From The Red Maple Leaf to the Black Falcon....

Friday

2:13 Am.

The Aircraft was being pushed backwards and it was 6:13 pm when my diabetic seatmate told me "..we're leaving 2 minutes early..." and in a kind of exciting expression, tapped his gold-like watch. I briefly smiled and quietly said "haha yeah". Flight AC 878 bound for Zurich was scheduled to 6:15 pm. I know I am kinda a punctual guy, but I wouldn't go off saying "OMG WE'RE 2 FRIGGIN' MINUTES EARLY!!!! HAHAHAHAH OMG SO EXCITING!" Not that it bothered me, just found it interesting. A moment later, my mind flashes back to the last time I flew in a plane.
Then I felt the plane moving forward, finally taxiing towards runway behind a couple of smaller planes scrambling to their runways. A few minutes later, we've stopped. I wonder if people know what's actually going on during that time. Just for those who didn't know, the aircraft is actually put on full brakes, and the pilot is increasing power to the engines. Just like a rocket about to go boom. By the time the brakes are released, the plane's acceleration increases very fast and in just a minute, the pilot pulls up and everyone feels some g-force kickin' in. I looked to my right where my sister was in the aisle seat, looking kinda sick from the feeling of being pushed into your seat. I kinda laughed at that. It was quite fun, especially when the pilot banked to the left to head east.

I couldn't really say anything much positive of Air Canada, food was alright, but the first hour and a half kinda sucked ass. Everyone's entertainment screen started booting up and showing us the welcome screen. I looked around and noticed that everyone was trying out the touch-screen ability and moved the pointer over to select ENGLISH, but nothing happened. Then the stewardess' voice came over the PA and announced that "...the system is slower than it usually is..." and they had to reboot it which they said would last about 10-15 minutes. More like 1 hour. When it finally came back online, I immediately looked for movies to watch. There were many boring titles to choose from, but the first that caught my fancy was "Watchmen". It was quite good. My friend, who had already watched it, said that it was more like a porno than a movie based on a comic I've never heard of. I didn't really think it was like porno, even though there were scenes that shouldn't be watched by young people. The story was hard to understand but it made sense later near the end of the movie....of course, almost all confusing movies are like that! haha.

While watching the movie, the flight goes into a few turbulences. One lasted for about 30 minutes but it was cool. I thought about the time when my mom went flying to Hong Kong and said how scared she was from strong turbulences one time. Makes me think about my dream that I had. I dreamt that I was in a plane, and crashed, but nothing violent happened. It was quiet and smooth. I felt like falling asleep, but didn't.
So movie was done, and it just got dark. My seat mate is taking his diabetic test to see what his blood sugar level. That was kinda a first for me. I feel tired, but at the same time I didn't feel like sleeping. So i browsed what other movies there were and the only interesting movie I thought of watching was "Street Fighter" The Legend of Chun-Li". It was ok at first, but then I could tell the writing sucked ass. So I stopped watching it and looked for TV shows to watch. I was really hoping for "House" but instead the only thing I would be watching was "CSI" and "CSI: New York".

Time flies by and the pilot makes a smooth landing. As I exited the plane, I saw a few stewardesses and the Pilot saying farewell to passengers. I wanted to congratulate the pilot for such a good flight despite the lax of entertainment during the first hour, but I didn't. I just said "bye". My mom, sister and I stopped by the nearest washrooms we could find (and it wasn't easy finding them). I had to stay and guard our bags while the ladies were in the washroom, taking forever as usual to freshen up. I think I waited about 10 or 15 minutes till my sister came out and I finally went in the men's room. Did my business and washed my face. I looked at it in the mirror and noticed my tired eyes. I thought to myself, "I just flew for 7 hours and 28 minutes, and I was awake the whole time".

The Zurich Airport wasn't bad. It was actually cool. We found out the gate for our next flight and needed to take some train to the next terminal. I didn't realize it at first, but it turned out to be a MAGLEV!!!! It was so quiet and smooth. While we were on the move, several TVs appeared to the left (outside) and going by them so fast, we saw some advertisement. It was so cool because the picture was kinda smooth so yeah. Pretty neat.

Our next flight to Hamburg's Airport was nothing special....because I finally had some sleep. I woke up by the time the plane's wheels touched the ground. hahaha. Exited the 737 outside and picked up by bus. Once inside, we picked up our luggage that was checked-in and boy did we have a lot of stuff. We later found a train going the the Central Train Station "HauptBarhnhoff". Stuffed our luggage in security lockers and checked into a chinese hotel called "HOTEL BEE FANG"..... haha (insert animal hiss here). Slept one night already, had breakfast this morning, went around the train station and to a friend's house about 2 kilometers away. Right now, going to sleep. Gonna sleep now since it's 2:55 am now and wake up between 6:30 and 9 am for BREAKFAST! yummers. I shall check back in here once I arrive in Denmark and get settled in.

Until Next time.....

- Px Nielsen