21 Hours of Flying. Then Prague.

My EU II departure day began with a meeting at the office. I finally closed my laptop and let the out-of-office reply do its job. It will tell people that for the next 28 days – passing my work to the other members of my team. (And I guess sanay na rin sila :P) Babawi na lang ako sa pasalubong.

Despite having the visa two months earlier, I still did some last-minute packing. 

There's still space for shopping and pasalubong. Sa lagay na yan.

NAIA Terminal 1 is losing its ugliness. Maybe I’m getting used to it? “Getting used to it” means I set foot in T1 once a year. Hahahaha! It still functions as an airport. Come to think of it, it is not really "ugly". I think "old" is the appropriate word.

I arrived less than two hours before my departure time. Horrible traffic. Haggards na mejo. Marj, my travel buddy, was already waiting for me (taking work-related calls, sinong adik? Harharhar). May photographer ako for this trip!

Our flight was slightly delayed by 20 minutes. The Samsung TV kept us entertained. I also had a travel buddy this time – an extrovert. So talking is a must. At times during the trip (many times actually), I still retreated to my introverted state. She understood this and managed to take out her extrovert-energy to other roommates/hostelmates.

No options for dinner. Still, it was quite tasteful. I saved that mini bottle as my water bottle.

We landed in Taiwan after three or so hours. We were handed this card and followed the crowd going to another departure area. The whole process took around an hour. Hassle, but a good break to stretch your legs and move around a bit. And pay attention to where your fellow flight passengers are headed.

The in-flight entertainment of KLM is actually quite updated.

Dinner in the Taiwan-Amsterdam flight.

The crew service is just okay. Service crew was quite older than CX. Nothing wrong with the service quality. Well... I felt like inuutusan ko yung tita ko kumuha ng water. I felt apprehensive asking for water time and time again. Yes, I still gulp on water during flights even though it makes me pee and pee.  

Breakfast was omelet and some hash (or harsh) browns. I collected a total of three mini-bottles from the long trip.

 

Landing in Amsterdam

Our flight landed in Schiphol Airport. I had a fairly good amount of sleep but so-so ang quality.The immigration guy looked at my onward boarding pass to Prague and just asked: "What are you going to see in Prague?". I shared my answers and he stamped my Schengen visa. Hoorah for Europe Part II!

Searching for our boarding gates

Marj suggested we skip using the walkalators to wake our legs. The long flight was a butt-numbing experience. 

  
Good thing the Schiphol  airport is big. Lots of time to get the blood circulating again.

Found that someone dropped a Php 20 bill here.

We booked separate flights going to Prague arriving at different times– less than an hour difference.I went to my flight’s departure lounge and took pics. A nice guy offered to take my pic when he noticed me taking sariling-sikap shots. Hala sige pose kahit haggard.

Time to board the plane. Will be sitting again for the next two hours. They had these sad salty cracker mix. A sad sad snack.

The safety video was a cute.

Finally, Prague. ATMs can be found in the baggage retrieval area. I withdrew Czeck Korunas CZKs while waiting for my baggage (took quite some time too). We also bought the 72-hour transportation passes in the Tourism Office inside the station.

Since feeling senyorita kami, we availed of a pick-up service from Prague Ruzyne Airport. 

The van pick-up costs CZK 550, meaning CZK 275/each. If I did this solo, I would do the longer way of commuting. But since I can defray costs, pwede maging donya.

We passed by this building going to our hostel. THIS, is a preview of Prague. 

Europe, here I am again!