mockoblog

I wanted to write more about Vienna, to which I think I was unjust. Yet I find more important to mention my first impressions of ‘Romanity’ (not in the ancient Roman but in the contemporary Romanian meaning). I cannot be other but subjective on the land I was born plus the people among whom I lived many years. When I was at the University studying idealistic stuff in a concrete world, we used to laugh: ‘beautiful country, what a shame it’s already inhabited’, such was the badness, the moral deprivation at the end of the communist era and the years that followed. I personally got sick of it and I migrated to New Zealand last century. But now a full circle might have passed, a new generation has grown up, many I hope untouched by the corruption and the other plagues of the old. I’m on board this Blue Air flight from Austria to Romania and the guys and girls who are serving us would have been toddlers when the dictatorship ended. I don’t know how good they are but I can see and hear and watch how they manage this flight. They are young and funny, yet respectful whilst casual. It’s an empty plane, perhaps 35 passengers in a new Boeing 737-B00.

The only thing that’s free in this budget flight is… Water! Romania’s got plenty of pure and mineral sorts. How would you feel having to make on the speaker system an announcement like that: ‘we won’t be serving a meal during this flight, the only thing free thing on board is water, however, we invite you to buy our other stuff’? They did it well and we bought some little things. I was bloody asleep when the plane took of because I have lost already two New Zealand time zone night with this travel, but when I heard and saw how the job is done here, I woke up and decided to write this. I hope their boss, owner, whoever that is, reads the mockoblog. He’s got great stuff, not perfect, not even so good, but so different and so human compared cu what I came across lately. Descending now into the winter bellow, the end of my trip up to Europe by plane(s) from down under. And very bloody steep and bumpy, too.

What means the words in the title? ‘very cool’ in Romanian slang!

Sitting on the viewing deck of Vienna International, I can see planes landing and taking off in snow and very low clouds.

The weather is mild though or I’ve got a cold (?) and I fell warm with a T-shirt while all the others here wear heavy gear. I can see seven snow ploughs working to keep the runway and the taxi lanes clear. It’s supposed to be snowing with gusts of wind in a few hours. Now I can see twelve machines parading on the tarmac, or is it a drill? I can’t take a proper photo in this light and they are far, they look like yellow ants.

Now I understand their ballet: gently creating an island of snow, they clear around it. How do they not bump into each other? Surely they are radio connected and maybe gps linked somehow. Every time a plane lands, they hide in numbers but put the number in expressed in one disciplined line.

I couldn’t find wireless free or not. I see a few networks and two are free, but one gives info on the airport, the other is for HP users. So my posts will be delayed. I’ve still got three hours but no much chances. I should indeed talk about what I found here. It’s my first time in Vienna. I found two frustrating hours looking for the elusive Internet and rousing to pay at the hotel next door nearly 10 Euros for 30 seconds usage. There are also charges for small issues, like the luggage trolley, but nice people and beer. I had Edelweis before but never in Austria. I’ll try to write again but I have to sort out my winter clothing. I did find my luggage!
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Still in Vienna, minutes before passing through the last gate: I found it surprisingly easy to deal with the new Romanian airline Blue Air. I had an e-ticket bought month ago for something like ten bucks because it’s a budget airline and occasionally almost gives away the last seats. But their approach face to face was better than expected. What I actually did expect were sure extra charges for luggage or for wearing blue contact lens or anything like that. Instead I got virtually no cue and two young people, basically boy and girl, knowing what they had to do and doing it politely and efficiently. I mention this positive incident before actually flying in their craft and I don’t wish to be wrong. I am used from many years ago with bad and even rude or aggressive customer ‘services’ by Romanians and I so much want to be wrong in this trip.
Now, since I spent nearly five hours in this cosmopolitan corner of Austria – I must say it’s not at all culturally representing them, really, though the pub I’m now sitting in at s table with fake musical stuff is called John Strauss. By the way: can you imagine that Nokia’s predictive text, which is supposed to be the best and the dictionary it uses generate ‘Strauss’ straight away but won’t generate ‘Liszt’ and will consider him a ‘list’?! fORTUNATELY for Nokia, next time I combine the same letters to begin with, not only my E71 comes up with Mr Liszt as well among the moderate number of 8 options I want it to normally do, but puts Liszt ahead of ‘list’ and starting with capital. Just the order I have in my mind when it involves the horror of my youth, the waltz in which Mr Strauss had a bit of a say… It would have been better the other way around: start with Cafe-Bristo John Strauss, Vienna Airport and then, after you’re well off, dedicate some time to bloody fun like dancing in complicated patterns! Some of us, blokes with football boots in our had, siimply can’t do it and your new sweetly runs away from the dance floor with her ex who only brought her a rose because he felt like having a non-consequential impulse of heterosexuality. … Boarding now, after ruining my comments on Vienna. I shall return!

I left the United Emirates in the morning and I am heading to an Europe covered in snow at a time when more snow is forecast, according to the international edition of the NY Times have. We’ll be flying over or close to countries like Qatar, Bahrein, Syria, Turkey, Romania (my final destination), Hungary and we’ll land in Austria. It’s another Boeing 777, the first plane with a flew empty seats I remember to have been in for many, many years. But let’s interrupt this boring narration and enjoy the 50 grams of my favourite scotch (not that I have many opportunities to drink it) – 12 years old, single malt, Glenfiddich. Let’s enjoy it with a snack of mini crackers, because economy class ain’t got breakfast during this flight. There will be lunch served before arriving in Vienna, though. I had pre-ordered sea food on the Emirates’ website, which is particularly good with their booking management, allowing you to chose your seats on the principle of ‘first in, first served’ – that’s how I managed to keep my feet relatively extended in my twenty hours of flying so far.
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I saw nothing of Dubai. Just a few tall buildings surrounded by mist, as I tried in vain to capture them from the terminal, through glass, with the minimal true zoom this cell phone camera has – needles to say, all the pictures from this trip are taken with my Nokia, a smartphone I came to love. And there is no sponsorship from that brand or, as a matter of fact, from anyone else for my travel or my mocko blog. The only lucrative aspect of it all is that if you, readers, go in the numbers you are scoring so far and read my stuff, AdSense, who have some cheap advertising on my page, may give the website 1 American cent a week. That’s no joke.
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A few hours later, before we start descending for Vienna and I’ll have to turn this mobile of: I’ve just passed places in Romania where I’m gonna be later today (Bucharest) or in a couple of days (Transilvania and the Carpathian Mountains). I’m listening to Dire Straights loud in the headphones. Romania used to be my country. I was born, educated and went to the army there, among other things. I didn’t see much snow, except for the mountains, but the forecast is not great for tonight, when I arrive, hopefully, from Vienna. Now we are in or rather over Hungary, approaching Budapest. This flight took me close to four capitals starting with the letter B. One of them was Baghdad.
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In Vienna my itinerary with Emirates finishes. I am quite curious to find out if some delays and other little events have not interfered with my suitcase’s itinerary. If all’s good, we should reunite some twenty thousand miles since we parted.
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The captain says it’s OK in Vienna now but there will be snow showers and gusts later in the day, when I’m flying a smaller jet. We’ll see. Bye for now, phone must be over.
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(pic boeing snow)
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Landed OK in Vienna but it,s snow and slit here, will turn in ice I guess later, when the sun sets. For the moment we’re taxing towards the terminal building. I’m back in Europe after seven years and I swapped my lovely Southern summer for this.

Huge airport and modern this Dubai one is. We landed after five I’m the morning and it took almost an hour to go through the security check. This is for passengers in transit, who had been checked at least somewhat at the origin. Yet late but safe is better than the opposite, I suppose. There is wireless net for free in here and notebook charging stations at every gate. I’m adding up some juice to my E71 as I’m writing this. I managed to find the only two restaurants that sell beer in here and it is amazing they have them. It makes good business sense. In a country where most don’t or shouldn’t do any sort of drinking, it seems ok (not to me) to pay USD11 for a pint of Heiniken. I didn’t. I bought a bottle of pretty good orange juice for USD1. I met a lady from NZ who was travelling to Cape Town and we almost browsed some duty free shops before she boarded for South Africa. There isn’t much to buy unless you are a smoker or a tight millionaire. And I presume many of the passengers who use this airport are a bit of both. I had a wee mishap with my gate, again. When I landed, the Vienna flight was listed at gate 210. I want there and it’s not close and there are very few departure displays. At that gate I saw that my flight had become the only one not listed with any gate at all.

For an hour or so, no gate, then 229, which is a few good minutes towards the Eastern end of this terminal. I gotta go now, I have a few Dirhams to spend and I don’ttp know on what.