First Day

My brother picked me up at the airport after I got my phone up and running and was able to send him a message. This was at 7:00 am in the morning. In Johannesburg they are building a lot for the soccer WM 2010 in ZA. So the airport and the surrounding area looks like one big building site. They building a new highspeed train access to the airport, hotels, terminals etc.

After delivering me to his home, I unpacked and we left for Fady’s place to get a computer for me. So I saw Fady’s business for the first time. Very nice, a big storehouse filled with used computer parts, a repair shop, and a logistics bureau. The whole building is without a heating.

A this is something interesting here. There is no air conditioning or heating at any place I visited so far, beside on restaurant, were there use heating mantles. They also do not have a chimney or fireplace in their houses. So it gets really cold at night (outside -1 to 4 degrees C).

While talking about the weather. I explain a little more about the country side. In ZA it is winter. For Johannesburg this means it is cold at night, no clouds in the sky, and no rain for month. The grass already turned brown and then they burn it to lower the risk that it burns down itself on its own. Also this improves the soil. The air is so dry that even at night there is no hoarfrost.

The terrain is a little like the great plains in the US with long hills, the ground is dry and there are only a few trees. The birds present in this country are definitly louder as any German beard including hungry or mating magpies.

So after staying in Oldenburg in a wet, hill-less area only 13 m above sea level and summer, I’m now in a dry and hilly country and 1800 m above sea level. Because of the dry air I have to drink definitly more water, which means tea. They have no coffee in their home. So much to the British influence on culture. The tea is actually quite good. 🙂

A yes and another thing. The water smells like water for a swimming pool, because they have to put more chlor in it. But this is a wise precaution, because in another city (I forgot the name) they used too less and now they have an cholera epidemic going on there. So chlor is ok 🙂

Ah, what else is different?

They drive on the left side. And you should’t try to leave a computer shop after buying something without consulting the security personnel at the exit. They check that you do not take anything with you, which you haven’t paid for. And without their sign, you do not get a guarantee on the bought device. And you have to walk on the left side. And the default collision avaoidance procedure is to move to the left.

The Trip

In the middle of the night (6:00 am MEST) I woke up for my big trip to ZA. After several required operations to convert me into a living being again I moved to the train station in Oldenburg to get my train at 7:52. Everything worked fine and I arrived at Frankfurt Airport only 10 minutes late. I was really surprised by such service quality.

Then I had to go to Terminal 2 at the airport. For this task I could either use the bus (dull) or the skyrail. The skyrail sounded more fun, so I choose that transportation device. But to be honest it is just a bus without a driver on its own track. Well it is an elevated railway, but it is slow and shaky just like any bus. So in the end the bus would have been the better choice.

Then I went to the British Airways check-in to dispose my luggage there. I had bought an E-ticket so this check-in should work just without any paper tickets. The only thing I should need was my passport. However, they had prepared something special for me. The check-in is now driven by a computer terminal. However they don’t tell you at first. A sign with “Economy class check-in here” in combination with an arrow would have been a nice idea.

In front of the check-in terminal a crowd of older people discussed something with one of the check-in clerks. They obviously couldn’t figure out how to use the damn machine. I maneuvered myself through the crowd and looked at one of the terminals. First thing, you have to insert my passports plastic card. The part which is machine readable. It identified myself and asked me several silly questions. For example if I want to bring something dangerous on board. Well I brought my thesis, some paper  and a really spiky pencil. But ease the processing, I answered no.

After I choose my seat with the most lacking seat selection tool (you press a button and 3-5 seconds later it acts on that ^^), the machine printed three papers. Two boarding passes and one receipt. So much for the e-ticket. With the boarding pass in my hand I walked to the classic check-in terminal, handed over my boarding pass. Was asked for my passport. Then the clerk checked everything and took my suitcase. The last time I flew the check-in was much faster. But that was 15 years ago and no one had created the concept of an e-ticket.

After that I had plenty of time to hand around at the airport, so I decided to drink some coffee and enjoy the architecture. After a while I went to the gate and landed in the to become the duty free area part of the terminal. Because I had still a lot of time I checked out a gift shop and found some marzipan in the shelf labeled perfumes. I bought a marzipan bread for my sister in law as I knew she wanted one.

After that I had to wait for boarding and pass the security check. I had to put my backpack and jacket into their x-ray machine and walked though the metal-detector thing. Then I had to open my bag because they found something potential dangerous in it. It was the marzipan bread, but it could be some plastic explosive. As they saw the package they left me through.

The interesting thing is, when I want to bring plastic explosives with me in future I just have to cover them with chocolate and wrap them carefully in a Lübeckermarzipan cover.

The flight from Frankfurt to London was completely uneventful and only one damn tourist clapped after the landing. London Heathrow is quite a big airport and I arrived at Terminal 5 which is exclusivly used by British Airways and its associates. At least if the signs are correct.

They had some problems with this new terminal lately, so I was positively impressed to find my luggage in ZA the other morning. Like Franktfurt, Heathrow was designed by the Infocom adventure level designer or at least someone who had great experience in playing crazy machines. The nicest structures are useless escalators and elevators in combination with directional signs.

My favorite was an escalator which brings you to the base level were you have to walk down a 5 stories high hall. There is nothing in that hall, a door for example, only an escalator at the other end, which brings you up again.

In Heathrow I had to go through another security check. This time the marzipan passed without any trouble. But all passengers have to take there shoes of. In some cases this was already a terrorist attack in form of strange colors and interesting smells.

You can say want you want, but the check in London was much more thorough. They even searched a young boy, 10 years old, when the detector went of. He had obviously just forgot to remove his belt and he and his little sister, didn’t really look like criminals, but he has searched. And while he was searched (which could only be done by a male security guard), we had to wait.

After that I went to gate B by an underground train and on my plane to Johannesburg. After a 12 hour flight with two meals: one fish without salt and a fish (I was reminded to the oldenburger Mensa and the missing peanuts in the peanut chicken) and one breakfast with scrambled eggs and no salt, but a really good deserts, I was in Johannesburg. In Johannesburg they build their maze of corridors and escalators only in 2D so I was not sent through the basement, to get to the exist. The immigration control was quite easy. No scan of body parts and after 20 minutes I was out of the building.

The weather in Johannesburg was quite nice this morning. It was sunny and cold and no cloud was on the sky.