Day 98 & 99 - Home to Ostrava - Lift Issues

I have combined the last two blogs simply because they are both travel days.  The journey home from Luxembourg via Brussels was pretty eventless and when I arrived home it was really about enjoying the small time I had there. 

When I say small time I mean small time, as it was latish Friday night when I got home and it was time to head off again at 1:45 on Monday morning.  This time it was via Manchester Airport and to Frankfurt, Prague and finally Ostrava that the journey would consist of. 

I don’t know what it is about Manchester Airport that rubs me up the wrong way but it has happened again.  It is suggested that you get to the airport at least two hours before your flight, that seems to be the airport rule now a days but for Manchester this is pointless as the checkin today didn’t open until about one hour thirty before the flight was due so I got there a little early and stood in a queue for an hour.  Then when they did open they naturally opened the first and business class first and the lady sat there with no one to check in whilst the economy queue snaked half way around the check in area.  The second check in to open was for internet checked in people only and that covered about three or four people whilst I was there.  The economy still waited, then with another twenty minutes gone one check opened and we began to finally move.  To cut a very annoying story short I got to security with an hour before my plane was due to depart and despite the attempts of one lady who kept closing and opening different lanes I got through in less than 15 minutes even though only two other people were in front of me.  I try to let most things go but I have to admit that I already try to avoid Manchester wherever I can but from now on will actually happily travel a few extra miles to avoid this chaotic airport.

By now I was a bit fed up and so managed to get some sleep on the first flight to Frankfurt but on the next from to Prague I was wound up again by an arse of a man who was just annoying.  It started like this, he sat with his (I assume) friends and his wife on the opposite side of the aisle, he was laughing with his friends but when his wife spoke he gave her a real load of abuse, even though I was not sure what language it was in it didn’t seem nice and even his wife first tried to shush him but then just stared daggers.

The lady gave the safety briefing and fair enough he paid no attention but then actually moaned cause he didn’t know how to fasten his seatbelt.  I thought, oh come on, you see kids doing them with no training.  The stewardess had just told everyone that due to a lot of turbulence then we were told to keep our seatbelts on, so straight away he unfastened his and started walking about the plane.  But to cap it all, when we were told that we were now about to come into land and nobody should move he decided that was the time to go to the loo and went off for a walk down the plane and in no hurry wobbled his way back to his seat at the plane was about to touch down with the poor stewardesses looking harassed. 

On the plus side we found the right bus to the station this time and caught the pendalino train that was due to leave just 30 minutes later.  The train is great and you get wifi so you can work as you travel, the bad side of that was that the client has requested a meeting tonight before the main meetings start tomorrow and therefore after leaving home at 01:45 and arriving at the hotel at 17:00 I was feeling a bit tired even with an hours sleep on the first plane, so to go out and talk was not what I wanted to do, even thought the two people we met are really nice guys and a pleasure to be with and on a night when you are not so tired you could have a really good time. 

As we arrived into Ostrava on the train our prayers were answered as we got a cancellation for the meeting tonight and we headed to the hotel for both my Lithuanian colleague and myself hoped was a chance for some rest.

The hotel we have chosen for this week was the Brioni suite hotels as if you remember from my blog a few weeks ago the last hotel I suffered really bad from bites on my feet.  The hotel does not look as nice from the outside but the rooms are all different inside.  My room has a lounge,kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.  The kitchen has a microwave and sink, the bathroom, a lovely stand alone bath, two sinks, toilet and beday.  The lounge is big with large screen telly, sofa, desk, small work table and a leather lounger, but the bedroom has the strangest thing, a exercise bike.  Overall I love the room, my Lithuanian colleague has a room heavily decorated in green, a very large bathroom with large corner bath.  I have not seen it and can only go by her description but it doesn't sound as nice as mine.

One little episode as we attempted to get to our own rooms, we got into the lift at the same time and pressed the fourth floor button for me and the second for my colleague, but nothing happened, we realised that some lifts need a card to activate and we had a little key fob on the key ring so my colleague started pressing it against the buttons.  She managed to turn all the lights our and stop the lift from doing anything including opening the door that had closed.  A touch eerie stood in pitch black in a lift, after about a minute we managed to get the lights back on by hitting all the buttons with the key fob again and then we actually worked out how to get to our floors.  I did start to think in that minute that we had just traveled on two planes, a train, a bus and a taxi to spend the next few days stuck in a lift.  But alls well that ends well.

Once we had checked in we had a quick walk to the local supermarket to get some water primarily but I was hoping to get some microwave rice to have with my salad but couldn’t find any so a little disappointed.

As I settled down for the night and about to post the blog and get some sleep I noticed the most amazing fork lightening going on in the distance and have spent some time watching that.  It seems to be coming closer so I may be in for a treat tonight.

A long day comes to a close and we shall see what tomorrow has in store and of course tomorrow is day 100 in my travel diary for this project.

Night all.