#1: Getting to Madrid

18th December, 2009.


Every holiday begins with the challenge of getting to the airport, a sadistic test set by the Holiday Gods to determine whether one is worthy of travelling. Due at the airport by 1:30pm, for our 4:30pm Thai Airways flight to Bangkok, we needed to leave house by 11:30. Too early for my liking (I suppose my opinion might have been different had I packed the night before). If everything had gone according to the plan, dad would have driven us to his work (in Ashfield, where he would also park his car) before getting a taxi for the final leg to the airport. Things of course don’t always go to plan…

Friday had been an unusually rainy day (“funny how it rained all day”), resulting in numerous accidents and traffic delays. Not to worry, dad called ahead to the office and had booked a cab. This was essential, as a citywide bus strike had rendered the local cab rank empty. We eventually got there a little late, but time was looking good. Remember that cab we ordered? Well… it was the kind of cab that turns up, doesn’t wait around and leaves with some other fare.

So there we were, 1:30pm, waiting in the rain on a street corner in Ashfield.

With mum freaking out, Dad organised for someone from the office to drive us to the Airport. The trip there was surprisingly quick, leaving us with 2 hours to check in and get to the gate.

The Thai Airways flight to Bangkok was rather uneventful – nine hours of watching movies, listening to my ipod and attempting to sleep. I must compliment Thai on their food for actually being edible. I also tried to take a few photos of sunset as we crossed the Northern Territory, but they didn't turn out. The flight got into Bangkok at midnight (local time), half an hour early due to a favourable tailwind. Joy quickly made way for disbelief as we were told it would be 15 minutes before we could disembark - the early arrival meant our assigned gate wasn't free yet. Bah.

After two hours - just enough time to grab some food, use the bathroom and send an sms – we headed over to gate 6 to board the next Thai Airways flight. 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time boarding had not begun.. something was telling me we wouldn’t be departing on time. With no announcements from Thai staff, an explanation only came as Thai Immigration Officials arrived and begin interrogating a man in plain sight of everyone. I guess a case of “better luck next time”. In hindsight, it was rather naïve to believe that we would now quickly board before leaving relatively on time. As we stowed our bags in the overhead compartments and settled into our seats, the captain made an announcement – “Due to air traffic control problems, we had been delayed by 50 minutes”. Bullshit. They were taking this guy’s bags out of the cargo.

Above: Sunrise over Eastern Spain, shortly before touching down in Madrid.

“Fourteen hours”, when you say it like that, doesn’t really seem like a long time. When strapped into a seat, as anyone who’s been to Europe or the USA knows, it seems like an eternity. Time was made to pass even slower due to the lack of in-flight entertainment (personal TV's, etc). However this older aircraft wasn’t all bad news – a lack of IFE meant the seats had much more legroom. This time I was actually able to get some sleep.

Greeted by a crisp -4C morning, we had finally arrived in Madrid roughly a day since departing Sydney. The next 3 days would prove to be tricky as we adjusted to life in Europe.

- Andrew