Is Travelling ever not a Pain

I planned to return to Taiwan early in the morning on Monday, with the intention to begin classes immediately upon my arrival. The plan dissolved quite quickly when my flight from Prague to Paris was delayed by two hours, apparently caused by the plane’s late arrival and exacerbated by the necessity of changing a tyre.

In Paris, everything was a mess. The airport staff in Prague had told me to find a new flight at the airport’s transfer desk once I got to Paris, which I attempted to do only to find out that there is no such thing as a transfer desk. Instead, I was told to find a representative of Czech Airlines, who had bungled my original flight, and have them arrange an alternative flight for me. It is sad I have to consider it lucky that although there was no representative of Czech Airlines present,  I was able to get hold of a representative of Croatia Airlines (which I believe is in the same umbrella organisation), who, after several phone calls, emails, and much waiting, was able to contact the relevant people back in Prague and make them arrange my new flight for me. I will not exhaust my readers here with all of my subsequent escapades, which involved shuttling here and there across the airport in search of an assurance that I would indeed be able to leave and make my flight. All that matters is, I was rerouted to Amsterdam, from whence another flight to Taipei departed in the evening, and I arrived in Taipei not early in the morning but late in the afternoon. The fact that my luggage was not sent from Paris despite multiple assurances it would be was really just a cherry on top of the whole experience (fortunately, ICLP helped me arrange for my luggage to be delivered to their office the next day).

Another fun aspect of my trip was that upon going arriving at passport control in Taipei, I was questioned about my visa, which was apparently either a highly nonstandard or outdated visa type. I was eventually let through – not until, of course, my visa was ceremoniously inspected with the use of a magnifying glass – though I imagine the Taipei office in Prague will be receiving a phone call in the near future about what on earth is going on there.