I think Katrin wants to leave without me. When I am finally able to reach her, she is already on the way to the airport. But I am also on time - for once :) - and manage to meet my Romanian colleagues to say good bye before they go home to Bucarest for the weekend. And check it out, there are Katrin and Judith having lunch. Together we mix and mingle with the people in line for the flight to Dubai. We see everything from white Arabs to business men and obvious "vacationers" like ourselves. This should be an interesting flight...
When I board the plane there is a young guy on my seat. I am telling him that this is my seat because I really want my aisle seat, but nothing can convince him that I am right, not even the nice little picture on the luggage compartment. With my backpack still on my back I already need a flight attendant to help me. OK, he moves over... for about 2min.
Then the flight attendant comes back and asks him if he is travelling alone. Yes, he is. And if he could please sit somewhere else because in the front of the plane there is a lady with - and I am citing correctly here - "religious issues" who doesn't want to sit next to a man. So here I am in the middle of an Arabic language lesson. The lady who is now only surrounded by women is talking to the flight attendant over my head, wildly gesticulating and I am a bit annoyed. But we are taking off and the plethora of movies provided by Emirates is outstanding!
It takes forever until we get drinks and food. Reason for that are the multiple religions on board which order plenty of special meals.
From time to time the big screen shows an arrow and some sort of emblem. Only when my seat neighbor starts to mumble I understand that the emblem is a prayer-rug and the arrow points towards Mekka. It is Ramadan and the Muslims are praying more than usual.
We are making our way across Romania and the Black Sea, Irak,... and there is an announcement only in Arabic. No idea what they are saying, but right after it, the flight attendants walk through the cabin and hand some of the customers - the ones that hadn't gotten any food yet - some dried figs. Ah, the sun set and the rest of the plane is getting their food trays.
A few rows back Katrin has her very own adventure. The boy next to her lets her have a second look at the plane food. What a nice flight!
When unboarding in Dubai we walk against a wall of about 100F. We meet Julia and Andreas at the gate where we managed to score some rocking chairs. The airconditioning which cools down the whole area to about 60F as well as the weird smelling people next to us let us flee the scene fast and we are looking for a cozier and better place to spend the next couple of hours.
Steffi, our new friend who followed us when we left the Munich plane and won't leave us alone also thinks that we should move around a little.
We pass the dubaian cable bird and find some benches underneath the fake palm trees. The girls wander aorund the tons of shop that have nothing worth buying and Andreas saves Katrin's watercup from the trash can with a loud "Arrrre you crazy?"
When I come back from my walk I find Julia jammed between the armrests of the benches in a really weird way - sleeping. 100 points for endless creativity when being totally tired.
And at the end of the endless waiting time we make it to the gate for the final boarding call, which has been moved from the 5min walk where it was before to the other end of the terminal. Good job!
Finally we can sleep!
