The closer it was to the departure… the less it caused in me. No significant excitation whatsoever.
I felt the action, indeed, but mostly due to the number of things I had to do, like before every journey.
But calmness was the thing that made this trip different from all the others I had done.
The pre-packing started during the weekend (we were to leave on Thursday) – we put the suitcases in the middle of the living room and were just throwing in there all the things we wanted to take with us.
In the meantime I was waiting for the debit card for the currency bank account I had recently opened – they said they’d charge nothing for usage and it would take 5 business days for all the paperwork and plastic to arrive.
The reality was different. I got the card after a month from ordering it, a week after we had departed for the trip 😉
However, it turned out that Revolut, the pre-paid currency card I use, with excellent exchange rates and which recently had their free limits significantly decreased (like a €500 monthly ATM withdrawal with no fee was cut down to €200, and it was making a difference for me), had withhold those new restrictions for their existing clients until the mid-February.
We’d be already back by then, so it solved the currency/bank problem.
Wednesday evening was the moment to finish what we still have to do: getting done with packing, making rissoles for sandwiches, cleaning the house, preparing other food, putting together a manual for our cats (by the way, here I want to thank the girls that helped us with our pets while we were absent. The cats were alive after our return).
Magda had a pile of work just for these last days, so it was only then that we started to feel a bit of stress. But by giving up on a few hours of sleep that night, we had all things sorted out and done.
We left the last shopping, handing over the keys to the girls, etc. for the morning. All went well here, too.
So, here’s what we’re taking with us: we have one big suitcase, a small, almost empty one and two small backpacks – one with Magda’s photo equipment and second, mine, with junk (read: with things that didn’t fit elsewhere).
And the hour zero arrives.
Meaning, it’s Thursday, 10:15 AM.
We’re taking a cab to the airport. Magda found a taxi voucher, valid until the next day, so we’d sin if we didn’t use it.
Actually the cab arrived at 10:15, we left 15 minutes later, I guess.
The plane leaves at 12:20 PM.
I feel weird. Something odd is happening to us, we’re not in rush. This is so unusual.
It goes too smoothly. I keep thinking whether I took everything. I guess so. I find myself not willing to figure it out. I have documents, money, cards, a pillow and a hair dryer, so all the necessities s are with me.
We reach the airport an hour before the departure. We take Wizzair to Rome and since we have a big suitcase with us, we need to check in.
At the desk the scale shows 24,5 kg. The limit is 23 kg. The check-in guy doesn’t even want to start the discussion, so we have to repack. Food and candy for children in Africa go to the small one; it’s empty, after all. Sandwiches go to the plastic bag.
Now we have 23 kg, no further discussion is needed.
I need to do one more thing right after the security: I need to buy gifts for the Couchsurfing hosts we will be staying at in RSA. There is one and only choice for that – the hazelnut Soplica vodka. Personally I find this liquor as one of the best souvenirs you could give to a foreigner (of course, a drinking one), and the plastic bottle the vodka is in as the best package – I regret I can’t buy it outside the airport.
To all my not-living-in-PL readers: if you ever fly from PL and you don’t reject alcohol, go to a duty free store and buy a few bottles. It costs nearly nothing, tastes very good and does the job 🙂
So, 2 liters of vodka land in the bag, next to the sandwiches.
Now it turns out that we may have a problem at the gate. We are allowed to take one small suitcase and one smaller bag onboard and we have one suitcase, two backpacks and a big plastic bag with typical Polish content: bread rolls with meat and vodka.
But years of experience with making a fuss in critical moments give me an advantage; we pass easily, leaving all the chaos with the ladies at the gate.
Final call
The aircraft is full. Luckily, the system gave us seats in the same row (not so obvious in cheap flights). We are divided by an elderly lady sitting in the middle, but kindly asked, she swaps the seat.
We are looking around for any two-and -under –year-old beings. The ones, that can really put you down when they open their jaws with agonizing screams during takeoffs and landings. We notice 3. One in a row before us – we comment it by a moaning ‘OMG’…
But it turns out way better than we expected! Once or twice we hear a cry and that’s it! The kid in the row before us is nice and his parents are probably aware of the possible problem as they make efforts to keep the child focused and quiet.
Comparing to our recent adventure in Malta and on the way back from there, it’s night and day.
My sister reports from Rome. She’s already at the airport (she flew from the UK) and is heading towards the city.
If we want to leave the suitcase at the airport, the luggage room is €6 per piece. A train ticket to the city is €8.
Europe looks white from above.
We land in Rome on time.
A quick smoke outside the airport. It’s quite warm here comparing to PL. We wonder what to do now.
We count the cost of the trip to the city: 2 suitcases – €12, round tickets to the city €32 + tickets within the city. All amounts to at least €50.
What’s more, it’s 4 PM now. It would be 5 PM when we got there. The flight to Addis leaves around midnight, so we have to be at the airport at 10 PM. This means we would have to leave the city at 9 at latest, so… it doesn’t make any sense. Too little time, too big costs.
We find a decent place under the wall, with soft seats. One gentleman is there, but he soon leaves. We are not far from the exit, so we can go out for a smoke if need be, here is a cafe next to us with €1 espresso, a cart with the luggage serves us as a footstool, the airport Wi-Fi works well… summarizing – good conditions for a longer layover.
Magda does some overdue work and I take my tablet to watch a movie.
From time to time we take a break to admire the airport views.
Hours pass. My sister comes back from the city, so we move slowly towards the check-in.
And that’s where the first problems appear.
The desk is from Al-Italia. I guess they must have a joint flight with Ethiopian.
A lovely dressed lady takes our passports, checks something, makes some klicks on the keyboard and finally asks:
– Are you sure your flight is today?
– ???
– Are you sure your flight is today?
“F**k, I knew there would be problems with Ethiopian” – that is my first thought.
The second follows immediately – “wait, maybe it’s really not today? Noooo.. come on, it’s today.”
– No, miss, it’s today, for sure.
Lady needs our ETIXes. Shit, how am I supposed to find them now? I booked the tickets 10 months ago!
My sister waives and says she may have them somewhere in the email.
She seeks on the phone while the lady hits a few more keys on the keyboard and… suddenly – Don’t search! I’ve got them – she shouts.
Phew!
Not that I was mistaken, or something, but what if they rejected our tickets? We’d get a significant compensation for sure, but the whole trip would… I don’t even want to think about it.
– Problems with Ethiopian? – I ask.
She nods “yes”. I feel she would rather do a facepalm if she could.
To be sympathetic I add that I suspected so, as I had faced many issues when trying to do anything on Ethiopian site regarding the flights; I was pretty sure I could expect other problems.
The lady notices there should be five of us.
Of course, miss, there will be but the other two should arrive in a bit (I make that clear so she doesn’t cancel Melka and Janek’s reservation).
I ask about the seat choice. When I was booking the flights (when the Ethiopian site still worked) I did it for 5 people, so I put our 3 in one row. Now, I want to spread us on two rows – the flights are long and any extra space is very valuable.
The lady is an angel and helps us as much as she can. We book all seats the way we wanted also for the flight to Johannesburg. The suitcase goes there directly.
All good, we’re free to go for a smoke and then to the gate.
But the way to the gate is surprisingly long.
First we have to pass the brilliant exit from the passport control.
Marketingwise – ingenious! No visible signs of how to get out from the shop, so, whether you want to or not, you have to wander around and look at the merchandize .
Then, when we finally spot the signs to the gate. We walk and walk and walk, to finally reach a.. train station.
It seems that we have to go to different terminal.
The issue is, it’s late. There’s no one but us at the station and no train in sight.
We wait for nearly 15 min, a bit nervous, and then finally the vehicle appears.
A 5-minute ride and we finally reach the gate. We were the last passengers they had been waiting for. But they waited.
Once we get on the the plane we have yet another problem. 4 out of 5 of our seats are.. occupied. Fussing is not needed at this time, so we don’t start it. But none of the passengers taking up our seats is willing to move. It looks like they are waiting for us to turn around and find ourselves some other seats.
There are 3 flight attendants around us. One by another they say they will deal with the problem, they walk around, talk to each other and nothing changes.
We are standing still. Our silent irritation probably starts to be visible on our faces soon and becomes an executive power. The passengers reluctantly but inevitable move. The win is partial though, because we have to take the seats in one row and forget about the extra space during the flight.
Right after the take-off, a big dark-skinned mister sitting in the middle of the plane, close to us, decides to get rid of his shoes. Seconds later, an aroma of a mature smear-ripened cheese spreads around.
I don’t smell it that much, as I sit by the window, but the girls say it’s a real disaster.
The situation is somehow sensitive, so I try to silently ask the flight attendant for help. Unfortunately, alike the seats problem before – I get a promise of dealing with the issue but absolutely nothing happens.
And mister seems to know we talk about him as he looks towards us tellingly.
Again, it changes absolutely nothing. As if he knew we were talking about him but he didn’t realize the problem.
Actually, it looks like no-one but us can smell the odour . Pretty weird. Oh, unless they do smell it and they don’t care.
We’re in a bind, as the stink is really choking. Our scarves make their way up to cover our noses.
Afer a while either the aroma disappears or we get used to the ambiance. A proper positioning of the head allows you to breathe normally.
And so our flight goes.
For a moment, through the window, I get to observe the dawn from the altitude of 11km,
and the sunrise over Ethiopia.
Besides, it’s dark.
We land in Addis around 7 AM, local time.
The city is located on the Ethiopian Highlands, around 2400 meters a.s.l. and is surrounded by the mountains, rising from the plateau like pimples on a teenager’s face. The highest one reaches 3500 m a.s.l. It can be nicely seen right before landing, when the plane makes a few twists and turns to set the wheels on the ground.
My nose is pressed against the window, I absorb the views as much as I can.
We get off the plane directly to the apron just to come back to the jet bridge few meters later.
It’s quite cold, around 10 degrees. It doesn’t surprise me considering the altitude and time of the day.
We are the transferring passengers, so we are immediately directed to one floor up, to the gate to Johannesburg. We have around 1,5 hours until the next flight.
Two days earlier, my colleague Kuba, who had taken this route already, wrote me not to expect too much from this airport.
Indeed, it’s very poor, despite being an international airport for the capitol city of a big country.
The bathrooms are made of sheet tin barracks with shitholes inside (you would use it only in a must), there is no place to get anything to drink (we are separated from any shop by a security check; you can get out but they won’t let you come back), the same goes for the smoking room.
In fact, the only thing we can do is to sit on chairs and stare through the window, as the other available area can be explored in two minutes
Luckily, the Johannesburg aircraft is huge and much less crowded. We finally manage to situate our butts in the way we wanted at the beginning: my sister has 3 seats for herself in a front row and we do, too for the two of us.
There are almost no clouds over Africa, so again, my nose is glued to the window. I have my cellphone with GPS on in front of my eyes, and I’m sightseeing the world from above.
We land in Johannesburg minutes before 1 PM of the local time. There is a line to the immigration, but the control itself goes smoothly. There is an access to the Internet, so first selfies land on FB.
It’s not that hot. We expected a tropical heat and instead it’s almost like you would need to put your jumper on.
The schedule for the rest of the day is tight. We have to crack on renting a car, buying a SIM card with Internet data, hitting an ATM for some cash and getting some food. Then we planned to go near Pretoria, to a Safari & Lion Park, where we wanted to cuddle some small wild cats a bit and then go for 350 km drive to Nelspruit neighbourhood, where we are to sleep at Pieter’s from CouchSurfingplace.
Here I should mention a bit more about Pieter, as I am really surprised by the guy. First of all, because he invited us to his place almost immediately after I had sent him a request. Secondly, because since the moment of his invite, we’ve been in constant touch through Whatsapp and that he has given me plenty of valuable info, suggestions, etc, for the trip. Thirdly, because he is really into how things are going for us, how the trip is moving on and advices us wherever he can. And last, but not least, he seems to be a very cool guy, the one that shares what he has when he can, and doesn’t when he can’t. No unnecessary beating around the bush.
Ok, so let’s deal with the schedule.
First thing, the closest, is the MTN office – the cellular carrier. I want to buy a SIM there.
But they welcome me with “sorry, mister, we are offline”. No Internet access means no registration and no new SIM sale.
A mobile operator and no Internet access? Weird 😉
The salesman suggests to go to the Woolworth shop, where they do sell SIM starters and they are online 🙂
I give it a reat for now and we go to get the car.
At the car rental place the car is already waiting for us. Everything goes well. until it comes to the payment.
I booked the vehicle through a third party company, there’s plenty of them on the Internet. Economycarrentals, if I recall well. I’d done this many times, either for Lebanon or for Morocco, and with small ups and downs all was always ok.
Here, it turns out that the price I got on the Internet, which was to be the final one, is actually not. The rental company adds around 10% as a contract fee. I get the first wave of anger, because it actually is written somewhere with small letters – the contract fee MAY be included in the price. Yet, I have never had such a situation and I always paid the price I had on the offer.
Second wave comes when they ask me to give them my credit card to pay.
For those who are not aware, rental companies always do a blocking of quite huge amount of money on the credit card as the deposit for any possible loses and thefts that could happen to the car. If all is well, the money is later unblocked, so no real payment is done.
For such blocking I use my Polish credit card.
Then there is a real rental payment. I could always choose the way I wanted to pay: by cash, a card, etc., depending what’s most convenient for me. For this I have my Revolut card, where I pay with local currency with minimal loss on currency exchange.
Here, in South Africa, it’s different. You can use only one credit card to do all the money related operations. No other options are available.
What this means for the card set in your own currency is very well understood by those, who travel a lot. For these who don’t know, please check the following terms: currency conversion fee, double currency conversion, currency spread. On all those factors my (and the most of the others, I suppose) bank puts huge emphasis.
And I couldn’t use my Revolut card for the deposit as it is prepaid and the deposit would block all the money I have for the trip.
It was a long and turbulent discussion and it included the office supervisor. But finally I reached my goal, at least partially – I will be able to pay with cash when we return the car. Unfortunately, I will have to pay the contract fee anyway.
Screw you, but I have no other choice.
The car is small, as well as the trunk – it can keep only the big suitcase. Luckily, there’s only three of us, so small luggage land on the back seat.
We go back to the airport. I visit MTN again, hoping they are online already – unsuccessfully.
So, Woolworth. First, we are surprised by the prices. We are at the airport and everything costs more or less like in Polish local shop (10-15% more than in a cheap supermarket). Thus, we split: girls decide to refill our food stock, I seek for the SIM card.
I find it, yet I am still far from the success. They do have starters, but one is R110 and nobody knows what I get for the price. Okay, I have ~R100 of airtime, but I need Internet access and the sale ladies are unable to tell me how much data I will get for that amount . I can buy the card first and then they can check it for me.
Yeah, sure.
I give up on this.
Girls are still shopping and I see ATMs. I do a quick check and see that each cash withdrawal would cost me R50 each (around €3,5).
I hate paying for nothing, but it seems I have no other option. I count roughly how much money we would need ’till the end of RSA stay and with the heartache I let the bank to get their provision.
I wonder where to go to buy the SIM card. I will need it very much, at least to have Pieter online when trying to reach his place. I decide to go out to smoke and think a bit. Since I pass by MTN, I go in there the third time, this time not hoping for anything – and I get surprised! They are online!
Quickly I take one card, mister salesman does something with USSD codes and for R125 (less than €10) I get 2GB of Internet data and plenty of airtime.
I like that kind of surprises.
Now we are all set.
It’s late, 3 PM approaches. Pieter says to be careful with the night drive. Many people in RSA don’t have a driving license and they drive like crazy. He also adds that it would be wise to leave JNB before the afternoon rush hour, otherwise we’ll be stuck. So I give up on cuddling small cats – it would take at least 3 hours which seem we don’t have.
We get in the car and drive towards Nelspruit.
My ass is absolutely stressed out. I have sat behind the wheel on the right side only once so far, but it was in Kenya, in the middle of nowhere, in a car with automatic transmission and I drove maybe 5 km.
And here I have the exit from the airport of a multimillion people city, absolutely no knowledge about the route – just relying on GPS, road conditions just like in Poland and the wrong side of the street.
It wasn’t the big hit or the traffic threat I was afraid of – I spent much time driving around “wild” countries. What I really feared were stupid, small collisions, fender benders, anything that could be caused by me not used to different side of the road. It was about perception of distances, position in the lane, feeling the edges of the car, turning right on the big crossroads, etc.
I was covered by insurance for any of these, but after problems from an hour before I wasn’t up for more arguments and paper work.
And what was pissing me off was that I kept accidently turning on the wind shield whippers, as they were on the wrong side of the driving wheel 🙂
But I manage to leave the city safely. I heard a few horns when I drove too close to the right edge of the lane, and bit more instructions from my sister in the back seat, who’s experienced in driving on the right side But we reach the highway. And then all goes smoothly. Well, everyone can drive straight and forward.
I even find myself a daredevil, with overtaking when two lanes ended on the road.
I like the highways here! Only, they have a 120 km/h speed limit. Sometimes even less.
Pieter warned me to follow the signs. Especially, when I see 60 km/h limit in the middle of nowhere! Guess why?
I feel like in PL, lol!
In the meantime we are caught by a short and intense thunderstorm, with an amazing, as for us, number of lightnings. And then the night comes. Surprisingly fast, it’s only 6.30.
Pity, because we reached the Drakensberg Mountains and did a few dozens of kilometers on a curvy road, with probably nice views. What we saw was only white stripes and other cars’ lights.
We finally pass Nelspruit and head towards Curlews, a place you can’t find even in Google Maps. I am guided by a GPS coordinates. And we finally reach Pieter’s place, although with no Internet and telephone it wouldn’t be that easy.
I don’t know how to call the place he lives in. I guess “a farm” would be the best word.
It’s in the middle of nowhere, you go there with a dirt road, it’s dark, silent. Once we arrive three big dogs surround us, luckily followed by the owner, so we get waggling tails and a bunch of wet tongues on our hands.
And this middle of nowhere hides one of the most uncommon houses I have ever seen.
Concrete, stone, rock, soil, wood, leather, animals’ heads on the walls, verdure around, crocodiles in the lake nearby, silence, thousands of stars, our jaws on the ground.
And we stay there only one night. Fuck.
We get separate bedrooms, beer, so we take out the Soplica, dried beef we bought at a gas station and we talk.
Various topics. Starting from ordinary ones, through trips, as well as the controversial ones like apartheid, local and global problems, etc. Suffice to to say that we go to sleep far after midnight.
And we want to get up before 8.
Good night!
Guest
August 31, 2018Thank you loads for the great article.Highly reccomended!