Our day started with a 03:00 alarm. Actually my sleep cycle alarm when off slightly earlier. On account of I really didn't sleep. We went to bed around 21:30, but I didn't really get to sleep til maybe 23:30 and then only briefly, awake for a while longer and restless after that. Probably got about three hours sleep all up. Not a great start. "Breakfast" was the last of the cheese I brought from home.
Walked across to the terminal around 03:30 and joined the very long queue. There was only three economy class checkin counters, as well as another three for online checkins. Which I would have done had Qantas or Emirates let me. So over an hour to checkin, then another twenty minutes or so getting through security. It was 05:00 when I got to the explosives test (he said the waits weren't too bad today, has been much worse).
We won't talk about the woman in front of us at the airline checkin and behind us in the security line and in front of us at the gate who was coughing but not bothering to put her mask on properly. Or the woman in front of us in security who had a *huge* carry on bag, plus a shopping bag, plus another bag, plus a handbag. WTF??
So boarded. Even if I had gotten the window seat that I originally had before having to change later flights which stuffed everything up, it wouldn't have helped, because it was right over the middle of the wing. Sigh. So I gave the GPS to the guy and said, here, stick this next to the window, kthxbai. And then he proceeded to cough the whole way through the flight AND NEVER ONCE PUT HIS MASK ON PROPERLY!!! What a dick. Like if you're actually sick, the absolute least you can do is try and contain your germs. Buttplug. Then there were the kid across the aisle who was coughing and sneezing without a mask at all or even bothering to cover his mouth. Absolutely feral little turd. I didn't want to take my mask off to eat and felt like I was going to die when I did. Guarantee we're going to get sick from this flight.
Legroom in the Emirates A380
Entertainment system in the Emirates A380
My view of the window - sad times!
Sydney Airport traffic control tower
View from the A380 tail cam showing the end of the runway at Sydney Airport
View towards the Novotel hotel
Sydney Airport's old traffic control tower
View down to Stanmore from the A380 belly cam
There were no printed menus for either flight, you had to join the aircraft wifi to see it. I had scrambled eggs for breakfast and braised beef for lunch on the first flight.
I watched Blacklight (because it was filmed in Canberra so that was fun to watch, and Melbourne as well which I recognised). Then I watched the Matrix: Resurrections, which poked fun at itself blurring the lines between reality and fiction. Next I watched Vertigo, which I'd never actually seen before. I dozed (not slept) for a little while in the middle when my eyes were too tired to keep open. Finally I watched Ben Hur, which finished just in time for the end of the flight.
With all the sick people not bothering to contain their germs, and the guy behind poking the seat all the way through, it was one of the longest fourteen hours of my life.
Emirates Airbus A380-800 A6-EUI at Dubai Airport
Got to Dubai, went through security, saw the Burj Khalifa through the haze, then went to the gate. Where I realised I'd left my little bottle of hand sanitiser in my camera bag and not the liquids bag. They never said anything though, go figure. Didn't have to wait too long for boarding.
Mum and me looking very tired after our flight from Sydney to Dubai
Burj Khalifa tower from Dubai Airport
Inside Terminal A
Inside Terminal A
The next flight was a 777, and I'd been able to allocate seats on this one, and the GPS worked (it sorta worked on the A380 but it kept falling off and the dude was getting antsy about having to reattach it, so gave up for the last third of the flight). So it was somewhat better, but it was still a six hour flight, and the kid right behind me was coughing, but at least he generally had a mask on.
Emirates Boeing 777-300ER A6-ENT at Dubai Airport
Legroom in the Emirates 777
Entertainment system in the Emirates 777
Burj Khalifa tower from Dubai Airport
View north from the airport in Dubai
View towards northern Dubai
Centara Mirage Beach Resort and Hotel Riu Dubai
I had the beef stronganoff for dinner.
I watched Jurassic World Dominion which was kinda cool to see the stars from thirty years ago reunited. And Shakespeare in Love because I was in a world of pain from my restless legs and wouldn't have been able to concentrate on anything else.
Most of the daylight was over the Persian Gulf. The mountains of northern Iraq/southern Türkiye were quite pretty in the sunset. I think I've flown over them when they were covered in snow one time. There's not a whole lot of development in eastern Europe, much more in Austria/Germany.
Mountains of northern Iraq/southern Türkiye at sunset
Mountains of southern Türkiye at sunset
Wing of the plane at sunset
Varna in Bulgaria at dusk
Danube River, Ruse, and Bucharest in the distance
Danube River and Ruse
Approach to the runway as seen from the A380 forward cam
Got to Munich, got through passport control in not too long, collected our bags and headed for the trains. I kept following the S signs but ended up on the platform before we'd gotten tickets, so had to go back up to get some. 12.30 each. Train left at 22:04 and got in around 22:45. Which didn't leave us much time to get out of the station and find the hotel before checkin closed at 23:00. I had a map but as always when you get out of stations, sometimes it's not obvious whereabouts you are. Plus when you've only had three hours sleep in the past forty-eight, and you're running late, your brain kinda shuts down. We ended up asking a couple of people (first one was not helpful at all), and I even called the hotel to ask them to wait but I didn't think they understood me. Eventually got going in the right direction then I was running across red lights and probably destroying the wheels on my suitcase and pretty much having a panic attack that I wasn't going to make it and we'd be left with nowhere to stay for the night.
Got to the hotel probably 23:01, but as it turns out they have a self-checkin machine, so it probably would have been ok anyway (at least until the bar closed). Sigh. I was not happy.
So go to the room, but it still took us nearly an hour to get ourselves organised enough for lights out. At midnight. hrmmmmm.
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