"There
Goes The Sun"
"My Trip to
Germany and Finland... August 2009"
Day 5
It was in
Stuttgart airport that I saw for myself that global warming, at least on a
localised scale, is really happening. It has to be the reason why people wander
aimlessly around airports and don´t appear to know that anyone else is actually
there. And it has to be the reason why small children think the airport is, in
fact, nothing more than an extension of their playpen!
It must be
global warming, because how else can you explain such ignorance and total
stupidity? Go on… try!
The strange
thing is that these same, apparently lobotomised obstacles get into a total
panic so they can be the first to get on the bus that will take us all to the
plane. They wanna be first so they can wait there the longest and then they will
kill you to get on the plane first so they can stand in the aisle forever while
they compete with the 8-member family with far too much carry-on luggage in an
effort to make you wait for them as long as possible so you can get to your seat!
Something has
to be done…. something along the lines of compulsory prophylactation actually!
Having my own
jet would work too but then I would have nothing to complain about!
You wanna bet?
The gate agent
from British Airways was an angel! Either that or she been brushing up on my
tour diaries and offered to save me by pre-boarding me and my "baby" (my
Takamine acoustic), in much the same way as she had just pre-boarded an
excessively fertile German couple and their countless babies and baby apparatus.
But the flight
was good, the flight attendants called me "sir" and we landed early at London
Heathrow, terminal 5. Early is good if this is your final destination, but I
already had a 5 + hour ground stop on the way to Helsinki and I really didn´t
need this totally inconsiderate pilot to add to that by landing early….. I´m
kidding!
I needed a fag
so I decided to transfer to Terminal 3 and find the exit so I could smoke.
Heathrow apparently owns the air here so they guide you to a smoking area with
signs. After you´ve followed them half way to Wales, they disappear, so the
smart thing to do is just to stop somewhere outside, light up and, if they try
to harass you, ask them for proof of ownership.
(sorry, but
some people speak really loudly and I was eavesdropping…. The question was… "so,
how was your weekend?" and the immediate reply was "friday was 24 degrees, on
saturday it warmed up a bit……" such is life in what used to be my home country.
Heathrow is a
big airport and there are no smoking zones inside, so I decided to quit smoking…
for a few hours anyway.
To cut a
long story short, the flight was delayed and I ended up spending more than 7
hours in the airport and finally arrived to my hotel in Helsinki at 2am. You can
probably guess what happened next….
