boarding pass

Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures until I got to the hotel. Will take pics on my way back instead.

So I’m finally here! It was a hell of a ride to say the least.

So it all started off at Landvetter airport (Gothenburg) where everything was fine until 20 minutes before boarding time. Yeah, that’s where it all started, it was just a 30 minute delay at first, but because of the snow in Frankfurt we had to wait almost 2 hours. When I arrived in Frankfurt the time was 14.30 and my flight was supposed to departure at 14.40. I was completely lost in Frankfurt, that airport is just a mess. I had to ask about 4 people where to go, luckily I found two people who could speak decent English and show me exactly where to go. I was definitely not at the right place, had to ride elevators and skylines to get to the right place. When I got to the monitors I saw that my flight had been delayed until 15:30, “wow I’m damn lucky” was all I could think. But, as I didn’t have a boarding pass yet, I had to find someplace to get one, so I asked a guard outside the security checks. He was very friendly and told me to go to the Air China counter which was just straight ahead. But, when I got there, it was of course closed, no one in sight, just like most of the counters. So “wtf am I supposed to do now?” I asked myself, at that time I also saw that the flight had been delayed even more, until 16.00. That was good because I had to find someone else to ask if I could get my boarding pass somewhere else.

So I ended up asking some random German ticket counter, they suggested that I try the gate directly, which basically meant I had to walk through security without a boarding pass, yay. Well, after persuading the guard a bit, he let me in and I ran straight to the gate. Luckily, it was still open and I could finally get my boarding pass, after describing the situation to the kind lady at the counter. Of course, I was one of the last passengers to get there, so I obviously got a bad seat.

Well, I finally boarded the plane at 16.00 and ahead of me was a 10 hour flight. Of course, I already knew by that time that I would miss my flight in Beijing, as I only had an hour and 20 minutes to transfer. The flight to Beijing was decent in general, we had TV’s in front of us and whatnot. But the food was simply disgusting. I had some chicken that came with some weird yellow mash, I didn’t eat a whole lot of that. At the time I arrived in Beijing I wasn’t feeling too good, but as I was stuck there for another six hours, I had time to eat and whatnot.

At Beijing airport I had to go through the quarantine and get a new boarding pass, which was a pretty easy procedure. Beijing airport is a lot easier to understand in comparison to Frankfurt airport. In Beijing I met up with this Danish guy who was heading to Tokyo, Haneda on business so at least I had someone to talk to while we waited. Beijing airport is very weird though, I guess this is just because I’m traveling in January, but the airport was completely empty. It was insanely huge, and there were like 5-10 people in a whole terminal at times. What’s even more interesting is that they don’t have any convenience stores. The closest to a konbini they have are tax free stores that sell panda plushies and have one refrigerator with random drinks, and there were like five of the same kind. They also had expensive brand stores, such as BVLGARI and Lacoste.

I arrived at Haneda airport roughly 11 hours after I was supposed to arrive, and I was exhausted so I just went straight to the exits. First they checked my passport, then I went to get my bag, and lastly I had to give them my customs card which I filled in on the plane. Before I got out they also checked my bag. As I was extremely tired, I just wanted to get to the hotel as fast as possible so I decided to take a taxi.

It was expensive (roughly 8000 yen) but it was totally worth it. At the hotel I just had to show my passport and in about 3 minutes I had my key and were ready to go to my room. Luckily, I got a room on the 16th floor with a great view over Tokyo.