the beginning of the Trip
After everybody was ready, equipped with a very valuable visa for Bulgaria, we left beijing with the SU204, late at night, 2.30 pm - that was a terrible experience, i never flew that late before,
the time when people are getting really sleepy is around 1pm, and you can imagine what do you feel when you are supposed to wait and board around 2... you are dying..
and the worst is that the airport is not working on full capacity at night, there are just few counters for security control,and passport (border) control, we had to wait for really long before get to the lounge.
In China you can see a lot of very specific things, there must be a line ! no matter how many customers are there there must be a line waiting to be served.
if you are in a bank and there are 2 counters open, and there are 2 customers, one counter will close so that they queue on the other one...
how is that done in other countries or HK - if there is one counter and a second customer comes into the bank, they immediately open a second counter.. a little different.. anyway
we got on board and the only good was that the flight was only 7 hours.. before we realize we were already in Moscow, after a very short stay got on board to Sofia.
Yes, there was something really cute happened at that time
as i am engaged with air cargo transportation business and i am a little aware of the fleet they use, when we were going to board on the plain to Sofia, the bus (bai du) stopped in front of Airbus 320 and let us go and board, i was with a customer at that time ( i will not duscuss that with too many details i flew 2 days before my classmates to prepare there so i was not with them) and i told him,
are you sure that this is the plane for sofia? He said, it must be, they can't make a mistake
i said, i am sure that this is NOT the airplane for sofia
after we climbed up the stairs and i entered i found someone sitting on my seat, i asked the stewardess - where should i be seated now? she said, wait, and asked that person to show the boarding pass, that lady showed it with a grimace showing extremely deep disrespect that i am questioning her seat.. the stewardess' eyes become really big when she saw that we had the same seat numbers !!! but in 2 seconds she realized that i am going to Sofia..and told me, no no , you are not on the correct airplane, you are for sofia. I said, i didn't come here myself and i didn't try to go anytwhere else, i want to go to Sofia.. then i realized that the stupid driver brought us to the wrong plane - that one was going to Geneva. I told the other stewardesses - tell all the passangers which just came to get off this plane, they are all for Sofia... but they we looking at me as they were looking at a talking goat. I went to the chief purser and told her - please tell everybody to get off the plane because the newcomers are all for sofia. she looked at me and grabbed one of the passangers boarding pass, after she confirmed that he was for Sofia too she grabbed the microphone and ... disembarked all the newcomers.. we were stanind on the ground waiting for some bus to come and pick us up, here he came, bringing the real Geneva passangers and took us to the Airbus 319 which was for sofia. ( a little background information, 320 is bigger and it can load more cargo, but they changed the planes to 319 which is really limited to cargo weight which makes us a lot of trouble with our business..)
Got to Sofia... perfect, sunny day, almost 40degrees, warm enough, blue sky .. gosh, the life has just become !
two days i was ready, my friend who also studied here in beijing went to the airport to pick up the guests, we stopped the cars in the parking, he got up faster, i forgot the ticket ( you should pay the parking up there at the airport not at the exit ofthe airport-parking) so i went back to get it, when i arrived upstairs the big group was already there.. 10 people - tired and excited :)
we met, had some short talk and i forced everybody to start moving because my schedule wouldn't forgive any time wasting.. we had to move the time was valuable and planned everything to the last second... later i found out that it was really stupid because nobody is that accurate and fast as i thought..
the trip has begun !
the time when people are getting really sleepy is around 1pm, and you can imagine what do you feel when you are supposed to wait and board around 2... you are dying..
and the worst is that the airport is not working on full capacity at night, there are just few counters for security control,and passport (border) control, we had to wait for really long before get to the lounge.
In China you can see a lot of very specific things, there must be a line ! no matter how many customers are there there must be a line waiting to be served.
if you are in a bank and there are 2 counters open, and there are 2 customers, one counter will close so that they queue on the other one...
how is that done in other countries or HK - if there is one counter and a second customer comes into the bank, they immediately open a second counter.. a little different.. anyway
we got on board and the only good was that the flight was only 7 hours.. before we realize we were already in Moscow, after a very short stay got on board to Sofia.
Yes, there was something really cute happened at that time
as i am engaged with air cargo transportation business and i am a little aware of the fleet they use, when we were going to board on the plain to Sofia, the bus (bai du) stopped in front of Airbus 320 and let us go and board, i was with a customer at that time ( i will not duscuss that with too many details i flew 2 days before my classmates to prepare there so i was not with them) and i told him,
are you sure that this is the plane for sofia? He said, it must be, they can't make a mistake
i said, i am sure that this is NOT the airplane for sofia
after we climbed up the stairs and i entered i found someone sitting on my seat, i asked the stewardess - where should i be seated now? she said, wait, and asked that person to show the boarding pass, that lady showed it with a grimace showing extremely deep disrespect that i am questioning her seat.. the stewardess' eyes become really big when she saw that we had the same seat numbers !!! but in 2 seconds she realized that i am going to Sofia..and told me, no no , you are not on the correct airplane, you are for sofia. I said, i didn't come here myself and i didn't try to go anytwhere else, i want to go to Sofia.. then i realized that the stupid driver brought us to the wrong plane - that one was going to Geneva. I told the other stewardesses - tell all the passangers which just came to get off this plane, they are all for Sofia... but they we looking at me as they were looking at a talking goat. I went to the chief purser and told her - please tell everybody to get off the plane because the newcomers are all for sofia. she looked at me and grabbed one of the passangers boarding pass, after she confirmed that he was for Sofia too she grabbed the microphone and ... disembarked all the newcomers.. we were stanind on the ground waiting for some bus to come and pick us up, here he came, bringing the real Geneva passangers and took us to the Airbus 319 which was for sofia. ( a little background information, 320 is bigger and it can load more cargo, but they changed the planes to 319 which is really limited to cargo weight which makes us a lot of trouble with our business..)
Got to Sofia... perfect, sunny day, almost 40degrees, warm enough, blue sky .. gosh, the life has just become !
two days i was ready, my friend who also studied here in beijing went to the airport to pick up the guests, we stopped the cars in the parking, he got up faster, i forgot the ticket ( you should pay the parking up there at the airport not at the exit ofthe airport-parking) so i went back to get it, when i arrived upstairs the big group was already there.. 10 people - tired and excited :)
we met, had some short talk and i forced everybody to start moving because my schedule wouldn't forgive any time wasting.. we had to move the time was valuable and planned everything to the last second... later i found out that it was really stupid because nobody is that accurate and fast as i thought..
the trip has begun !
