Khartoum - Amsterdam - Dublin

I am at Schipol Aiport, Amsterdam - for lay-over for about 4 hours - for connecting flight to Dublin. Can you believe that? But overall, I am indeed satisfied with the KLM service - at its entirety. This is compared to the service rendered by Lufthansa (Sorry Matthias, when I criticised Lufthansa, you kept on giving me the face...) Anyway, perhaps I will use Lufthansa, but as for now I am content with KLM with this sector to Sudan.

+ Khartoum Airport - entrance

Anyway, since I have got this superfast Internet, I might as well update this blog with the trip to the Khartoum airport and the whole journey back to Dublin. Well, I asked Muhammed to pick me up at 6:00 pm, least that I realised, that I needed to change to my jeans and all. When I called at 5:30 pm, he was still in Headquarters. Being Thurs that was, the last day fo the week in Khartoum and he was like easily 30 mins away, I was throwing out the idea of changing. True enough, when he got to the customer, I jumped into the car, and he was saying about bad traffic. I was keeping my cool and instead, I told him that I wanted to learn Arabic. In the midst of the rush, he managed to teach me "Nehna masheen ila mattar" - We are going to the airport. Then I formed my own sentence; "Ana masheen minal mattar ilal-seken" - I am going from airport to my apartment. Not bad. Another one that I know; "Ma fi moyya fil bait" - There is no water in my apartment. Bait and Seken means the same thing. Hehe. OK that is too much Arabic for now.

We managed to get to the airport at about 6:40pm, when my flight was at 8:15pm. Anyway, I was not that concerned. I gave Muhammed some money, he put an effort to use all the short-cuts he could think of. He is a nice guy. His English is rather basic, but I feel for him when some of these Europeans are not patient with him. I feel bad. Real bad. So I took the chance, on the way to the airport to connect with him. He was at ease.

+ In the waiting area, ready to board the shuttle bus to the plane, only to be surprised by the distance that I had to endure

OK now, I checked in and all of that normal stuff. And to give you an idea what Khartoum Airport looks like, look at the photo below. Well, we had to use this shuttle bus, and it turned out that the plane was like, 3 meters away. I could not understand that. I think it was for safety reason.

+ One the guys that was on the same flight as me (he is seen here at the same waiting area). I think he is heading to London. I saw him just now around this Schipol Airport.

I was surprised to learn that the flight was going to stop in Addis Ababa, well, it was good in a way that I could confirm Lem Lem's claim that, the airport is somewhat resembling the characteristics of Heathrow and many other leading airports in the world. Well, to be honest, I think it is better than Khartoum (definitely), and I am not certain that is better than Nigeria. At least it is all glassed up and it has proper docking bays and all. Well, Lem Lem, you were not entirely wrong!

+ This is the area I like. Reclined chairs. Comfy - this is the place I am updating this blog now

+ This is the SPA I would attack when it opens today. Now I am a bit weary, whether I really have the time since my connecting flight is at 9:40am. Let's try.

Now I am in this area at Schipol Airport, where I could really relax with the reclined chairs, while waiting for the SPA of course. This is so relaxing. I wanted to do some work, but my batter is running flat. Managed to do a bit of brainstorming on the plane and now, time to bring them on ppt. OK then, that is all for now. I am tired really. But I need to be on my feet soon, at 5:30pm today, I will join the rest to wish farewell to John Hopkins; an awesome colleague from my office. He is leaving for new adventure. All the best John.

Lastly,

+ She has been sitting next to me at this Schipol Airport, waiting for her connecting flight I suppose. She is engrossed in her bible