Wednesday, 16. February
At 5:30 am I had my flight to San Paulo in Brasil. At 1 am I took a taxi to the airport, after I met two friends from Buenos Aires whom I knew from beforte: Ofelia - we met in Rio de Janeiro and Hernan, whom I knew from Mendoza. Taxi... What have in common my taxi driver from Rio de Janeiro and this one from Buenos Aires who brough me to the airport? They were notoriously falling asleep when driving. Me too, but when I saw them sleeping and driving I was immediately very awake. At 5:30 I took a plane to San Paulo (with one 20 kg backpack) and... with three hand luggages. I was sure that somehow it will work out - with brasilian Gol sure, but with german Condor and Lufthansa - hmh, maybe? Of course, I managed...
5:30 flight to San Paulo, from San Paulo to Salvador (which was my first estation of my travel), from Salvador to Frankfurt am Main, from Frankfurt am Main to Warszawa!
In Salvador I had actually the only situation during my whole travel which really costed me some nerves... When I was about to pass the pass control, the policeman prooved very exactly my pass, controlling stamps (Maybe he did not like that I was entering and leaving Argentina so often, or my short visit to Bolivia and Santa Cruz, which is one from the nodal points in drug smuggling from Bolivia to Argentina was suspect). He had a look at me and told me, that they will take my luggage back (my big luggage which I had checked in before) and that he is going to check my luggage together with me. I said of course, trying to look relaxed and trying to give him an impression that getting back my luggage from the plain for a special detailed control at the brasilian airport is one of the most normal things for me. Oh yeah, so boring. I was bored to death... huuuuhm. They told me to sit not far from them and wait for 10 minutes. I had 1,5 hour to departure of my plane to Frankfurt. But 30 minutes passed, 1 hour... ten minutes before the planned departure they brought my luggage from the plane. And did not allow anybody to enter till my luggage was checked. huh, wow. Just the red carpet was missing... During these long minutes I was asking myself what did they find in my backpack... I was trying not to think of that someone could put into my luggage a pack with drugs, which is unfortunatelly quite a popular way to use innocent people (and yes, I was innocent!!!) to smuggle drugs. If you say it is not yours... nobody would believe you, por supuesto... Guys put my mochila on the x-ray scanner. It passed once. The guy made a strange face and put it again through. He asked me to come and open the backpack... OOOps. In my mind I had these few items which I though maybe they are not allowed to have... (I dont tell you what...). I opened my bag and then the guy took out this thing which was so suspicious... It was my Lonely Planet guide which I got from 2 girls for my PhD... Did it look like a pack of cocaine in x-ray??? They did not tell me and I did not ask ueberfluessige questions. Ufff, as you can imagine, I felt suddenly very relaxed. I dont have to spend the rest of my life in brasilian prison...
Finally, I got into the plane. And my backpack stayed with custom officers. I was a bit worried if the custom officers put my backpack into the plane... I asked them k i n d l y not to forget my backpack... I will see in Frankfurt.
I was so happy to have a window seat on the emergency exit during all four flights... and during my 10 hours flight from SSa to FRA I was sitting alone in my row, hooooow nice :). And: my backpack arrived with me!
In Salvador I had actually the only situation during my whole travel which really costed me some nerves... When I was about to pass the pass control, the policeman prooved very exactly my pass, controlling stamps (Maybe he did not like that I was entering and leaving Argentina so often, or my short visit to Bolivia and Santa Cruz, which is one from the nodal points in drug smuggling from Bolivia to Argentina was suspect). He had a look at me and told me, that they will take my luggage back (my big luggage which I had checked in before) and that he is going to check my luggage together with me. I said of course, trying to look relaxed and trying to give him an impression that getting back my luggage from the plain for a special detailed control at the brasilian airport is one of the most normal things for me. Oh yeah, so boring. I was bored to death... huuuuhm. They told me to sit not far from them and wait for 10 minutes. I had 1,5 hour to departure of my plane to Frankfurt. But 30 minutes passed, 1 hour... ten minutes before the planned departure they brought my luggage from the plane. And did not allow anybody to enter till my luggage was checked. huh, wow. Just the red carpet was missing... During these long minutes I was asking myself what did they find in my backpack... I was trying not to think of that someone could put into my luggage a pack with drugs, which is unfortunatelly quite a popular way to use innocent people (and yes, I was innocent!!!) to smuggle drugs. If you say it is not yours... nobody would believe you, por supuesto... Guys put my mochila on the x-ray scanner. It passed once. The guy made a strange face and put it again through. He asked me to come and open the backpack... OOOps. In my mind I had these few items which I though maybe they are not allowed to have... (I dont tell you what...). I opened my bag and then the guy took out this thing which was so suspicious... It was my Lonely Planet guide which I got from 2 girls for my PhD... Did it look like a pack of cocaine in x-ray??? They did not tell me and I did not ask ueberfluessige questions. Ufff, as you can imagine, I felt suddenly very relaxed. I dont have to spend the rest of my life in brasilian prison...
Finally, I got into the plane. And my backpack stayed with custom officers. I was a bit worried if the custom officers put my backpack into the plane... I asked them k i n d l y not to forget my backpack... I will see in Frankfurt.
I was so happy to have a window seat on the emergency exit during all four flights... and during my 10 hours flight from SSa to FRA I was sitting alone in my row, hooooow nice :). And: my backpack arrived with me!
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| The last coffee in Cafe Dorrego in Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo, Buenos Aires |
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| Reunion with my friends: with Hernan... |
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| ...and with Ofelia. |
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| My travelling family - unfortunatelly one member from Bolivia had a small accident which resulted in a black half of face. |
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| At the airport in Buenos Aires: one backpack, three hand luggages |
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| I was as happy to leave South America as happy was my face |
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| The last view of Buenos Aires |
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| The sunrise above BsAs |
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| My most probably last in this year sandwich con jamon y cheso, brasilian Gol Airlines |
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| Salvador |
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| My first travel photo, my small and big backpack, Goettingen, 26. October 2010... |
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| Way from Frankfurt to Salvador on 27.10.2010 |
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| Way from Salvador to Frankfurt 16.02.2011... |
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| As I did not tell my family that I am coming back, my sister Gosia, the only one involved in this such a conspirative action, was expecting me at the Warsaw Chopin airport... |
I was very happy to meet so many people who made my trip a very special experience... Here I wanted to write names of just these, which had the most impact on my travel... It was a pleasure to meet you, exchange our thoughts and experiences with you, have fun and travel with you! And forgive me if I forgot somebody...
Salvador: Ben, Vanilla, Anja, Moises, Marina, Sebastian,
Rio de Janeiro: Katja, Daniela, Ali, Tendai, Adna, Ofelia, Cecilia,
Foz de Iguacu and Puerto Iguacu: Steffen, Thorsten, Christian, Walter,
Buenos Aires: Carola, Daniel, Alejandro,
Puerto Piramides: Luis, Larry, Juan Pablo,
Trelew: Anita, Mauro,
Puerto Deseado: Celine, Lisa, Anja, Magali, Martin, Pachano, Ditza, Heim,
Piedra Buena: Pepe
Ushuaia: Barbara, Kristin, Uta, Lutz, Rudolf, Margareta, Wayne, Mayke, Liam,
Puerto Natales: Susanne, Anja, Gabriel, Thimon, Jose Luis, Betty
El Chalten: Christoph, Ignacio, Rama,
El Bolson: Amit, Leo, Christine,
Bariloche: Hernan, Ben, Marlijin, Walter, Maarten, Diego, Madeleine
Mendoza: Hernan, Viktor, Cesar, Sebastian, Julietta, Flavia,
Santiago de Chile: Yercko, Joasia, Tomek, Jaime
Vina del Mar: Francisca, Ruben and his father,
San Pedro de Atacama: Mauro
Uyuni: Nicolas, Gijs, Jack, Todd, Marc, Viktor,
Potosi: Andrea, Pepe, Krzysiek, Maria
Santa Cruz: Ryan
Buenos Aires: Marije, Pablo, Brom
and many many others, travellers in buses, planes, hostels, people teaching me samba in Brasil, salsa in Chile and tango in Argentina whose names I cannot put here... ... and the oldery couple who gave me a Christmas present when I was absolutely short of money... Muchas gracias :) See you one day maybe.
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| ... and the next travell will be... ... to be continued. |
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