How is it that sitting for eight hours gets to be so exhausting? I just got off the plane in Munich, and now I have a few hours to kill before my last flight leaves (boarding starts at 10:40 local time). I'm sitting in the waiting area at my gate, three hours in advance, trying to connect to an airport wifi network. There are about a dozen of them in range; most of them are inaccessible. I'm probably going to have to pay to get any kind of reliable internet service.
The flight was mostly boring. About 2 and a half hours before we arrived--just off the coast of Ireland, if I recall correctly--they shut off the power to the little touchscreen entertainment center monitors, which startled me because they didn't announce it or anything. I was watching It's a Wonderful Life at the time, so I was sad when all of a sudden Jimmy Stewart was gone and it was very dark. A woman sitting across the aisle from me, who was obviously a more seasoned traveler than I, explained that they probably did it as a precaution, due to lightning. Okay, either way, still freaked me out for a second. As the sun rose I caught a glimpse out the windows on either side of the ([swear word] gigantic) plane; the sight of snow on the ground made me much happier than it really should have, although it was really pretty. As a bonus, the obligatory screaming infants only screamed a couple of times, and were quickly shushed.
So, I have one international and transatlantic flight under my belt, now. Given that the flight was (1) eight hours long and (2) overnight, they fed us dinner and breakfast. The food wasn't too bad, really, although I may have been distracted by the adorable, IKEA-like aesthetic of the little trays they served dinner on. I know I was far too amused by the handy flip-down cupholder attached to the back of the seat.
Dinner, I was told, was chicken with a side of mashed potatoes. There were also some peas and carrots in there, as well as a pasta salad consisting of mixed veggies and orzo on a bed of lettuce, a roll, a very dry brownie, and a small piece of cheese. Breakfast also included a piece of cheese, for reasons unknown, as well as a Nature Valley bar (I've never seen those available in single packs before today), a wheat roll with butter and jam, and a fruit cup. I requested coffee to drink and really shouldn't have; I'm guessing that coffee was made at the same time as the after-dinner coffee was, because it had obviously been sitting out for a while. It was really bitter and just generally terrible.
I miss everyone so much right now, and I feel so isolated without a cell phone (not that it would be of much use right now even if I still had my phone with me). I'm really looking forward to getting into my apartment on Zhukovskogo ulitsa so I can take a [swear word] shower; here's hoping that apartment complex has an internet hookup, so I can upload these posts and send the "still alive" email (♪ ♫ I'm speaking Russian and I'm still alive! And though I'm freezing, I am still alive! ♪ ♫ etc etc). From what I can tell it seems to be kind of unofficial student housing, so I imagine it does, but I honestly don't know.
Once I get this post uploaded, I think I'm going to locate a bathroom and change into warmer clothes; I have a set of long johns in my carry-on luggage, and I had the bright idea to move my boots and coat in there just in case my checked bag gets delayed. It was probably 40-ish degrees on the tarmac when we exited the plane here in Munich; all the weather forecasts for St. Petersburg I've seen have been in the single digits for today, so if I don't bundle up I may in fact freeze to death immediately upon deplaning (which is a [swear word] stupid term and I hate myself for using it).
QUICK STATUS!
Headcold: Ugh. Could be worse, I guess, though. My throat is a little bit scratchy but I imagine that's as much from this cold as it is from the fact that I just spent eight hours in confined quarters breathing dry, recirculated air with 200 other people.
Excite-O-Meter: 4/10. It would be higher but I'm really tired. I don't want to sit anymore, but I also don't really want to walk around because that means dragging my luggage with me. Damn terrorists, ruining it for everyone else. Also, my attempts to obtain some euros so I could use the airport's pay phone proved fruitless because the airport takes a huge [swear word] commission and there were no ATMs that I could see. 1,50 euro per minute to call the US? Really? And the commission is so high that nine US dollars gets me 3,50 euro (current exchange rate, if I recall correctly, is something like 1 USD = .70 Euro)? Eff that. I'd rather just pay for an hour of internet and send an email...especially because it's something like 3 AM in the Eastern time zone right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment