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Day 183: The Long Flight Home and Other Incidents
2012.07.01
11 Hours in a Plane was totally worth this view of Greenland.
With a 4:30 a.m. wake up time in Vienna, in order to ruhig Frühstücken on the rooftop, I started what promised to be a very long day. The sunrise was glorious. I had left myself plenty of time, which was both helpful and painful. A rushed morning doesn't allow the pain to set in, but this well-planned pace allowed me time to feel weird about leaving. It was the first home that I've ever had that I'll never return to (Macalester and Roseau being my other two).
I gave Emma a hug and left the Wiener Wohnung at 7:30 to catch my S-Bahn to Flughafen Wien. The Vienna Airport is brand-new, so it should supposedly be really slick.
It was arguably the worst experience that I've had in an airport. Half of the (pointless) self check-in terminals were broken (also, good luck knowing that if you don't speak German!). Then you have a wait in line anyway to check your luggage (and the worker prints stuff out (um, why did I have to go to the machine first?).
Well I finally made it through all of that and was on my way to the passport police. I walked up to the booth, and the man asked me for my "Aufenthaltskarte," which confused me, since my passport had everything necessary in it. I said, "what Aufenthaltskarte?" and he said, "well your Visa is expired, yesterday was the 30th and today is the 1st." So my Visa had expired by 10 hours. He grudgingly gave me a stamp after 10 minutes of hesitation.
Well, I made it on my flight alive and with all of my (overstuffed) things: a poster tube, an umbrella, a backpack, and a bag.
The flight included the typical low-quality in-flight movies, which I watched most without sound, too tired to care. Titels included The Lorax, John Carter (ON MARS), and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Landed in Toronto, forgot that sales tax is added to prices in North America. Hopped on the final leg of the trip to Winnipeg.
My mom and Michaela greeted me at the airport (because mom had ditched dad and Jarod in the car).
Got back to my room, realized that I have too many things.
Got to sleep after 24 hours awake.
With a 4:30 a.m. wake up time in Vienna, in order to ruhig Frühstücken on the rooftop, I started what promised to be a very long day. The sunrise was glorious. I had left myself plenty of time, which was both helpful and painful. A rushed morning doesn't allow the pain to set in, but this well-planned pace allowed me time to feel weird about leaving. It was the first home that I've ever had that I'll never return to (Macalester and Roseau being my other two).
I gave Emma a hug and left the Wiener Wohnung at 7:30 to catch my S-Bahn to Flughafen Wien. The Vienna Airport is brand-new, so it should supposedly be really slick.
It was arguably the worst experience that I've had in an airport. Half of the (pointless) self check-in terminals were broken (also, good luck knowing that if you don't speak German!). Then you have a wait in line anyway to check your luggage (and the worker prints stuff out (um, why did I have to go to the machine first?).
Well I finally made it through all of that and was on my way to the passport police. I walked up to the booth, and the man asked me for my "Aufenthaltskarte," which confused me, since my passport had everything necessary in it. I said, "what Aufenthaltskarte?" and he said, "well your Visa is expired, yesterday was the 30th and today is the 1st." So my Visa had expired by 10 hours. He grudgingly gave me a stamp after 10 minutes of hesitation.
Well, I made it on my flight alive and with all of my (overstuffed) things: a poster tube, an umbrella, a backpack, and a bag.
The flight included the typical low-quality in-flight movies, which I watched most without sound, too tired to care. Titels included The Lorax, John Carter (ON MARS), and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Landed in Toronto, forgot that sales tax is added to prices in North America. Hopped on the final leg of the trip to Winnipeg.
My mom and Michaela greeted me at the airport (because mom had ditched dad and Jarod in the car).
Got back to my room, realized that I have too many things.
Got to sleep after 24 hours awake.
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