22/03/2022 – Juliano’s World Frenzy Resumes! Day 2
It took so much longer to collapse into sleep than expected, well after 2300, and at 0422 I woke up. Back to sleep eventually, with light coming through/around two of the blinds. 0513, I was up again and by 0553 it was nice and light outside. Time to get up then, with the hope I would have a better sleep in the hotel. With all the facilities it was offering, assuming at the time of typing of course that they’re open, I was looking to have a great 2 night stay! More details on that as I get to it, but I can say one thing for sure and that is I was excited!
A mightily thorough de-rancify was enjoyed, I didn’t realise how much the legs had been rubbing quite honestly! With all that cycling on Day 1, not to mention the Gran Fondo the day before, and spending more than 14 hours in cycling tights I guess it should not be terribly surprising! After doing a LFT, despite not strictly needing to for my destination currently, I had been of the logic for this morning and the previous two that I could self-administer a LFT, just for peace of mind (can you imagine believing you were negative, then finding out you’re positive? Oh good gravy no, not for me) but the concept of someone else doing the test, no thank you!
With that done, and today’s negative result (I honestly expected nothing else, but it was worth being sure) snapped for as much evidence I could produce, it dawned on me that I had not yet saved an offline map for Zagreb, set my phone up for use in Europe or even noted some useful Croatian words! So that was the order of the morning, and the weather was shaping up to be a beautiful day for travelling!
Eventually, around 0812, I got moving as I wanted to investigate two pairs of 387s on Heathrow Express services, which I could do at Hayes & Harlington. One of the first pair I couldn’t ID, the other one was dud, so I got my walk back on and eventually I arrived at the northern perimeter road. I took a phone call during the walk, probably not the best time to do so really, and after that I hopped on a bus from the nearest stop to the airport I could get to. After that one, there was no more I could use and walking/cycling through the tunnel is not permitted. I did note the route to Heathrow is perfectly doable by cycle, as well as the presence of Heathrow Cycle Hub. Something to remember for a future adventure!
After doing what I needed to do, I got my march on to Terminal 3. I’ve only ever used Terminal 5 in the past, so this was a nice little bonus. Obviously, in such glorious weather, I was not rushing to sit inside. Especially not when that would mean, at least for my own personal needs, wearing a mask and I wanted to minimise that too. So I took a seat outside Zone E, which is where I needed to be for Euro Traveller on BA anyway. Bag drop was due to open at 1020, and despite my bag being small enough to go in as cabin baggage I was tempted to put it in the hold just for the luggage tag! As I typed this, it was only 0953, plenty of time to go so I enjoyed the chance to chill out in the sunshine, and continued playing my album of choice for a World Frenzy trip. Indeed, it is the one which inspired the series name back in 2017, and it is Bonkers 4’s Dougal mix. Some absolute classic happy hardcore on that! Of course, later on my Favourite Flying Tunes playlist would be back on, it having featured before leaving the Airbnb.
I declined the option to use bag drop after all, the luggage label collection is a bit silly and I might not keep it going anyway. I haven’t decided on that yet, who knows what will happen! Straight upstairs, and in the queue just ahead of me was a passenger on her way to Melbourne to spend a year in Australia. Jealous, me? Not at all! Security was passed by 1035, so barely any time and because I had been chatting the time had passed very quickly. I now had 2 hours to fill before my gate would be announced, and after a while I remembered I had no European plug adapter. Bother!
WHSmith, the king of airport shops, doesn’t sell them now, thankfully Boots does and £5.50 seemed very reasonable. After chatting on the phone with the little sister, who seemed to be anxious still about my travels, I finally found a bottle refill point. Lunch was soon the order of the day, and I settled on Wagamama in the end. It had been my choice the night of Day 1, but I examined other options first. I’d had my first Wagamama experience with two friends from work a couple of months ago, and enjoyed that a lot. I was amazed to find they were charging what looked like High Street prices here, that was good news. Service was slow, and my side arrived after my main had been thoroughly enjoyed. Still, £17.90 was well spent on a good quality meal, and much healthier than a lot of places would have been.
A Pret coffee got sourced soon after, and at 1235 the gate was revealed to be 11. I was expecting a long walk, but from the seating area it was, at a slow pace by my standards, 1 minute away. With boarding pass and passport checked, there was a good few minutes passed by finishing the coffee and then it was down the airbridge to join winner G-EUUO on BA848 1320 London Heathrow to Zagreb, due to arrive at 1640 (GMT+1). I had been allocated 22F, so I got a window seat to my surprise. The two seats next to me were empty, much to my surprise, so even better!
Doors closed at 1312, pushback began at 1318 and we were into the air at 1333. The roar of the engines as we left the ground, oh that sound has been missed! The weather was incredible for flying, a couple of little bumps as we went up through some clouds but it was soon beautifully smooth. BA are, currently at least, offering a complimentary 250ml bottle of water and a packet of Tyrells lightly salted crisps in Euro Traveller, that was an unexpected bonus and happily accepted.
No in-flight magazines these days, that’s going to be a ‘before Covid’ thing I’ll miss. Even though I rarely read much in them, it’s a now-gone piece of flying! So, after 40 minutes in the air, how was I feeling about flying again? Well after more than 2 years since my last flight, I was incredibly glad to get back in the air and onto my adventures again, let’s get that said right now. Whenever there was even slight turbulence, I must confess that was something I was no longer used to.
Nor was people who, despite being told that Croatian law says they are to wear a mask on board, unless eating or drinking, decided to take their mask off completely anyway. Mask wearing is a touchy subject, I know, but I was asking questions internally about their morals! Granted, given I’ve been wearing masks since before they became legally required in 2020, it’s a lot easier for me as I’m used to wearing a mask for several hours. I would have no issue wearing one on an ultra-long-haul flight either, for that matter. Obviously, the day that they are not required at all is desirable, but in the meantime I’d rather err on the side of caution. Those who are exempt, obviously no issue there, I’d hate to be exempt personally and I cannot fathom how people cope!
The flight itself, well what can I say? It was wonderful to stare out of the window at 39,000 feet again! Having no trolley service is weird, I didn’t want to buy anything but it looks like you have to order via the on-board WiFi, then it’s delivered to your seat. That’s got to be a little more efficient, surely, but it’s something else I’ll miss from the ‘before Covid’ days of travelling. Did I need to do all the VeriFLY stuff? Well not a single person on the UK side of things asked to see any documentation, perhaps it was all linked up digitally and I only needed to use the app to show them as a backup? Maybe I will need it in Croatia? I was soon to find out. Other than that, I had an hour to fill by that point in time, and not much to do! I did manage to score a couple of BA’s bigger planes on the way out of Heathrow, as well as 2 from Virgin Atlantic, an Emirares A380 and an Air Canada plane so not too bad.
The view of the Alps was incredible, as I’m sure you can imagine. Turbulent air certainly shook the plane a fair bit, enough to get the seatbelt sign back on for a few minutes. By then, of course, the worst of it had already gone! Personally whenever seated I wear mine just to be sure, although it doesn’t stop me reaching for the arm rest and the muscles automatically tense up, feet flat to the floor kind of thing. Maybe I’m not quite as ready to do the flights to/from New Zealand yet!
Touchdown was at 1630 (now on GMT+1) and arrival at the terminal building was at 1634, 6 minutes early. A few minutes later, the doors were open and a long queue formed to get out. I was not rushing to wait in that, so stayed where I was. As much as I wanted to get going, I was happy to wait for a bit longer unlike my fellow passengers. Now, what was border control going to be like? That was the big anxiety of the afternoon now! 1643, and I was in the All Passports queue. How long would it take to get through?
21 minutes is the answer, not too bad. Once outside, the local bus stop is not signposted, unlike the Airport Shuttle Bus. That’s cash only, 35 kuna each way. The ATM wanted to charge me a fortune to take cash out, so I went to the tourist information centre where I’d picked up a paper map, just in case. It already appeared that there were cycle hire points, this was tempting me! In the shop, I could buy a pair of 30 minute tickets valid on trams or buses for 4 kuna each. My journey would need 2 30 minute tickets, and I could pay by card here. Happy days! Sensing the need to buy now, for the return journey, I got another pair. Following the directions to the bus stop for the 290, I was soon on the way.
Time stamping tickets was required here, so I did that on each of my first pair and took a seat on the bendy bus. It’s fair to say it’s not an exciting route, especially the first part which is along a motorway. I had been assured it’s a slow journey, but I was honestly happier with that than an express bus at tourist trap prices! Not too much later, the bus had arrived and despite being assured I would need two 30 minute tickets because of the journey time I was off the bus after just 21 minutes. I could have kept that second ticket I’d stamped for the return journey on Day 4, never mind. Each 30 minute ticket is 4 kuna, which really is not a lot in GBP. Google was suggesting 1 kuna is 11p!
I got a good 1.3 mile walk going on to base camp for the 2 nights I had in Zagreb, which was at the Sheraton Hotel. By a very long way, this was THE most luxurious hotel I have ever stayed in! I was very impressed just by the reception area! Check-in took longer than I’d expect, during the process I had to pay a 600 kuna fee which was something to do with damages as a precaution. As I type this up before heading out on Day 3, just you wait and see how many miles I get done, I already knew it would be a lot and I was keen to demolish that longest walk from 2021!
Anyway, I had a really modern and smart room, which was HUGE! I had a king size bed, a large TV, plenty of storage space, a huge desk, tea/coffee and kettle (and cups), in general a great room with beautifully comfortable bedding. The bathroom was not huge, but not small, and I had an actual bath available. I can assure you it was to get used, although I was surprised I didn’t use it on Day 2 after all.
Having ordered a pizza from Domino’s across the road for tea, and given vegan pizza is not really a thing here I went with a simple base and BBQ sauce, which cost me 35 kuna. Or whatever the bank charges me, I wasn’t sure my currency card would be accepted online. After that, I got myself down to the gym in the hotel and racked up some good exercise. I couldn’t tell if I was in miles or kilometres on the exercise bike, but I got either 17.8 miles or 17.8 kilometres. I’d like to say it was miles, but I’ve logged it as km on Strava just to be sure. It worked out at a shade over 11 miles, and I was taking it very easy!
With the bike and some upper body workouts done, I headed to the convenience shop nearby as while the pizza had been good, I’d been rather hungry before it, and now I needed some more food! So a large bag of crisps for 12,89kn did the job, and somewhere after 10pm I collapsed into a deep sleep.
Tech's World Frenzy 