Day 0, und ab gehts

Today is the day, I have been waiting for this for a long time. Missed out a couple of chances of joining friends on similar trips, but now it is my turn. I was thinking a little of the previous vacations I have ever been on, and none of those ever lasted more than 3 weeks.

Got a ride to the airport from Thomas and I went to the United ticket counter. The lady working there was kind, but we had a small argument about me not having a return ticket from China. I told her it was not necessary, she kept insisting it was. At the end, she got mad and said I could go to San Francisco and take care of it myself with Air China personal, Good bye and have a nice flight!

In San Francisco a few hours later I was standing in front of the Air China ticket counter. The Chinese lady here got my passport, looked at my visa (the wrong expired one), looked at my ticket and then me and said, Only a one-way-ticket, sir? Yes, I said, expecting to have to come up with a butt-load of excuses why I did not have a ticket out of there again. The lady printed my boarding pass and told me to enjoy my stay in her beautiful home country. The second lady in just 4 days sending me off with good wishes to their home country. Cool :-)

First time in a 747, this thing is quite big. I happen to have a Eurobonus Silver card with Star Alliance and so got to squeeze in front of everyone else during boarding, yeah finally that card is being used for something useful. While elbowing through the masses of Chinese people standing in line, I literally bumped into my old Nokia manager who moved to China himself in 2005 to run a big company in Southern China. After chatting with him for a few minutes, I could finally sit down, of course on the seat the furthest back in the airplane, as it always happens to be when ordering cheap tickets on Expedia :-)

We took off  around 16:00 and food was served almost right away, with me being the first one. I leaned back and took a small nap and woke up next day in the Chinese military airspace.