at 7:30. Wow. Good start.
I wander around a little and feeling the pangs of hunger (like I need more food) I pass by this classic Berlin sign and contemplate how this would feel at 7 am on top of last nights fried pork on a plate. I decide I might want to move on, so back to the terminal I went. And here I am. Two minutes to go. Better get in line.
UPDATE: So 7:30 comes and there is no action at line 78. I scan the room hopefully looking for the LOT person that is going to sweep me away. Another 10 minutes pass before I see movement at counter 82 and they open the LOT business class check in. Oh joy!! I roll my luggage over but before I can even take a step there are 40 Polish fliers battling for a spot in this line. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I hang my head and trudge over and get in line. Five minutes pass and they open another gate for economy and tell everyone “Eef you are not beezness class, you must move to zee other line ya”. I am now front of the line and things are looking up.
I go through security in a matter of minutes (wish Toronto was like that) and lick my lips in anticipation of that hot coffee and a piece of toast I hope to find in the lounge……only to find that the terminal is a small glassed in box with a shared washroom and a small café bar that charges four euro for a small coffee.
And here I sit. The good thing is I can write my blog, albeit in Word as there is no internet access here. And I do have a bit of work to do. I was saving that for the plane as I figure I might need to keep myself occupied if I only have the map to watch again. Wow, if I am only that lucky.
UPDATE: OK.....so the gate opens and on we go to the bus. Oh the bus of stink ray fame. But it is early morning, and istead of 30 degrees C it is about 20 and the people are fresh and neat and clean and smell niiiiicccccceeeee.....things are turning around!
The bus fills up and off we go to our nice new LOT jet, maybe the same one that I went from Warsaw to Berlin in. Ohhhh.....leather seats, lots of room, and as soon as I sit down this nice lady in a lovely LOT blue uniform offers me water and juice. I am home. The rest of the flight went just like this. Smooth take off, good hot coffee and a light breakfast, a Polish newspaper in English and I even was able to get a little work done
And now I must pack up and get to my gate as my flight leaves in 45 minutes back to Toronto. This is the big one. I am crosses all the things I have on my body that can cross that this is a whole LOT (hahahaha) better than the flight from Toronto to Warsaw. At the very least it will be the same and at least I am prepared. I will publish this long segment and the rest? Well, it will have to wait until I have landed, rested, contemplated and then purged at the final destination. Thanks for reading along. It has been fun.
before a smooth landing one hour later. Again, first off the plane, and off to duty free where I picked up a bottle of Polish Bison Grass Vodka for about $8,00 Canadian. Not too bad. A few other duty free purchases and then I was off to the LOT lounge. The internet worked, it was not crowded and the food was hot, the drinks were cold. Ahhhhhh......
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