Day 45 Georgia and Germany - Return flight

So, today was the day of the return journey.

Just as I got into bed, the alarm clock rang shortly before 03:00.

The taxi was scheduled for 03:30, but at 03:15 our host Georgi came and told us that the taxi driver was already here. Well, somehow we lost the 15 minutes, so it suddenly became a bit hectic.

Somehow everything happened very quickly and before we knew it, we were sitting in the taxi and driving through Kutaisi's night to the airport Kopitnari, which was about 30 minutes away. The ride was pleasant, surprisingly smooth, and the driver was cautious in his driving. A relief after encountering so many chaotic taxi drivers with licenses lately.

When we arrived at the airport, we were greeted by a dog sleeping on its back right at the entrance.

Inside, there was a busy atmosphere, and there were only three counters open for three different flights. It wasn't clear to us how to get to our queue, as a huge unsorted crowd of people, who at that time seemed to be waiting for the check-in to Minsk, blocked everything.

Someone showed us how to maneuver through the barrier tape and ended up at the end of the actual check-in line for our Berlin flight.

Once we arrived there, we had plenty of time to observe the surroundings, as none of the staff seemed to be interested in making the line at the counter shorter. So, the priority package we booked didn't help much. There was also an older lady in front of us at the counter who, due to a few kilograms of excess weight in her luggage, started rearranging her things right at the counter, sealing them back up, and putting on a drama that made everyone involuntarily become spectators.

By the way, I could also see the reason for the chaos in front of the actual counters. In the midst of a crowd of people in front of the check-in counters, there were tables where police officers were supposed to check travelers' documents before the check-in counters. So, we saved ourselves from that fine control, as no one noticed that several people with a lot of luggage were 'cutting' 10 meters over there. It was astonishing that those who eventually finished at the check-in counter had to fight their way through the line of still waiting people, as it was not really clear how to approach or leave afterwards. Chaos!

Just as we were being served at the counter, the aforementioned older lady suddenly came from behind, pushed through the waiting passengers, and hit me in the heels with a suitcase. Apparently, her rude behavior was meant to force us to let her go ahead, even though we were already clearly being served. Later, at the security checkpoint, she did the same thing by simply pushing past those who were already waiting and positioning herself further ahead. An unpleasant person... but somehow it didn't seem to bother anyone, maybe that's just how it is here?

At the security checkpoint, the moment of truth came, as I had distributed various equipment in our many bags. And lo and behold, after the X-ray scan, I had to let one of the officers there take a closer look at my travel bag. Among all my neatly folded clean laundry, which he carelessly threw next to the bag on the conveyor belt without gloves, he was particularly interested in the medium brown headrest of an '87 VW T3, which I still need for another seat at home. Somehow he couldn't quite figure it out and needed the advice of a colleague.

I really don't understand what the problem is, transporting old headrests is one of the basic needs of every air passenger. 🤷‍♂️

Well, I did actually get it back and had to repack my bag.

The boarding went well, no one deviated from the information on the website regarding baggage quantity, weight, and size. So, everything was going well up to this point. But if they hadn't made all the effort beforehand, they would have definitely checked our luggage. So, everything is fine...

Unfortunately, the flight itself took quite a while. 4 hours and 20 minutes are somehow annoying, even if the staff was friendly and there was even more legroom than on the outbound flight. I will never become a fan of long flights. Unfortunately, the first landing approach had to be aborted, so we were able to take a detour over the outskirts of Berlin.

Once landed in Berlin at BER, we had to wait again for about 20 minutes, as all but one immigration counters were closed. But it wasn't a big deal, the luggage took another 40 minutes to arrive. No luggage belts were running in the vicinity, probably the handlers are just overwhelmed. But we're not in a hurry either.

Funnily enough, we saw the 'friendly' older lady again, who initially pushed her bags through the baggage claim and then, for some reason, started arguing with the police officers.

Then we took the 9-euro ticket back to Dresden.

For that, we had to walk about 7 minutes to the long-distance bus parking lot. With the luggage and the already scorching sun, it was quite a challenge. We just made it onto the bus to Bestensee, and then we were on our way.

Once we arrived in Bestensee, we got on the regional train that was already waiting for us. There were even seats available for all of us... But there were no drinks available anywhere on short notice. And then we continued to Senftenberg.

In Senftenberg, we had 4 minutes to change trains to the regional train to Dresden. There were also enough seats there, and there was no feeling of overcrowding with the 9-euro ticket like on our journey from Dresden to Leipzig. Just pleasant.

We arrived in Dresden around 1 pm. After visiting a well-known fast-food restaurant, we took a taxi home.

Finally back home, I'm glad to be back.