aneb jak těžké asi musí být dostat se do Litvy:
Užijte si jeden kousek v anličtině! Do předmětu Social Media Project píšeme a jako jedno z témat jsem využila příjemnou cestu na Erasmus do Litvy<3.
Beginning of my summer, I mean winter, vacation
Honestly, how hard could it be to travel to Lithuania, you could think. But sometimes life prepares little for us surprises on the way, so that we appreciate the little wins just a bit more.
Often, we say summer lasts at least until October, especially in the life of a university student in the Czech Republic. However, my summer ended in the middle of August. And then finally came the vacation – it doesn’t matter if summer or winter vacation. And let’s face the truth, if we are talking about Lithuania, and we are, it’s definitely concerning winter.
And yes, I do call my Erasmus a vacation.
My vacation has begun and month ago, I woke up to sunny morning in Prague. The sun was painting on the white walls pictures of unknown lizards. I knew I’m going to miss my mornings in Prague, where for breakfast I had bread with cheese, topped up with news and paintings from the best artist. I finished my bread, practiced some Tetris while trying to fit everything in my luggage, became minimalist in less than a day and finally locked the door with my mum by my side. Oh, and I kissed the wall, it is something I always do. Somehow I’ve become more emotional towards buildings, than people.
It is quite short trip from my place to the airport, just at the other side of city: you have to ride all the metro stops, then change to a bus and there you are. Quick, right? Once I was in the departures hall, I looked for the desk, where I should leave my luggage, I didn’t care enough about a little note in my Finnair app saying: “There has been an issue with your ticket. Please, go to check-in desk.” I should have though.
I approached a good looking youngster with smile on his face, that I had to return for sure. Unfortunately, nor mine nor his smile lasted longer than ten seconds: “Miss, you have here only a ticket to Helsinki, sadly I don’t see ticket for the consequential flight,” – excuse me? – “There is a flight ticket as well as the reservation has been made, however you don’t have the ticket.” – excuse me? – “You can fly to Helsinki, but not any further.” – excuse me? I have even successfully made reservation on seats for both flights – “I see your seats booked, but there is no flight ticket. We are sorry.”
My true nature was finding its way to surface. I think I was solving problems earlier then learning how to eat. Actually eating was definitely first. Solving problems is my first nature, just after food then. I looked at the fly ticket receipt, found a phone number and here I was talking to an assistant at the help center, explaining to her the mysterious situation I’ve gotten into. She promised to call as soon as possible. Since I had some time before my plane was supposed to leave (an hour and a half), I went to get a cup coffee to kill some time (and upload a picture to Instagram, duh). A half an hour had passed, yet no change of situation and I was getting quite disturbed. I called one more time help center and change my tactics, because according to my mum I scare people, therefore I had talked with the sweetest voice, still mine but less firm, to another assistant. There was still no ticket, but I should get on the plane to Helsinki and we would see once I arrived I mean – excuse me? – however, I’m always in for an adventure and few nights in Helsinki could be quite nice beginning of an Erasmus in Lithuania.
I met my quite handsome friend from Finnair once again, handed him my luggage and actually was hoping my other flight will be postponed at least to Sunday. And there I was sitting on a plane going to Helsinki with no certainty of what will happen in next two hours.
Just after landing I got a call from the assistant at Kiwi, they have found the mistake and I had a ticket for the connecting flight. And then my race started: AKA how to get my luggage, new fly ticket, walk though check-in, security control and finally get to the right gate in less than an hour at Helsinki airport? Well remember my name, because I did it. And probably I was sweating a bit and looking a bit dangerous, since I was stopped at the security check – given the search by hand and my hands were swabbed for drugs and explosions. Well, I’m glad didn’t use any meth that Morning, as I usually do.
Travelling from Vilnius airport to Kaunas was a piece of cake, no incoming bus, crowded bus, no English skills – what is it compared to my morning? And then I got to the dormitory. Got keys to my room and found out people are already living there. That was the moment, when I realized there was too much of drama in the whole day, but at the same time I knew, I loved it and enjoyed every turn and moment of it. I know I would never enjoyed the journey that much if everything had gone my way – and actually I think that everything did go my way, because I simply love solving little bugs – it makes me feel alive.
At one point in the day I was stuck at Prague’s airport, one hour after that in Helsinki, few moments later in Vilnius. At the end of the day I had no place to sleep, even that was something to be solved easily (took me just one hour of negotiation). But no hot water at the dormitory, which was just an icing on the cake, wasn’t in my power.