Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Flights of Fantasy

" Flight number 07529 now boarding.....". We put down the coffee that we brought from a Taj Counter (for 25 per cup and undoubtedly the worst coffee I had till date) and proceeded to Terminal II. The First Class, Business Class passengers were first in Queue, followed by women with kids . Then it was zone wise boarding in to the flight for lowly Economy class passengers (us!!).

The way into the flight was linned up with security and some beautiful stewards. This lifted the spirits within... Smiles everywhere. We turned to see who was behind us and we saw director/ actor/ producer Visu along with u. One the final approach, a elderly Air Hostess Welcomed us in to the flight. There I had the first look of the interiors of a Economy Class of Lufthansa Aircraft. Pop burst the bubble that bloomed out side expecting a comfortable ride. This looked more like a PTC bus with all seats so close and no leg space!The seats by themself looked more like a medival torture seat ( or modern dentist chair)..... Totally there were three column of seats. Two near the window (2 seats each) and one in the middle (5 seats). The leg space, well the less said of it better.. I was horrified!! The seats allocated to us were rite in the back of the air craft.
We fought our way to the place where our seat was with a heavy hand luggage and finally "parked" ourselves in to the "Luxurious" seats. Well to admit it, it was a bit better than what it looked; but not to the extent I had expected.

"Hullo and welcome aboard Lufthansa - 07529. This is your Captain speaking. The flight is about to take off in a few mins. Please wear your seat bealts please".

The flight take off was a nice experience. It was like a roll-a-coaster ride. It started slowly and picked up speed and whoosh... it took of in few seconds. After we gained cruise altitude, I looked out of the window. Chennai never looked more beautiful. Weird feeling looking at Chennai from that altitude. Singara Chennai from 7500 ft.

The flight lights were dimmed, and a movie was started - Coach Carter. The stewards came and offered some drinks, which we gladly accepted as our throats were parched. The movie was good, but it was interrupted by frequent visits to loo... ( too cold up there). Since I was seated in the middle row, it was a annoyance. The movie ended at 3 am IST and still could not get a wink of sleep.

At 7am the captain announced that we are approaching Frankfurt. From there we were to take a flight to Boston. At that point I asked from some water, the stewards ask me to get it myself!! Amazing Service..unforgettable.

The flight landed at Frankfurt at around 8.10 am. We were amazed at the size of the Airport. It was H-U-G-E.
More importantly the airport was very clean. The boarding gate that we were to take was nearly half mile away and there were shuttle service inside the airport!!. The connecting flight was 3 hour away. So we had to time to kill.

We decided that we would explore Frankfurt Airport. The airport was beautify filled with beautiful beings :-)
Water was sold here at $2!!! It was a great Airport.

We needed to do our morning chores and found restrooms there. Unfortunately, in the rest rooms we were in for a great shock. No water. Only tissue paper!!! Felt very uncomfortable.

We brought a few chocolates, and then had a choco meal. The connecting flight was some 30 mins away, so we started to join up the queue.

Only 30 mins separated my journey to the U.S where on landing i felt like An alien in an alien world..

1 comment:

Anck su Namun said...

Tissues are the only bad thing in the western world !
Something unbearable ;-)