We stood up at 8 and were picked up by Toño for the last time at 9:30. Our flight left Mexico City Airport at 12:40 as scheduled.
Monitoring the time in Mexico and at home, and hoping to get some sleep and make the Jetlag milder, I didn’t sleep at all during the hole flight. It passed relatively fast anyhow. Lunch, snack, breakfast, a movie and all the available episodes of not less than 5 TV shows and 11 hours later we landed in Madrid. The night had been really short, as we were flying against the rotation of the earth and when we landed, the sun was just about to rise, although in my current feeling for time it should have been going down. Jet-lag in this direction will be tough!
In Madrid, I said goodbye to my friends who had to run to get their connection flight to Bilbao, whereas I had the whole day to spend at the airport.
The moment I stepped out of the plane, a feeling of happiness flooded my brain just because of the fact that I was in Europe. I had never felt that happy about simply being in Europe, independent from any specific places or people. I don’t quite know why I felt this so intensely this time, as Mexico wasn’t that different in luxury or facilities from home. One of the reasons, I think, was the perspective of easy eating and I didn’t get disappointed. After taking the airport-train, getting my luggage in Terminal 4, taking a bus to Terminal 2, checking my backpack back in for my next flight, and going through security again, I stepped into the first fast-food bakery place and of course found 3 different types of gluten free muffins to choose from. I sat down for a calm breakfast but still had another 6 hours from my 9 hours of connection time left.
By now, it was 2:30 am in Mexico and 9:30 am in Madrid and a brutal tiredness kicked in, so I got myself a “nice” chair with a view on the airport and tried to get some sleep. Thanks to the arm-separators it was impossible to lay down so I constructed a combination of chair, baggage-trolley, backpack, and pillow and spent the next uncomfortable 4 hours there. Unable to sleep, unable to stay awake.
My alarmclock told me it was time for lunch at 13:30 and I listened to it because I was unable to think on my own.
The airplane left punctual at 15:10 and I was tired enough to completely miss the start. The seats of the old aireuropa plane were even more uncomfortable than my seat-trolley-combination. We eventually landed in Frankfurt but the confusion didn’t stop. My clock said 18:50, while it should have said 17:50. What had happened? No idea. I had lost an hour somewhere but the time was correct and I couldn’t remember any explanatory messages on the plane. My bus had already left by now and the 30-hour-journey was modified to a 33-hour journey. Frankfurt welcomed me with non-functional WiFi, a poor wayfinding system and a grumpy busdriver who would refuse to drive if people wouldn’t squeeze and move in. In the end, I took the train although it cost me 4 times the price of the bus, but I arrived at home at 10pm on 29th of August. I was received with tasty food and a bed just for myself!
