back to portugal

Miserable day(s) for me….

Firstly, after 3 fulfilling weeks back home, I finally have to pack up and leave for my studies again…. Will be at least another 7 months before my next (long) trip back home in mid-July….

Next, bought lots of foodstuff + the many books that I brought back to study (come on, I need something to help me ease the guilt… hahahaha) + 2 additional books (that will help me understand more stuff I hope) = a whopping 35kg of luggage…!!!

Free allowance (20kg) – my luggage (35kg) = -15kg!! (that’s like 75% over the allowed free luggage limit)…

Staff (manning the counter):” if it’s only 5 or 6kg, I can close one eye… but 15kg?! that’s too much…”

Me:” err… come on, can’t you grant me some concession cos I am studying in Portugal, and thus I need to bring back some books…”

So after a lengthy period of discussion, the airline duty manager decided to grant me that concession… yippee!! I managed to avoid paying the excess-luggage fees… =)

Upon boarding the plane…

Good: the plane was barely filled… that meant lots of seats and space….

Bad (really bad): the plane would be delayed for 30min due to the fact that there were another 3 planes still waiting to land at changi airport…. And my transit time is only 50min at Frankfurt airport!!! But there was nothing that I could do but to hope for the best (maybe the tail-wind will act in my favor….??)

After a torturous 12.5 hours, upon arrival in Frankfurt and with only 20min before my plane to Lisbon, I rushed through the customs and security check (long queue) only to find that my flight to Lisbon had already left… without me…. =(

And the staff at the booking counter said that the next available flight to Lisbon is (note: present tense cos I am still stuck here in Frankfurt) at 1pm… what!??!?! 1pm = 7 hours later!!! Hmmm… what can one do in the airport? Immediately after a 12-hour flight...?!

At the time of writing, I had spent the last 5 hours sitting at one little corner in the airport, absolutely isolated from the world… wanted to make some phone calls to leandro to notify him of my unfortunate circumstances… but it seemed that all connections from the rest of the world were cut off, as I could only make “emergency calls only” from my handphone (problem with singtel connectivity or is it a standard feature nowadays?) and my attempts to message people in Singapore through the internet were futile due to the can’t-be-disable-pop-up-program….

Oh, almost forgotten to mention, getting trapped in the Frankfurt airport and walking around aimlessly helped in filling up your passport… got 3 Frankfurt airport stamps within 2 hours, but along with these stamps come countless of security check… jacket, belt , shoes…everything is “stripped” away… **felt so naked**

How how? Another 90min to go before my flight to Lisbon…. If not for the missed flight, I should have reached aveiro by now…. And the weather is getting colder… and all my clothes are checked in…

Fingers-crossed… the only possible thing that will make me feel worse now is to (a) another delayed flight (b) lost/delayed luggage at the Lisbon airport (c) to find out that my train to aveiro (which takes another 2.5 hours from the Oriente train station in Lisbon) has just left and the next one is 2 hours away….

Me… tired and cold… 35kg of luggage + one laptop bag… alone in some foreign land during winter…. What an experience!!

………..

………..

4 hours later…..

3 hours of plane ride (along with another time zone) + a 10euros taxi ride + 24euro train ticket…. Here I am, sitting inside the alfa train, the Portugal’s equivalent of Germany’s ICE train, making my way to aveiro… kind of excited too cos I have always wanted to ride all the premier high-speed trains of Europe…. =) let me see… Germany’s ICE, France’s TGV, and Portugal’s Alfa… so far for now…

Talking about trains… I love taking trains, as long as I am equipped with the necessary stuff… this time round, though the train condition is excellent, but there is no water or food cos I had rushed from the airport to the train station and upon buying the ticket, realized that I did not have the time to even go to the mini-mart… might as well, cos I must have been lugging around at least 40kg of stuff…. Hahahah… okok, let me tell you the reason why I love taking the train…. Beside the fact that you get to see the country, the long journey is a good time to daydream or to reflect about certain issues…. No one around (besides the conductor) to disturb you… =)

Counting the number of hours spent commuting from Singapore to aveiro….

13 hours to Germany + 7 hours waiting + 3 hours to Portugal + 3 hours to aveiro = a mind-blowing 26 hours!!!!!!!

Starving, exhausted and I am not even sure whether leandro will be free later to come over to the train station to pick me up… haven had the chance to call him…. My Portugal Vodafone line is currently un-useable cos I forgot the security code, the phone at the train station was down…. Sigh….

Alright, guess I should stop complaining about the events over the last 20plus hours… time to sit back, enjoy the evening landscape of Portugal and do some reflection over the next 90min…. **better not fall asleep otherwise I will find myself in Porto… hahahah**

P.P.P.P.P.S: I miss everyone, including my brother who will spend the next 10days in Taiwan, and the other one who chalked up the 1000bucks in phone bills, back in Singapore… =(