Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Adek’s Week Off: Part I

Saturday, 30 April 2016

I left home for the KLIA this afternoon. The skies opened up and I sought shelter at Le Meridien. Performed Asar prayers first before taking the 17:00 bus to KLIA. There was a crawl along a stretch of MEX – turned out there was an accident involving six cars and they were total write-off. We reached KLIA after 18:00 and I went to drop off my bag. The Etihad counters were deserted and after a while I figured that everyone else must have had checked in or dropped off their bags already ahead of me. Went in and checked out some duty-free stores before walking to the gate.


My suitcase weighed 12.2 kg (I had 2 litres of water in it then). I had the black LeSportsac out to distribute the weight among my shoulders and emptied the contents into my Speedy and my suitcase when flying RyanAir 

Our take-off was at 19:40 but we were already ushered to board by 19:15. I had selected an aisle seat in the middle row but the chap sitting at the other side of the aisle moved to the two seats by the window on front row so I had the whole four seats all to myself. Which was a good thing as I started to have stomach discomfort – I think the air pressure in the cabin contributes to tummy discomfort as I get that every time I fly long distance.

The flight was uneventful. I tried watching a movie but didn’t watch it to the end, no thanks to my windy tummy. I stretched out and managed to sleep a bit, yes, which was rare. Like tummy upset, not managing to sleep during the flight is also a norm for me. Anyway, I was glad I managed to rest.

We landed at Abu Dhabi just after 11 p.m. and had to be ferried to the main building.

Sunday, 1 April 2016

We boarded the plane at 01:30 and I managed to get some kip, Alhamdulillah. We landed at Frankfurt Airport at 07:00 and it didn’t take long to go through immigration and be reunited with my bag. I went to refresh myself first before availing of the airport wifi. My Flibco bus to Luxembourg was due to depart at 09:00 so at 08:45, I went to search for the bus stop. I finally found it after a while (I didn’t notice the Flibco bus sign at first). The bus was late and it was quite full. I managed to get a seat and two or three more people after me also managed to get seats but that was it. I started dozing off 20 minutes into the journey.

We reached Frankfurt Hahn Airport some 75 minutes later and dropped off most passengers. A few passengers got on and we continued on our journey after about 20 minutes. There was wifi on board and a compact bathroom but hey, it suited me just fine.

We arrived at Luxembourg Gare Centrale at 12:45 and after getting my bag, I went into the station to find Information. The lady at the counter told me the Tourist Information Centre was in the city centre but gave me a map anyway. So I set off, dragging my bag behind me, for the city centre. The day had brightened up considerably but it was still a chilly day. Again, no complaints from me.

I spent the new few hours walking around the city. Now, Luxembourg City is made up of Ville Haute (High City) and Ville Basse and Grund (Low City). I stumbled upon the elevator taking people down to Grund and joined the crowd. I spent about half an hour there before taking the escalator up again.

I wandered around and came upon a parade. I watched it for a while then turned back and walked back to the station, stopping en route at Parc Ed Klein to have a snack. From the station, I took bus no. 29 to the airport. I tried buying the bus ticket from a machine at the station but it refused to accept my cash and when I wanted to pay the bus driver, he told me he had run out of ticket paper and couldn’t issue a ticket. He then added that I could ride without paying. Wow, swell!

I reached the airport and sat to wait for my bus out to Brussels Charleroi at 23:30. I took the opportunity to recharge my devices, had some dinner, performed prayers in the nursery and freshened up. I went down to wait and when I found myself dozing off, set my alarm so that I wouldn’t miss my bus.

The bus came at 23:20 and I went on board. Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep a wink in the bus as the driver turned the radio loudly throughout the journey. We stopped at a guard post just before reaching the airport and a couple of security guards boarded the bus and checked our IDs. At the airport, we had to show our IDs again before we were allowed entry into the building.


I had my stamp on Luxembourg and am giving it my stamp of approval


To be continued