Yes today I did get to Copenhagen for all of 35 minutes. So I only saw the
inside of the airport terminal and it is large when you have to hurry from A
Terminal to B. Now I know why you can suddenly see a crowd of people hurrying
in the same direction in a airport like Copenhagen. Their plane has landed late
and they have to connect with one about to depart.
I was up around 5:30am and certainly ahead of the alarm. So I showered and had
my banana and mineral water for a breakfast and headed out the door about
6:20am. I wanted to catch an early tram so that I could get the 6:55am airport
bus. It is a 40 minute ride and although I could have caught one 35 minutes
later I wanted to use that as a backstop in case I missed the first.
Fortunately it was not as cold as I had expected. The landscape was covered in a
mist or fog and so as the tram went along I enjoyed seeing old buildings emerge
as faint shadows and outlines in the distance.
So we reached the central railway station. Like almost every other station I
have been to in Poland, this was build in the grand 19th century castle style
with a tower (and a clock) spires and other 'wedding cake' decorative bits. It
was built in a time when rail was king and so a castle for the king was quite
in order.
I did not have to wait that long for the 210 bus and by a communication with the
driver which didn't get far until I said 'plane', then he was on my wave length.
He pointed to a ticket with 3 zyt on and I handed over the money and got the
ticket – not forgetting to slip it into the machine to be date and time
stamped. I knew from several sources that the bus ride would be 40 minutes
which it was almost to the dot. Polish buses can be very reliable at times. On
the way we left the city and drove for a while though a wooded area. Then I
began to see signs pointing to the airport so I could relax knowing that yes
this was the right bus.
Of course I got there early but after 40 minutes or so I checked with LOT Air
if I could check in. They were happy for me to do so, but I noticed the woman
at the counter getting worried and typing more into her computer. Finally she
said to me that I should come back in 10 minutes as there was some doubt about
the flight happening. So I hung around the counter area and suddenly she was
beside ma and telling me to go to the LOT office as they would reroute me. This
was done in the office, I was to fly to Copenhagen and then have a quick
transfer to a Vilnius flight getting in about 40 minutes later than I was
originally scheduled for.
Departure procedures were fairly standard with a cursory glance at my passport,
then boots of, belt off, bracers off to go through the detector and amazingly
my trousers did stay up! I had to open the laptop so that the inspector could
look at the keyboard.
Just one problem though the carrier was to SAS. Now I try to avoid this company
as they make you pay for a snack or meal. LOT would provide snack and
refreshments. To my surprise on the first sector I was actually give a small
water and an even smaller orange juice. But on the second sector SAS was true
to form and sold everything. Now I was feeling the pangs of hunger and needed
to get something. Yes euros would be ok but not Polish. A (nice) filled roll
and beverage came to 11 euro! But when the attendant saw I only had a 10 or a
50, the price was recalculated to 10 euro. Nice but an expensive roll.
On both flights I had a aisle seat in the first row of economy – behind
economy premier which was behind business. There were little notices on the
seat backs to whow where each section finished, The planes were both MD80. This
has two engines at the rear beside the tail and only two seats on each side of
the aisle. It seems very long and pencil like.
Other than this the flights were uneventful. I was able to find an International
Herald Tribune amongst the pile of free newspapers on board. I thought that the
safety briefings were rather lax.
While Gdansk is a small airport mostly it would seem used by Ryan and Wiz and
one were you walk out on the tarmac to the plane steps; Vilnius looked modern
and larger. While we had to go down steps to a bus for a short ride, the
terminal did have air bridges. My bag did come through quickly and there was no
check or forms to fill in or passport inspection. It was get you bag and go
through the door the the outside. Where I found my driver waiting. I had
decided that because of the distance I would have to walk from the normal
airport bus service I would book a guest house organised ride. The walk would
be around 2kms. It took about 30 minutes to drive to the guest house door. I am
staying at Litinterp Guest House ( and also in Kanus next stop on). Here there
are three bedrooms opening onto two bathrooms and a kitchen shelf area with tea
and coffee making facilities. Breakfast is delivered to the room. I have a
single room room and although both other rooms are full tonight, I will have
tomorrow night to myself. Not a large room but adequate and pleasant pine
furniture. The guest house is only perhaps 100 metres from the main tourist
area, so is very central. Everything seems much closer than I had imagined from
looking at maps and at Google Earth before leaving NZ.
So next a chance to wander along the main street and adjoining ones. First
impressions are of a pretty city, not over large but full of large and small
squares and places and other open areas
It was warm, perspiration producing warmth and I was only in a short sleeved
shirt.
There were crowds out every where enjoying themselves. Out door restaurants were
largely all full as were bar tables. In the parks groups had set up their own
tables to picnic or just sit and enjoy the mild evening temperatures and
sunlight. It all seemed very pleasant. Streets were crowded with groups of
friends, couples and young family groups. Just a nice relaxed happy atmosphere.
I am having trouble connecting to the Internet.The free wifi does not reach my
room and I have to go out into the stairway. I could link into the wifi from
the small hotel across the narrow road if only it was unsecured. So it is
going to to be cut and paste emails and blogs into my browser mail box.
Actually I am having trouble actually logging on in the stairway as the Zebra
website (the provider) seems to have fixed on a mistake I made in putting in
the pass word code and I am having trouble getting it to clear.
Secondly, my mobile is running out of credit and trying to recharge it via
Internet but having trouble checking into Paypay to complete the transaction.
At present I am down to one euro. I used some up phoning the guest house to let
them know about the later arrival. In fact the phone is at the point of only
receiving and not sending texts.
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