Monday, May 1, 2023: The adventure begins!
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As in April the waves on the Atlantic are eight metres high on average, I decided not to go by container ship with Annie Way but to go by plane.
On May 1 I flew from Vienna to Montreal with Austrian Airlines. The flight started at 11 am, and it took eight hours and fifty minutes to arrive in Montreal at 1:50 pm local time.
From Montreal I went on to Halifax at 4:45 with Air Canada, where I arrived after one hour and 34 minutes at 7:19 local time.
Diary:
It wouldn’t be me if everything had gone well.
First I was in panic that the train to Vienna could be late. It’s said, these things happen. Therefore I kept watching the delays of the train which the travel agent had booked for me together with the plane. I am always extremely nervous when it comes to flying, and so I decided to go to the airport the day before, and booked a room at a hotel in Fischamend in order not to be in a hurry on May 1. On a sidenote: May 1 was the one day in the year 2023 when the train was not delayed.
At the airport I went to the counter and asked for help. I had been able to check in online for the flight Vienna – Montreal, but the connecting flight had not popped up. The gentleman at the counter tried it himself, but it didn’t work. He said that these things happen, and I should go to an Air Canada counter in Montreal to get a boarding pass for the flight to Halifax.
After that I drank the probably last good coffee for the next half a year and went to the gate. Before I was allowed to enter, I was interviewed if I was vaccinated, what my plans were in Canada, why I was doing that, if I was not intending to stay longer than 180 days, and so on. I had to show my vaccination certificate and my return ticket. I am quite sure that the lady had no right to demand the vaccation certificate, because all Covid regulations had been cancelled. But I didn’t want to get in trouble and cooperated.
I had made a reservation for a seat at the window. Next to me there sat a gentleman from Israel who had grown up in Montreal and was on his way to visit his 96-year-old mother. He told me about his six sons and 25 grandchildren and showed me pictures.
Everything went well till Montreal. After our arrival I went in the direction of the Connecting Flights to get to my plane to Halifax. It was quite a long hike! Then I came into an enormous hall which was empty but for two counters of immigration and four counters of Air Canada. I was asked to go there, showed my passport and the printout with my flights … and then the problem started. Something was wrong, they were not able to print out a boarding pass for me.
So they asked me to sit down and make myself comfortable – there were two chairs in that enormous hall -, they would tell me when they had solved the problem. My flight was due in three hours, so there was enough time.
After that four people worked for half an hour to get me a boarding pass. They did this in such a relaxed and friendly way, that I was totally stunned. I had completely forgotten how relaxed people are in this country!
Every now and then they apologized for keeping me waiting while I was just happy that they helped me. Of course, it was a lucky circumstance that I was the only customer at the counters, so they didn’t have anything else to do.
And suddenly the gentleman called: “We have got it!” Again they apologized. I thanked them again and called the officer who had found the solution a genius. The other officers agreed, and he seemed embarrassed. But he certainly was pleased.
The immigration officer was very friendly and welcomed me in Canada. No questions concerning vaccinations, return flight, length of stay or whatever.
The flight to Halifax was quite a rough matter because there were gusts of wind, but I didn’t care.
I had booked a taxi, picked up my suitcase which had not had a problem with being checked through to Halifax, went to the taxi-counter, told them my name and was asked to pass on to another door. As soon as I had brought the 20 m to the door behind me and had stepped out into the terrible new-scottish weather, the taxi arrived, and shortly afterwards I found myself sitting in a comfortable hotel room, took a deep breath, and then I realized: I am in Canada!