In Austria

It's cold.

But not as cold as I thought it would. It's like Camerons or Gentings - minus two thirds of the humidity. The cars here drive on the right side of the road. The drivers are on the left of the car. Everything here is in German. I learnt that toilets are known as "WC". Though I've not had the need to use this public facility, knowledge helps.

I touched down in Austria at 5.30 am. My flight was quite unexpected. Hours before going to KLIA, I was swamped with last minute time-stoppers -- changes in my talks, additional photos, last minute items, etc. By the time we got into the car, I had developed a headache. Expecting the headache to knock me off in the plane, I had other surprises that kept me awake.

It was becoming obvious that I was one of the handful of non-Caucassians on board. Upon approaching the plane's entrance, I was pleasantly surprised by who I saw at the door. My childhood friend Sujata was the supervisor for the stewardess on board. She had the whole staff crew under control and was responsible to be the first hand the passengers would shake while boarding. She couldn't recognise me at first, then later got surprised herself. Having someone you know on board a 12 hour long flight makes the journey bearable. Though I like plane-travel, 12 hours can be an overkill.

I hung out shortly at the Stewards' quarters while we were 35000 feet above Tehran. There, I got some goodies! God provides any where and everywhere...

The aisle seat I got was highly unoccupied. David, a designer from Belgium decided it was a good idea to convert four of the five seats into his futon. We exchanged polite gestures at first. And hours before landing, we started talking and that was when I found out he was also into design. We exchanged namecards. Well, I passed him mine. He had run out but promised to email. After 21 hours of flying, I hope he remembers.

Upon touching down, I was picked up by Lorri who works at the organisation I'm attached to here. I started work at 7 something am and have been awake till now. It's 9.30pm Austrian time (Malaysian 3:45 am). I'm feeling the jetlag already.

I wanted to share more about the sights and sounds of Austria, and some reflections. But right now, am limited by an old Mac G4 and sleepy eyes (a concoction of jetlag and plum wine). So, will update more in a day or two. Next time, visually.

Guten Nacht!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi lemonademaker, I thought I'd just leave this message on your blog. I hope you don't mind. I've been trying to find blogs where people are talking about cool t shirt designs and when I was looking, I found this one on this post. Anyhoo, thought I would say hi, before I go off to find some more cool t shirt designs.
Anonymous said…
hey kev,
hope u have a good time travelling and all the best k. tc

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