BWC 2014 - 16th May (Day 2 - Welcome to Brasilia)

selfie at Amsterdam!

The sleep was not too bad. I was awake around 8 plus but my eyes were still like a kid unwilling to get up for school. Around 9, I freshen up myself and stretched my muscles around the lavatory area. Went back to my seat to enjoy the breakfast which was served to my seat around 10am. Had too much tomato juice and opted for a cup of coffee instead. The bread with butter "shake" me awake. (Please refer to my previous day post for explanation on "shake")

boring at Schiphol Airport...

At 11:30am, they announced for landing. When we touched down at Amsterdam, the local time was 6am. Found my gate to board the next flight to Sao Paolo, which was the same gate I arrived. Still have two hours to kill, I did some window shopping at the gadget stall, bearing fat hope to get some cheap deals. Only then I realized Schiphol airport just offered 2 sets of half an hour free WIFI access. Nevertheless, glad I found the internet area which allowed me to charge my phone without an adapter! Happily spent my 2nd set of free WIFI while charging the phone. When my access time was over, I did my 2nd big business that morning and then continued to charge while enjoying my Dutch cheese and biscuits I saved from the in-flight meal.

waiting at Sao Paolo...

say "cheese"

Boarding starts at 8:15am. I walked over to the gate and waited boringly till they start boarding at 9:30am. I looked around and guessed I must be the only crazy Asian guy around.

It was going to be another 12 hours flight! I was already hungry and longing for my in-flight meal. Caught "Wreck-It Ralph" and "The Wolf of Wall Street". Personally I enjoyed the animation more because I think the storyline was good, although Leonardo Di Caprio acting is really commendable in the latter movie.

I still have 5.5 hours to go. How I wished I got the aisle seat at that time. Both my neighbours were sleeping. Head a little heavy. Tried to go for one more movie, a Swedish comedy. The name "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared " is already catchy. Storyline looks interesting but after 30min, I suddenly felt so tired and fell asleep for almost 4 hours until they started to serve food again. Couldn't finish the movie, I just watched a TV program on Brazil World Cup while having my meal. I continued to sleep until we landed around 5pm local time.

I tried to talk to a staff to see if I could cut the queue since my next connecting flight was at 6:40pm. However, she had a glance at my FIFA accreditation letter but pointed me to the same visitor queue. I looked at my watch which showed 5:30pm. I looked at the queue which was in a zigzag manner. After a little longer, I asked another staff but he was so sure that I would be able to make it

on my way to Brasilia!!

for the flight. Although I was doubtful of his confidence, I remained calm and only thought of how I would be explaining later in the blog what a relief  I would be going through. Things got worse when the PA announced that all passengers must retrieve their baggage for custom clearance including connecting flight passengers!! Suddenly the queue moved on much faster because the counters had served all the locals. At 5:55pm, it was my turn. There was a guy who seemed to be a translator at the counter but he told me he was new and just started learning English! I would love to explain that I was actually a volunteer if I have the luxury of time.  Fortunately, the immigration clearance was quick. At 6pm, I still had to wait for my baggage!! Some how, it just appeared when it was most needed. At 6:05pm, I pushed the cart quickly to the custom clearance. And third time lucky, I didn't have any trouble and passed through smoothly. After the exit, I had to find the connecting flight counter to dump my baggage back to the airline. It was 6:15pm. Then, I ran to the departure hall and went through security screening again!! Bingo!! I made it at 6:20pm!! I looked at the screen for my gate and found out my flight was actually delayed!! (Perhaps, that was why the custom officer was so confident earlier). Kind of a relief anyway, since I just managed to made it at the nick of time because the boarding pass said gate closes 15min before departure.

Luckily the flight was not delayed for long. Managed to get WIFI access to inform my host, Fernanda, that I would be late.  Around 7pm, we started to board and flight took off about one hour later than scheduled.

For the rest of the flight, I was sleeping and sleeping. I must be the different time zone effect. Around 9pm, we landed. Waited for half an hour for my baggage and finally met up with Fernanda. She was really a nice girl, coming all the way to pick me up after her work.

my comfy room!

We had a lot to talk in the car, although her place wasn't too far away from the airport. Found out that Brazilian uses a lot of the application Waze for exactly the same reason as the Malaysian does!! We stopped for a short while outside her house to get supper.

first meal in Brazil!

When we reached, she showed me around her huge house with a big BBQ pit area, a swimming pool and her lovely dog. It was already 11 plus. Fernanda excused herself.

I took my long waited shower.  It was pretty cool at night and the hot shower was really relaxing to finish off my crazy day of 32 hours journey! I had my first meal in Brazil, which was some sausage bun with crunchy chips! Settled down my stuffs in the room and thought of writing my blog but was so tired that I went to bed at 12:30am.