Wandering Boots Day 1, Part 1. Brisbane to Singapore

By the numbers

 1 plane

17kg bag

7 kg hand luggage.

The day had finally come where I would get onto a plane and fly to the other side of the world to Frankfurt as my starting place for my 8 week journey. I had to finish a day at work before flying out, which was not that bad at all and the day actually went pretty quickly.

 I didn’t have any packing to do as I had finished that off the night before on the Saturday. All I needed to do was head to the airport and that was it. I did get some food before I left and it was actually a good thing too as it was a long trip on an empty stomach. I was able to catch the train earlier than I expected, which was really good, although I had entertainment on the train from some boofheads who were talking loudly about their hemeroids  and what happens when they go bad. They were singing and laughing about explicit rap music. Later a couple were too slow getting off the train and hit the wrong button as one wanted the trackside and not the platform side. They had to wait til the next station.

I had a half hour wait until checkin opened for Singapore Airlines. This was the first time I had flown with them and they were efficient. I had the boarding passes already printed out and there was a line specifically for the people who had done so. I was second in line for that area and I was happy. They gave me better boarding passes, but still I had no problems there at all. I did end up having a pie and coffee while I waited in departures and the plane was already waiting at the gate. There were several other flights departing around the same time, but they were not going to be of impact at all.

The section of the plane I was boarding on was section 4, which meant the back was boarding first and I ended up stuck behind some kids. One had a ride on luggage bag thing and she did gather some pace down the ramp. I thought it was funny and did say that she should zoom to the end much to the delight of her parents. The plane was nice and neat and there was plenty of room on the seats and not once did the flight get very cold unlike my last trip with Air Asia. I even got hot cloths twice on the flight, just after landing and before landing. I got a complimentary bag of toiletries, which was a toothbrush and toothpaste. The food was nice to eat and both times came with metal cutlery. The TV screen showed the flight status and a few movies.  I could listen to the movies with my own headphones, but a small problem. I found I needed the two prong plug to hear the movies properly. That did get corrected once I landed. I was happy that it gave the time of the destination and at home. While I did sleep on the plane, it was not enough, but it was enough to survive the landing at Changi. I had set a watch in the past as I had obviously slumming it on past flights.

The flight actually landed early by around 45 mins and it was still dark. I decided that I would take a walk through the airport and several terminasls with an eye out for the new display called Jewel. I ended up at every terminal looking for the entrance. Turns out you have to pass immigration to do that as I later found out. I ended at the very far end of terminal 2 at the very last set of gates and that was a far walk. I was in awe of the sheer size of the airport that included a cactus garden, butterfly garden and a few other things. You could tell you were in the budget end of the terminal due to the different sorts of people. I soon learnt I had to pass Customs into actual Singapore and the first time I did, I didn’t fill out a card. I got sent back to get one and once I did they thumb printed me. I was able to visit Jewel, although its really just a big waterfall with food shops surrounding it. Still it was something to see on my long wander around the airport and there was no problems passing immigration using my thumb prints either.

I think in a short amount of time I have covered a fair amount of the airport from the beginning of my morning. I will soon await my departure for Frankfurt and hope I will be in a decent condition before I fall asleep. I needn’t worry about charging my phone as the plane has USB chargers. I have used my portable charger, but that will get more use in Europe. I had to turn my data roaming off as its $1 a meg. I do have to keep an eye on which gate to use as they seem to be pretty far from each other.

The final countdown to holidays in Europe AKA Picking up my Russian Bride

By this time I have hit the single numbers in the countdown before I end up on my journey across the world. There is a little over a week before I leave, so I am making sure everything I require is on hand including tickets that are printed off. I don’t want to worry about the next location and the what ifs as I will live in the moment as transport is taken care of.

I have made sure all my train tickets have been booked and I am on the home run where I have began to book the rail tickets for Belgium. I am wanting to visit some specific places especially Ypres part of the old Western Front during World War One. I have even resolved one problem that had appeared on my journey between Hamburg and Copenhagen. I was meant to catch another train two stops after the ferry, but I now catch a bus to Copenhagen after the ferry journey. I was offered to cancel the journey, but that is all part of going on an adventure as that’s part of the unknown.

Every train journey in the UK has been booked and is within my itinerary waiting for use. Some tickets have to be collected on site or I already have them now as barcodes. The foreign currency card has helped as I have paid for everything in the currency used in the country. Means I wont be charged conversion fees, which makes me happy. Travel passes within cities have been organised and even a British Heritage pass that lasts for 16 days, which covers most of my UK journey. I will get to visit Dover Castle, Roman Ruins in Northumberland and even Whitby Abbey, which I didn’t know would charge me entry until I bought the pass. I only knew about that one when I bought the pass and looked at the heritage map of locations, I was visiting. My travel sim card will provide me with maps and internet to find my way around. Something I have not done before.

I had already booked my ticket to the five day event that was Distortion as you never know when going to see music would come in handy. By now they have a complete list of locations where my pass can lead me to including the stage events on the Friday night. I leave on the Saturday, but will still be worth visiting and supporting the music event even if its not really my cup of tea. I never knew that there were heavy metal events happening in Nuremburg in Germany as several groups including KISS are playing. Next time I head to Europe after this time, I will make sure to visit that. Make the unknown to be known. A random music booking in Berlin has me going to a thrash heavy metal bands meet up. I have never heard of groups like Rings of Saturn or Nekrogoblikon until the band followed me on Instagram. I looked up their tour dates and they were in Berlin at the same time and I was staying within walking distance.

The whole of this journey is to visit as many historic locations as possible and do some family history research, which reminds me that I have already booked my arrival at the Durham Archives and need to sort out my entry into the National Archives in Kew near London. There will be so many distractions, but I am collecting records to read when I get home. Havnt figured out if the British Library would hold anything or I just visit for pleasure.

If friends ask me where I am going, my answer will be that I am going to pick up my Russian bride from the Ukraine. I have been talking about this journey away for the last couple of months.

Things I have organised

Smarttraveller

Travel sim

New underwear and socks

Medication

Tickets – transportation

Toiletries

Headphones

Seats on planes

Music for my ipod

Wet weather gear

BagBNB

Near Catastrophic finish to major holiday

A week or so ago I nearly had some issue with my intentions to travel overseas with close to 9 weeks off on the count down. Somethings you can prepare for and others, you have to go with the flow and see where you end up. I dont know if I would have had to change huge parts to the trip away due to any medical procedure as I could have still been recovering or become tired.

Deciding that I required new glasses and sunnies, I went to get my eyes checked. I wanted to pick them up before I went on holiday and to look cool. Also I was overdue to get my eyes checked as you do. The spanner was thrown into the works as the optometrist was concerned over what he thought was a problem. He had a feeling that I had a detached retina or coming close to it in my right eye. I required to see an eye surgeon for a second opinion.

As time was ticking by, I wanted to get looked at and I had a referral. The first lot of people were not in the office that day. I got mum to arrange things in the afternoon as I was heading to work. By the time I arrived, I had a doctor and referral arranged. The surgeon arranged that had done my left eye when I had a detached retina way back in the early 2000’s. I did have to visit the surgeon and there was the worry that I might require surgery before I left and they knew my tight timeline. 

There were two techniques they could use and only one was going to be possible. They could get the jelly out of my eye (Sounds gross) and put in gas, which would not be ideal for a plane as gas expands. The other option was some sort of oil that would slowly correct itself but would be removed through another operation. Once the surgeon came in for a loving gaze into my eyes with a bright light. The verdict was there wasn’t anything wrong apart from vision changes. I was told no surgery required and no extreme sports while on holidays. I was very relieved as I really did not want this to happen. I cannot go diving as a I have a buckle on my left eye from the last lot of surgery. No idea what skydiving would do.

The lessons to this, is always have travel insurance well before hand in case something like this occurs. I have had mine since around September last year when I was buying flights. I slowly buy things as I go on. I was happy that I was back to getting new glasses even though my right eye had changed in regard to prescriptions. At least I would not be in Far off Europe with vision problems related to surgery and not have time off from work at the same time too. If there are major problems and I don’t see that there would be any, the surgeon has a list of people I can see within Europe that are trusted. I have all bases covered and one mega 8 week journey to look forward to, along with new glasses.

My old glasses are bent, battered from years of service especially when they get thrown off your face when walking into a fridge that has flaps. Soon I will have the new pair and can see clearly now that the sun is out. I can move on with looking at the basics towards my epic journey. No changes or challenges that are out of my control will be sorted out.