Day 1 - The way to Quito

After a long and exhausting journey from Vienna to Quito I finally have the time to tell you about the what, why and how.

All begins in Vienna, where Harald was celebrating his belated birthday and I wanted to wish him my best – I have to be at home until midnight, I told myself.

Actually I just could stop writing right now, because everybody can imagine what happens next…

So let’s just leave it with – I didn’t make it home until 3:45
Luckily though, that was a really good timing. It gave me just enough time to finish packing my backpack and take a quick shower before I hoped into the taxi. I don’t want to start imagining what could have happened if I have had the time to take a quick nap… :)

Apart of the fact that I was tired and hung over, the first leg to Madrid went really smooth. In Madrid I ran into troubles with Iberia, because although I booked the flight by Iberia it was operated by Lan Ecuador. So they wouldn’t print me a boarding card at their “Customer Service” desk where at the time being just 2 of 6 employees were working while the others chatted over a cup of coffee…

To get to the Lan Ecuador Check in, I had to leave the security zone of the airport, then wait in line with people who check in luggage 3 to 4 times their own weight and pass the security controls again.
Then I realized that Madrid has got a huge airport – it took me 25min to get to the right terminal including a 4min train ride.

So I completely need the 3 hours in between flights…

The flight itself was great – yes, ok… 11 hours, but the plane was pretty new, with touch screens and all that stuff and most important my headphones were able to block all those annoying noises :)

After the flight to Ecuador, which brought me to Guayaquil, I had again 3 hours until my 40min flight to Quito. Luckily I met a really nice Cardiologist who was travelling back to Quito from a conference in Paris. We past the time with stories about travelling and he also gave me some useful tips for the stay in Quito.

Finally in Quito, I was not the only tourist to arrive… It took me one and a half hour to clear Immigration and when I came in the luggage claim area, they already cleared the conveyor bands for the next flights and so hundreds of pieces were spread throughout the area!

No problem, I found my backpack rather quickly and was really happy that it has arrive with me :)

The arrival area was packed with people trying to find somebody. A lot of them got a really exciting expression when you finished reading their sign, but none of them said my name… I stepped outside the airport, where it still was packed with people when I finally found the sign with my name on it – sure, the whole experience wasn’t as glamorous as I hoped, but I was really happy to find Maria :)

All the best
Alex

PS: don’t even think that every post is going to be this long and detailed ;)