Sunday, October 5, 2014

National Holiday (AMEN!) My first airport sleepover...

So in China even though the National Holiday is from October 1st to the 7th, each province declares what days people will have off/what days people will work. Of course this is done at the last minute. I waited patiently to hear from my company, but when I noticed that plane tickets continued to go up in price or sell out, I booked a ticket and hoped it would work out. 
OMG--planning something a week in advance--can you believe it? ;) 

Luckily the school planned a sports day on Tuesday (the 30th) so I didn't have to find a sub for my classes. We worked Sunday and Monday and then right after school I took off. 




All of the public places are decorated for National Day--to commemorate the start of the People's Republic of China in 1949

Many people avoid traveling or leaving their home during national holidays in China because there are so many people. Traffic was CRAZY--it took two times as long as usual to get to the airport.



But still--if you have ever traveled with me you know that I am the type of person who likes to get to the airport/train station early. So I had time to grab a decaf coffee and relax! Perfect way to start the vaca :D


Airport chaos. Chinese people never learned in kindergarten how to form a single file line. It drives me nuts--they just stand where they please and cut everyone else. As a result I just wait until everyone is boarded to get up. 


No booty bumping? 


Super international Jinan. 


YAY! We only waited on the runway for 20 minutes for two passengers to arrive 


The pilot was yelling HELLO! to me (have you never seen an American before?)

The flight was 3 hours long so I arrived around 1 in the morning. My pre-booked hotel was about 2 kilometers away and was supposed to pick me up in a shuttle. Didn't arrive. No taxi driver knew where my hotel was (but to save face they pretended they did, drove around for 20 minutes and then brought me back to the airport) SO FRUSTRATING. Even with my picture on the map they were CLUELESS. I should know better than to book hotels in advance in a city I am unfamiliar with. 

The result: At around 2:30 AM I gave up. I needed to be up by 7AM to take the metro to the fast train and the airport connected right to the metro. I decided to join about 20 other people and slept on the chairs in the airport (so uncomfortable). 

Great start to my vacation! Next stop: Shenzhen to Hong Kong


In China there are road barriers between the two lanes as seen above--I think this is to prevent jaywalkers. I always think it is hilarious when people can't walk 20 meters to the crosswalk. Especially with 3 things of luggage. Haha

1 comment:

  1. That sucks about your shuttle- and it sounds familiar too...... Hope that taxi driver did not charge you for that ride to no where.....

    ReplyDelete