Mon - February 4, 2008

Bunraku hits Bucuresti


Getting There

Feb 4th
San Francisco-to Chicago
Monday am.
Ouch.....4-45 am pick up to go to SFO, I opted for the Black sedan service, the regular Marin airport shuttle is a tad unreliable and all the cabs in Marin well they smell like Toronto cabs in the winter, go there and smell for yourself, its not good. So comfort and reliability this morning just the smell of German leather and 740 am news all the way to SFO.

Apparently you can only check in or fly to Romania with an itinerary that does not exceed 90 days, anything over 90 days you need a visa, so changed the return leg and hit the security line, ahh....TSA, well what's to say, not the sharpest tool in the shed, looks good, so I guess it serves some purpose.
coffee,yoghurt,coffee.

7-45am, take off, guy next to me says nothing all flight, I said nothing to him, so that was that.



landing, snowy Chi-town-1-30pm

Chicago to Frankfurt

2-30pm, triple 7 , not a full flight, empty seat next to me, luvly, more room to stash the newspapers, books,headphones why so much stuff ?.
take off, drinks trolley first pass,...movie selections Michael Clayton, sure why not, Gone baby gone, sure, Bee Movie, yeah ok, Elizabeth, cant beat a Bessie movie, that should pass some time.
Technical difficulties.........movies are not working........Oh well there goes that entertainment opportunity.

Not a problem as I have Miss Cindy Guidry's new book, "The last single woman in America", Cindy's an old friend from (her) days in San Francisco. Read about 120 pages , hard to put down, just hilarious and I want more, will finish it later today....possibly.
meal, drinks trolley round 2 and 3, nap, , four hours left, read, work for an hour, nap, freshen up, breakfast, coffee

landed

Frankfurt-5-30am Tuesday
call home, very happy 10 year old on the phone, caught her just before bed, spandex 23, bubble butt ( code)
Arrivals lounge, nap maybe?, not slept very much, its about 9pm SF time so I can go a bit longer with out it.

8-20 am still in the arrivals lounge, two bread rolls one coffee and a sparkling water,
lots of headset wearing business types, chit chatting, tried to sleep didn't work, how come other people are doing it, slumped over in their chairs I am gonna try again,


still not working for me.....they seem to be able to do it........I'll sleep on the plane.


Frankfurt to Bucharest
10-30am
10-50am, delayed, in the waiting area, Obama and Clinton getting lots of TV time in Deutschland

get on the bus out to the tarmac, wait on the bus, for all the Germanness going on its not very efficient here at Frankunfurter airport.


finally on board, window seat , exit row no seat in front of me, full leg extension ( best seat on the plane), minor problem, gentleman one seat to my left has odour issues, .....................now about that sleep.

maybe 45 mins nap........move clock another hour forward.
sandwich and beir, from very strict German lady in a Lufthansa uniform.



Tuesday 2-20 pm

landed....in ROMANIA!!!!



Ahh yes, Buchuresti airport .............Passport control, they could be less interested, on to baggage claim, last time I was here the roll of Plans ( drawings) that I had to check got lost somewhere, left behind along the way (Munich)
This time so as not to disappoint , it happens again, I get all my bags but not the plans. fantastic.

Alex the driver meets me in the arrivals area, nice kid (he drove me back in Dec)
we got swarmed ( 3) by " luggage helpers" once outside the terminal, its really quite the scene outside the airport, lots of portly men in coats and funny hats angling for taxi work, gypsy's (I am guessing) doing the "luggage help" thing, basically touching your bags ( bags on luggage cart) on the way to the car not actually lifting or helping, kind of like in Life of Brian where Michael Palin is skipping down the road asking for a shekel for an ex leper but not in a loin cloth and much colder, then once bags are in the car asking for money, fortunately I had no money, no euro, I had a fiver ( pounds) not giving that up and no dollars, he did jack anyway and I was told not to give them any money.

airport parking lot


On to Media Pro Studios in Buftea, 35mins, ahh the back roads, potholes and all.

quick meeting, tour of the office space, and back to the meeting room, coffee, sandwich. and an iChat with the 2 L's
was breakfast time, this ten hour time shift should be interesting.I miss 'em already

6-10pm, heading out soon to Bucuresti proper. and the Centreville apartments.........................

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