In January I had decided to attend the first ever OpenNMS user conference and also visit Germany in mid march.I had initially booked a cheap RyanAir flight on 8th March 2009 to Düsseldorf. My plan was to check out different German cities (incliding Kolon and Bonn) and finally go to Frankfurt and stay there for three nights. Later as I realized that it would be a hectic plan going through four youth hostels, I changed the plan and bought a ticket for Frankfurt Hahn airport instead for March 12th (to stay 4 nights in Frankfurt instead).
Here is one thing which I should have checked before buying the ticket, Frankfurt-Hahn airport is actually 2 hours away from Frankfurt city center (I always assumed that I was going to the same Frankfurt international airport from which I passed through while coming to Sweden). It costs around 12 Euros to get a bus ride from the airport (considering that i paid 9 Euros for the flight, it’s bit expensive :-})
So excited and well preped on Match 12th, I went to gothenburg city airport on time and got my boarding pass etc. I started reading The Business of Software Engineering and as a surprise to my self read a whole chapter of it in one sitting (I am used to reading short articles and long programming manuals, this kind of stuff is new for me). Around five pm after waiting for about three hours in the airport the announcement was mad that my flight had been canceled due to bad weather. Needless to say I was disappointed that I would miss a whole day of sight seeing. I got confirmation for the next day of flight booking from ryan air counter after a long wait.
The next day was another mishap for me, I got on the bus to go to the aiport (again) with my library book in hand. Some how in rush of getting off from the bus I forgot the book at the seat , but realized that I had lost it soon. From thereon for an hour or so I played “catch the right bus” in hopes of getting back my book, but with all the calculations of routes and bus numbers I was unable to catch the bus in which I had lost the book, so with a sad face I proceeded to the airport. The only thing I could do on the plane was to read a book on my laptop. I have recently found that reading books in electronic format is not necessarily easier or faster if you have to read cover to cover (it’s a whole different story if you have to use the search function). Any who I checked with the Gothenburg bus service office and I was told to check with them on Monday for lost and found (which I did and got the book back after paying 20 Kr Edit: and now safely returned, long live honest Swedes). I also realized after reaching the airport that I had no decent camera with me. Another bummer.
After reaching Frankfurt-Hahan, the first thing I did was to pull out some cash from the ATM. It was no problem (but it costs about 2$ for every 100$ withdrawal, which I later found out). The exchange rate from the ATM was fair though. I hopped on to the next bus to the city center.
At the droppoint for the aiport shuttle I had little idea where the YouthHostel I had booked really was. I knew that it was near central station and I was relying on my Nokia n810 GPS to help me with that. Fortunately the GPS worked like a charm. I walked pass by the Le Maredian, so I knew where I was suppose to go in the morning. I just showed up at my YouthHostel and they decided to let me in if I paid my 20 Euros for the day I missed as I didn’t cancel my booking.
It was quite late in the evening (around 10 PM) and I was in no position to go and hang out with the conference guys as planned. On top of that I was quite pissed at missing flight, paying extra for accommodation and loosing my book and no camera. But I forgot all about that after I had a delecious dinner at a Pakistani restaurant called “Iqbal da Dhabba”. It is interesting that just with simple nice food, all your troubles can go away.
