Qatar – Over 24 Hours of Travelling

It’s currently 11:50pm EST. We’re approximately halfway to Frankfurt, just four hours in. I’m flying with Lufthansa, and most of things in here are German, which gives me flashbacks to my last trip to Germany. Guess what! There is still free alcohol on this international flight! Huzzah!

Actually, there aren’t that many flashbacks because we flew a different airline and most of my attention was trying to figure out a way to get Ekko in a comfortable position as she lay on my lap with elbows in very inconvenient places.

There are 8 bathrooms near me. How cool is that? There may be more bathrooms at other ends of the airplane, but in our little washroom oasis, there are eight of them. And one of them is a handicap bathroom. One of the great things like about Germany, their attention to quality like that.

And the headphones work as well. So far, I watched the first episode of Glee on the flight, and I saw a Discovery show on some missing pharaoh. The one sad thing I miss about not having cable is the discovery channel.

What is annoying, however, is before every show or movie, they have some Lufthansa advertising, which goes on for about a minute or so. Look, I’m on the plane, why advertise?? I’m more impressed by all the bathrooms and the free Baileys! Do away with lame intro vids.

The meal was beef with rice, and some airplane vegetable which I think was bok choy. Strange. And then came the alcohol! Wait, I already said that. I hope they offer Baileys again.

You know how cool the seat is? The tray has a cup holder, and no, not a cup holder when you have it down, but one when you have it up! That’s brilliant! And it has this hook thingy that I hang my headphones on. I don’t think that’s what’s supposed to be on it, but it works for me!

We had a lot of luggage. Most of it was surprising light. Between us, we had seven pieces, and I took my normal luggage as carry on. I was shocked, however, because I had space to put it in the overhead compartment.

See, when I go to an airport, and they start announcing boarding, I don’t go up right away. In fact, I wait until they say “Final call, Mr. Elumir, please get off your butt and into the plane!” I respond, “Wait until I get to a save point!”

I don’t like lines. Why stand in line for a seat that’s already assigned to me? The lobby is way more comfortable. There isn’t anything on the plane that I need to get. There’s power in the lobby, there’s space, there are water fountains, bathrooms. The only thing I get in the airplane are cramped seats and people lifting heavy objects above your head as they realize their carry on is heavier than expected.

Because I wait until the very last minute, when I get on, there rarely is any space for my bag. However, there was a whole empty bin, in fact there were two. Darryl put his carry on and so did I.

Oh, for those that don’t know, Darryl is my boss. We’re going to Qatar for a business trip. When they first booked us, they had us bunking together. Fortunately, he found that out before we arrived and we got it changed. This is good, because I don’t think he’d be able to handle my snoring.

I have a story to tell about how awful it is to sleep with me. My wife will probably have a different story about how awful it is sleeping with me, but this is not that story. Back in university, I went on one of those weekend trips with a bunch of people for some christian camp leadership thing, and the guys had a whole building to themselves. I and my friend, Bingo, settled ourselves in a room, in one wing. A few other guys came in and took some of the bunks. We warned them that we shored. Very loudly. Loud enough that it jeopardized our chances of bagging mates. Not that I slept in the same room with girls… Which reminds me of another story, but I’ll tell that one later.

Anyway, they said it was fine, but by the next morning, there was no one in the room save for Bing and I. It was like the Mary Celeste all over again. In fact, when we checked the other rooms, they were empty as well. They all moved to the other wing of the building.

So Darryl has saved himself from the unholy terror of my snoring. Besides, he probably would have grabbed the bathrobe and then I don’t get a furry white bathrobe. I hope they have bathrobes there. If they do, I will take a picture.

I don’t know when I can post this because there is no internet on the plane, nor was there free internet in the airport. I wanted to text Dove. I miss her. I started thinking about her in sordid ways, but I should stop there.

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We arrived in Frankfurt at around 4am or something like that. I don’t know because my whole sense of time is off. I didn’t sleep and spent most of the night watching more Discovery channel shows.

Frankfurt airport is in the middle of construction, so we had to do a lot of walking to get to our next gate. However, with a 6 hour layover, we had a lot of time. This was good, because we spent about 45 minutes trying to get Internet. Darryl paid for it, but for some reason, he couldn’t log in. He also paid for mine, and I could log in perfectly. I immediately sent off a text to Dove and then I tweeted about the excitement of having internets.

After putting some money into Skype, I gave Karan a call. I have never met her in person, but we wrote a song together during FAWM.org and she is quite involved in the community. We agreed to meet up in the Frankfurt airport and after much facebooking, emailing and calling, I finally spotted her face in the courtyard of Terminal 1! It was very exciting and Karan’s cheerful demeanor was a great start to the morning! I was exhausted, but we got a coffee, talked about a variety of topics, and she bought me presents! Now don’t I feel like a cheap loser? I should have at least brought her a Canada pin, or some moose sausages preserved in maple syrup or something. Ah well, I’m male. I’m lucky enough that I brought a change of underwear. Of course, that is due to my wife.

We talked for about an hour or two, we swapped videos, and then I was off on to the second hour of our trip. Tqd bit worrying, because i only gave myself half an hour to get through two security checkpoints. But the lines were fast and I made it with time to spare. Bye Karan, I’m so glad I got to meet up with you finally!

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It is about 12:22pm EST. The local time at the destination Is 7:23pm. According to the inflight map, we have just passed Damascus.

Darryl’s luck with technology continues to be abysmal, as his on-flight screen is stuck at the loading screen. We asked the stewardess to reset ours, and she did so twice. Mine works, but Darryl’s still doesn’t.

As soon as we got on the plane, I fell asleep. I think I slept for two or three hours. We woke up to dinner, and I had some beef thing, with some yellow stuff. Vegetable was two broccoli things.

Ok, you know what’s cool other than everything? They have the cupholders again, but instead of on the back of the tray, they have it by the screen! How awesome is that! Now I can put my drink in a secure place, and not worry about it spilling! This is very exciting for me. And I got Baileys again. You can’t go wrong with Baileys.

But the best part? The bathroom is on a lower level. There is a second floor to this airplane! Crazy! I’ve never been on a plane with stairs, so it may be all normal to you more cultivated and cultured types, but it’s very exciting for me! I took a bunch of pictures so you can see the awesomeness of the airplane basement bathroom oasis. I counted about 5 or 6 bathrooms. Not as many as the other plane, but it has a second floor so major points on that part. I should have asked the stewardess to take a picture of me swinging down the hand rails.

I have another hour and a half until we get to Qatar. My battery is at about 58%, but I’ve been conserving power. I have a book that I’m reading called …. Something. I’ll put it in.

…..

There is a one hour stop in Ar Riyad. It is now 2:15pm EST. This marks about 24 hours of traveling time. 24 hours where I haven’t had a shower. 24 hours where internet has been kept to a minimum. My bum is sore too.

The plane is rather empty, most people got off here. Darryl and I are just being geeks and playing on our ipads. I miss the Internet.

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3:55PM EST landed in Qatar. It’s 7 hours ahead. I am exhausted. Hotel is awesome, will update later!