24hrs of Flying is Not My Idea of Fun!!!

So I'm here!! It felt like such a long time between Auckland and Copenhagen! 24 hours of flying in total with 8 hours of waiting in airports. I must admit that travelling alone is quite exhilarating. I loved the challenge of finding the right gates in airports, getting through security, eating where I wanted to, and weaving my way through the many shops without worrying about taking too long. And when I got mildly lost no-one was there to alert me to how daft I was, it was also great to be able to be paranoid all on my own and check the departures board every 5 mins over 6 hours without being pestered by someone about my paranoia when they would have been happy with one glance.

My mild fear of international airports and rampant paranoia has been replaced with quiet confidence. Everything was in English and maps displayed around the airports were very clear, locating gates was straight-forward and everyone spoke English if you needed any advice. You could pay for everything with your credit card (that was handy at Burger King!). The most annoying thing I discovered about an international airport is how they have to say all their messages over the loudspeaker system in several languages - when they read out flight numbers in Chinese it sounds like someone with a nasally high-pitched voice is stuttering while eating with their mouth full and singing at the same time! Also every time you stepped onto the horizontal flat escalators a Chinese voice says something (in a similar way described above) then its translated to English: "please mind your step and place your hand on the rail" I must have heard that hundreds of times, I even started to memorise how to say the Chinese version of it though I stopped saying it out loud when I got a funny look from someone. For those of you who are not familiar with the horizontal escalators - that's my made up name for them, they are moving floors with rails which mean you can either stand still or walk and go twice the speed of everyone not on the moving floor - I was so tempted to run!! You need them in such huge airports or you'd be walking forever. Hmm I guess that would have been good exercise and passed the time too, oh well I never really volunteer for an extra workout if I don't have to!

Frankfurt airport was the most strict by far if there was a competition between Auckland, Honk Konk, Frankfurt and Copenhagen they would win by a landslide. I won't go into details about it because if I were reading this I'd find that boring but for a comparison I was able to get from the plane in Copenhagen to my awaiting fans without anyone checking my passport or carefully planned paperwork (which was going to explain why I was entering the country without a visa or a return ticket). I was checked several times over in all other airports and thoroughly checked in Frankfurt. Oh well I guess being blonde, blue eyed, and freckled in Denmark is going to be a good thing!!!

I can tell you formally and officially that I will definitely not be returning to NZ very soon as I need a lot of time to work myself up to make that long trip again! Never mind that I need money for a return ticket and am yet to look for a job, hee hee, I am enjoying ignoring those issues for the time being.

Stay tuned for more stories coming in the near future.