9/9/2015 Dubai-Brisbane

9/9/2015 Dubai-Brisbane

Got away from St Petersburg Airport at 5.10 pm as per schedule on a crowded A380. Reached Dubai by 12.30 am and found the Emirates lounge (and was allowed in, bless their hearts). My flight out was at 10.00 am or about 10 hours later so a bit of comfort made it bearable. First thing I did was to have a shower then a cup of decent coffee. Crumpled clothes but at least I felt clean and awake.

I sat and "vegetated" for a while, just catching my breath a bit in the Emirates Quiet Lounge. The flight had been full of crying children and "difficult" Pakistani passengers. (Why Pakistani's in Russia??) I almost understood the need for Business Class. Actually I can feel myself de-stressing a bit, now I am nearly home. Continuously organising travel details, "reflex" adjusting to changing situations,  and meeting travel schedules has its own cost, hence the attraction of pre-packaged tours. Given a decent group of fellow travellers and a useful tour guide, I am beginning to believe that it would be worth the extra cost.

Just on the topic of costs. I was forced to convert all my Euros and "emergency" US$ into Rubles because of the problems with my Citibank card but it also forced me to be fairly careful with my spending. (Questionable whether this was good or bad.) I managed to come home with only 55 Rubles (i.e., 1 A$ equivalent). I will still need to transfer monies from my travel cards back into A$ but overall I have been quite frugal.

[9.1 hours later];  waiting for Boarding call for flight to Brisbane. The Emirates lounge is a good place to sit-out a transit but time does drag a bit. I used my Internet to check the QF flight number and found it was routed to Auckland. Checked and it flys there after Brisbane?? We also got a breaking news feed of a BA plane that caught fire on a runway (somewhere in the USA); it caused a little consternation. Just waiting out the last few minutes before the boarding call (given no delays).  Had at least one breakfast plus countless cups of coffee.