The Trip

With everything arranged things were much easier. My friend’s from Prague would meet me in the airport at night and everything I needed to do was to get there. I was leaving Salvador December 27^th 9pm, changing flights in Frankfurt, and arriving in Prague 28^th 6pm local time.

One of my friends appeared to wish me good luck before I head to the airport. And after the goodbye we went out. Father, mother, sister… everyone in the check-in line, that by the way was worse than the line for homeless people to get soup. The good thing was that I went earlier and made the check-in straight away. During the waiting period another friend appeared, Smeagol. He used to give me some rides from the university back home on his bike and as he knew I was leaving he came to say goodbye. After making lots of noise and telling some jokes he went home. By the end another friend showed with his girlfriend, BigNose. That bastard asked for lots of food, asked my father to pay and even made some jokes about that. Friends… try to understand them.

It was time to go to the departure lounge. My mom was crying because she didn’t want to see her baby leaving home, my sister pretended that nothing was happening and my father asking me to take care and not to do any crazy things. He didn’t know I was already doing something crazy. I hate goodbyes and the worse thing was the situation I was in. I was about to get back home at anytime. If you stop to think a bit I had tickets back on January 9^th, so if anything went wrong I would go back to mama’s arms. LOL

I passed through all those security procedures of airports and went to the waiting room. If you’ve been in Salvador before and had an international flight, you know that this waiting room is really tiny. Just some chairs, two stores and that’s it. The airport is quite organized but that was ridiculous. Without a proper place to sit I settled on the floor and started listening to my chIpod (Chinese Ipod bought on ebay for 8 dollars).

The flight delayed 35min and during that period I started thinking how would be my crazy trip to Prague. At least I would have some fun as it was almost new year anyway so there would be some parties in the city. Bands, clubs, night clubs, beer, lots of things to see, some women… everything was waiting for me. The women was a bit complicated because I already started to like the girl I met on Last.fm. I promised to go and meet her and that was about to happen.

In this trip I also had to go to Vienna to try to make some business and maybe earn some extra money. The business involved some kid that wanted to be a football player in an European club, but this story I will tell later. So if you are writing down the places we already have three: Czech Republic, Poland and Austria.

After the waiting period everyone started getting into the plane. The people was conglomerating like crazy, seemed to be a bunch of Germans soldiers in the second world war looking for a plate full of potatoes. I didn’t push, there was no point for that, all seats were marked and everyone needed to get in anyway. Inside the plane I found my place and sit. As I was one of the first to make the check-in I was able to chose where to sit, of course far away from the wing and window. The place near me was empty and I started imagining my last trip to Europe, Portugal. That flight had a group of pretty Swedish girls, pretty, tall, tanned… they were surfers. If I was lucky and one of those girls sat by my side would be perfect. So I crossed fingers and started wondering… Who will sit next to me? After five minutes I had the disillusion.

A huge German Guy full of beard and glasses appeared saying:

- Guten abend.*

- Guten Abend. – I responded.

- Verstehen Sie Deutsch?

- Nein, nicht verstehe Deutsch. –I replied saying that I didn’t speak that damn language.

So that bastard started talking in English with me. Come on, I was hoping for a Swedish girl and instead some huge German that seemed like gay appeared? This trip started really strange. Besides, the guy started a non-stop conversation. Asked where I was from, where I was going to, then told about his city, Hamburg if I do remember, and then asked what I was reading. In this company’s flights you can take some newspaper for free (800 Euros to go and come back and they say it’s for free), everything in German of course, and as I didn’t know the language, just some words, I decided to take that Bild newspaper. If you have ever heard about this one it just talks about gossip and show some women’s boobs. When I told the big guy I was just taking a look at the pictures he almost hit me saying that I was reading rubbish. To try to explain that I wasn’t reading but just taking a look was really troublesome, but I managed to do it.

After the big guy got calm again, he started the cheap chat again. The unbeatable tactics on those moments are to put your earphone as soon as you have some break. They will stop talking for sure and that’s what I did. But as I was really unlucky that day the flight attendant started giving the dinner… talking in German just to kill me.

The first one passed asking what I wanted to drink. So I answered also in German that I just wanted water and a glass of coke. It was enough to the big guy start talk again:

- You know German! I know you are just pretending! – said he in English.

After that he started speaking lots of things in German and I was looking at his face with my “I don’t care” expression. What an annoying guy. I still think he was gay and that’s why he didn’t want to see the boobs on the newspaper. At least he didn’t try to hit on me. Hehe.

After the dinner it was time to try to sleep. I’d taken some beers in the airport knowing that I needed a push to sleep. I hate airplanes. I’m not afraid of them but I really don’t like. To face a ten hours flight to Frankfurt was too much. I needed at least a nap, and that was what I tried to do.

Unfortunately the flight had five kids that, DEAR LORD, they just didn’t stop crying. When one stopped the other started, and the one from the left side started as well, and then the father went to change diapers, and then the mother… Oh my God! Why do people travel with such small babies? Wait for them to grow up a bit! And the worse thing was that when all kids stopped crying the big guy next to me started snoring. What a trip…

What I do remember is that after those ten hours flight and just thirty minutes nap we finally arrived in Frankfurt. The landing was safe and thank God no one clapped hands because it is really shameful (why do Brazilians clap hands in landings? The funny thing is that Polish people do it too). It was time to get out of the plane and face the cold weather.

I was wearing three shirts and a brown jacket I bought to go to Portugal. The funny thing is that it wasn’t that cold, it was around five degrees and the sun was helping to warm up a bit. I was imagining: “Where is all that snow?”. I’d never seen snow before and never had that much interest. I really like beaches, sun, warmth… cold weather is not nice at all. This thing that Brazilians dream one day to see snow is crazy. They can just open their old fridges and take the ice from its wall. It’s the same thing. Back to the story, no snow, had to the bus and my first step to hell started… in Germany

To be continued...

*Note: Guten abend = Good evening.