Why travelling is fun.
Germany has me back. Serbia sure did put up a fight though.
My flight from Belgrade back to Berlin was supposed to start at 8:30am on Monday. I didn't sleep much the night before (a little less than three hours), which I though was going to be fine since I planned to sleep a bit on the plane and then relax at home in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the weather decided that this plan wasn't all that great and hit Belgrade with fog that made viewing anything past a distance of maybe fifty meters impossible. With unshaken optimism I thought to myself "Alright, that flight is going to be delayed." And so it was, hour after hour, until around 3pm (or so), when whoever is responsible for this kind of thing decided to cancel it. This might sound bad, but at that point it was nothing more than a relief, as I had been stuck inside the airport's checked-in-area for more than six hours at that time, while all of the other flights from Belgrade had been canceled earlier. According to the woman at the information desk, JAT was trying to ride out cheap by waiting until as many people as possible (who have residence in Belgrade) left the airport, thus avoiding having to pay for hotels or replacement flights (unless they complain, I suppose). People waiting were only offered water and plane sandwiches, which I find so horribly gross that I declined. I was unable to contact Tammi or my brother about what was happening since my mobile was out of credit and the airport officials refused to allow anyone to use phones free of charge.
When the flight was finally cancelled, the few of us that had stuck around until then headed out of the checked-in-area to collect our baggage and to arrange replacement flights/overnight stays at the JAT counter. Unfortunately, lots of the people from the previously cancelled flights were already waiting in line for that as well, which lead to two hours of more waiting. The airline employees were clearly overextended and dealing with them was a laborious matter of finding out which replacement flights were possible. The massive fog had spread towards the evening and some flights were picked up again (including some that were previously cancelled), but the flight to Berlin wasn't going to happen since the plane was previously rerouted to Skopje. Fortunately, one single flight to Germany was planned to "sometime this evening, we're sure it will go but we don't know when" and I decided to try my luck. Surprisingly, it did leave rather soon after (by that day's standards anyway, it was scheduled to 6:35pm, left a bit before 7pm). So there I was in a plane to... Düsseldorf, which happens to be on the wrong side of Germany.
After the roughest landing I've ever experienced and deciding that I like Düsseldorf's airport, I checked up on the fastest way to get home at the train station and eventually got on a train to Dortmund, where I had a stale fish sandwich and waited half an hour for the night train that was to going to take me to Berlin. Unfortunately for me, the waggon I was in wasn't heated for most of the night, which (coupled with defect doors) didn't allow for much sleep. At that point I was beyond zombie state though, and when I arrived in Berlin at 4:30am I even managed to force myself to have breakfast at McDonald's (which, as expected, was quite bad except for the hot chocolate). After a little more waiting in the awfully cold train station I caught the first train to Leipzig at 5:49am, where I arrived around 7am. Half an hour later I was at home, pretty much 24 hours since I got to Belgrade's airport. In a 60-hour time period (Sunday after waking up, Monday, Tuesday until going to bed in the evening) I got around eight hours of sleep or so, never more than three hours at a time.
I called JAT this afternoon, and apparently they'll at least pay the train ticket from Düsseldorf to Berlin for me, but it looks as if there's no way the company would consider making up for the troubles with a refund for the flight or anything similar.
My flight from Belgrade back to Berlin was supposed to start at 8:30am on Monday. I didn't sleep much the night before (a little less than three hours), which I though was going to be fine since I planned to sleep a bit on the plane and then relax at home in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the weather decided that this plan wasn't all that great and hit Belgrade with fog that made viewing anything past a distance of maybe fifty meters impossible. With unshaken optimism I thought to myself "Alright, that flight is going to be delayed." And so it was, hour after hour, until around 3pm (or so), when whoever is responsible for this kind of thing decided to cancel it. This might sound bad, but at that point it was nothing more than a relief, as I had been stuck inside the airport's checked-in-area for more than six hours at that time, while all of the other flights from Belgrade had been canceled earlier. According to the woman at the information desk, JAT was trying to ride out cheap by waiting until as many people as possible (who have residence in Belgrade) left the airport, thus avoiding having to pay for hotels or replacement flights (unless they complain, I suppose). People waiting were only offered water and plane sandwiches, which I find so horribly gross that I declined. I was unable to contact Tammi or my brother about what was happening since my mobile was out of credit and the airport officials refused to allow anyone to use phones free of charge.
When the flight was finally cancelled, the few of us that had stuck around until then headed out of the checked-in-area to collect our baggage and to arrange replacement flights/overnight stays at the JAT counter. Unfortunately, lots of the people from the previously cancelled flights were already waiting in line for that as well, which lead to two hours of more waiting. The airline employees were clearly overextended and dealing with them was a laborious matter of finding out which replacement flights were possible. The massive fog had spread towards the evening and some flights were picked up again (including some that were previously cancelled), but the flight to Berlin wasn't going to happen since the plane was previously rerouted to Skopje. Fortunately, one single flight to Germany was planned to "sometime this evening, we're sure it will go but we don't know when" and I decided to try my luck. Surprisingly, it did leave rather soon after (by that day's standards anyway, it was scheduled to 6:35pm, left a bit before 7pm). So there I was in a plane to... Düsseldorf, which happens to be on the wrong side of Germany.
After the roughest landing I've ever experienced and deciding that I like Düsseldorf's airport, I checked up on the fastest way to get home at the train station and eventually got on a train to Dortmund, where I had a stale fish sandwich and waited half an hour for the night train that was to going to take me to Berlin. Unfortunately for me, the waggon I was in wasn't heated for most of the night, which (coupled with defect doors) didn't allow for much sleep. At that point I was beyond zombie state though, and when I arrived in Berlin at 4:30am I even managed to force myself to have breakfast at McDonald's (which, as expected, was quite bad except for the hot chocolate). After a little more waiting in the awfully cold train station I caught the first train to Leipzig at 5:49am, where I arrived around 7am. Half an hour later I was at home, pretty much 24 hours since I got to Belgrade's airport. In a 60-hour time period (Sunday after waking up, Monday, Tuesday until going to bed in the evening) I got around eight hours of sleep or so, never more than three hours at a time.
I called JAT this afternoon, and apparently they'll at least pay the train ticket from Düsseldorf to Berlin for me, but it looks as if there's no way the company would consider making up for the troubles with a refund for the flight or anything similar.